Oh No! here we go again

It has been far too long since my last post and lots has happened with the bees
well the honey extraction is over and it has been eventful, the Snakey Lane hives produced well and the advantage of having a garden centre next door has paid off producing a sweet dark brown honey, the Hatton Road Bees produced another super of honey only this time it is almost black but more on that later...

On of the big events this year was the London Honey Festival held at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank this was the first one and we hope it will be held as an annual event we got a little West London Honey collective going and took along our honey to sell we had a ball and sold lots of Honey.

Then no sooner than the harvest is in you have to start thinking about getting the bees ready for winter so you need to check the Varroa levels and get your treatment regime planned make sure that there are adequate stores and autumn nectar is coming in (usually Ivy) so the stores are all full. You will top up with sugar syrup if the Ivy fails to deliver.

Then it is Honey Show time my Local show is the Twickenham and Thames Valley this year I decided to enter both the Snakey Lane and Hatton Road (Black) Honey I have not been a successful shower of honey in the past  as I usually get taken out of  the competition with insipid granulation at the beauty show stage. But this year both honeys were looking good

I put Snakey Lane in the Members Class (dark) and The Hatton Black In the Open Class (I actually enter to make up the numbers). But hey surprise surprise  The Hatton Road  Black honey landed a 1st prize

Sadly Snakey Lane didn't fare as well. I will be doing some pollen sampling soon to try and determine the source of the black honey.
On the day of the honey show  OCT 9th I had a call to say one of the Snakey lane Hives has swarmed Oh No! here we go again.........