Bees are good!

It was a still and sunny day on Sunday. So after enjoying tea and cake at Ava's christening at Copmanthorpe, I raced home so I could check on my honey bees.

This was the first time I've looked in the hive this year. I was looking to see that the colony was in good working order. I needed to

• check the Queen was alive and well
• and that she was laying eggs
• I needed to see how many frames of brood (baby larva bees) there were
• that there was sufficient honey in the top frame for them to feed from in case the weather turned bad.
  
• 

  Photo: This is what the brood looks like.
  
  All was in great working order, so I closed the hive back up so the bees could get back to work.Bees are in serious decline at the moment, because of Varroa and possibly because of the use of some pesticides, which make the bees more vunerable to disease. So we need more beekeepers to keep the population up. You can also help by planting flowers that bees like. Click here for more info on what's causing the decline: http://www.britishbee.org.uk/bbka_research_campaign.php