[Bionic]

Just had a call to say that the bee inspector coming this afternoon.  Wonder what he wll have to say

[steve_in_devon]

How did it go?

[FiB]

Hope it went well - we had the interesting experience of the bee inspector last year (I dont keep bees (yet??) but act as a quarentine site for native bee hives... it was an amazing expereince he was so passionate and knowledgable.  Was expecting more officiousness!!!

[Anke]

Just had a call to say that the bee inspector coming this afternoon.  Wonder what he wll have to say

I hope you all the correct ear tags in and all individual movements documented...

[Beewyched]

Just had a call to say that the bee inspector coming this afternoon.  Wonder what he wll have to say

I hope you all the correct ear tags in and all individual movements documented...

 
& your herd book is up-to-date with the number of individuals on your land 

[Bionic]

Herd tags upto date and movemement book pristine 
Actually he confirmed that the one hive we have is dying out    and very unlikely to survive. We asked about a nuc or a swarm and he said he might be able to get us a nuc for £150.
He also suggested that we take the old hive, clean it where possible but leave some drawn comb in it and then put it on our stable roof. Apparently this is the best way of attracting a swarm as its high up like a tree. Hmmm, wonder if we could get a hive up into one of the trees. Might be able to anchor it there better than on the roof.

[Stellan Vert]

Hi

Good to hear all ok

Silly question,  was the Bee Inspectors visit a random visit? Why did he visit you?

SV

[Bionic]

Stellan,
It was a random visit.  He was supposed to go to a meeting somewhere else that had been cancelled so decided to do a few visits in his local area instead.  We did get a few hours notice i.e. he rang in the morning to say he would be there later in the afternoon.

[Sudanpan]

Did he say why he thought the colony you do have is dying out? Is it just lack of numbers? Or is there a mis mated queen laying sporadically or something?
 If you have low numbers might it not be a possibility to bung any brood comb and stores that there is in a nuc so that the bees don't have to warm up such a large area, then give them a 1:1 syrup feed to give them a bit of a boost? If he thinks they are dwindling anyway you don't have anything to lose by trying.
Good luck 

[Bionic]

OH thinks that the bees have swarmed, although god knows when as its mostly been too cold, unless it was last Mon or Tue. They have been fed fondant and are now on sugar syrup.
He never even got the chance to do a proper check on them previously as was always waiting for a warmer day.

[P6te]

If the bees have queen cells at an advanced stage then its going to take something pretty extreme to stop them from swarming!

[Bionic]

The irony is that we went on a talk about how to prevent swarming the previous week 

[P6te]

You could argue that in a week you hadn't had time to put the course into action ... and clearly the bees had already started making preparations!!