Blip Meet.

Perhaps one of the more unusual Blip meets; SparseRunner came to visit this afternoon; I’d recognize him anywhere, he looks just like his avatar. I opened the two colonies so that he could see what happens on the inside and we had a fascinating (well I thought so, and he politely agreed) discussion on all things bee related. I’m well aware that I can bore a donkey to the extent that it can no longer walk, so I hope I didn’t go overboard. Like myself, SP is a passionate man, it’s just that we have different passions - and there’s no harm in that. We parted having considered holding a larger Blip meet as there are several other Blippers in the area, possibly here in the Lost Garden, but without necessarily involving bees.

The colony on the left is the one in the process of being requeened, there was a nice queen cell there which must be ready to emerge and, although it will take her another week to mature, then another one to mate given suitable weather conditions, she has already transformed her predecessor's  subjects from a lazy, grumpy and good-for-nothing colony into a pleasant natured and hardworking one.
 
The colony on the right now has filled nine out of its eleven brood frames with brood and so it’s about time I started doing something in the way of swarm control. The plan is to make bees rather than honey this year as I want to run six colonies here and this one should be able to provide me with another two of them, then next year I will be able to start producing both a few colonies and some honey for sale. All I need for success is more weather like we had this afternoon; I shall put in the requisition tomorrow.