What with still some weeks to go before getting back into the hive I wondered if it might be good to try to learn from some mistakes made.
So here is one of my big ones...
Back in about May, while inspecting my hive I noticed there was brood in among the stores above the excluder, and there were no fresh eggs in the brood super. Logically I worked out, I am clever really, that the hive was still queen-right, but mixed up. After some time I worked out what had happened. In my last inspection I had made the following mistake.
I took off the honey filled stores super, placed it on the working table, then placed an empty super on top and examined some brood frames, placing each in turn in the empty super (to keep them safe and balanced). However, the excluder was leaning against the other side of the hive. I guess the Queen wondered down from the brood frame into one of the store frames and stayed there. I calmly replaced everything where it should be, apart from the Queen who was now among the stores and locked away from the brood chamber. Dummmmm!
It turned out okay, as I was able to find my lovely lady and replace here back where she belonged. She really is a lovely lady, calm and fertile.
Has anyone else made a mistake I could learn from?