Back in the Training Apiary for the first time after the holiday, and after being warned by Geoff and Simon that one of the older hives was showing signs of European Foul Brood.  Just 2 cells, and not sure, but they’ve reported it to the local Bee Inspector for checking properly.

This had been found Saturday morning, when a group of new beekeepers had been using some of the hives to do their Basic Beekeeping Examination.  Possibly a bit more real life inspection test than normal for such an exam, sadly.  But I wanted to check Hive 5 this weekend, to see if there had been any laying, so snuck in Sunday evening, just to look at the one colony.
And as you can see from these shots, we have both capped and uncapped brood, at last.  Our queen has started laying late, but now the weather has improved, she is laying fast.  Not much honey put away – the only Super is built out but pretty light weight.  But there is some honey and sugar syrup from the last feed I gave them still stored at the top of some frames – as you can see in the top picture.  And lots of pollen rammed into cells yet to be processed.  I don’t think they need feeding again, but they’re light, so I’ll keep an eye on them.

I didn’t open my main hive – the notes in Hive 5 had a line dated 8/8, so someone, probably Geoff, checked them all over during last week to pick the ones for the Basic Exams?  The front entrance was very busy, and they’ve given no cause for concern for ages, so I just left them be.
The above was taken shortly after I’d smoked the hive as I opened it – lots of bees grabbing cheek fulls of honey in case they needed to flee with it.  Which is what slows them down and makes them easier to handle.  They put it back when it turns out not to be a full-on forest fire.