We enjoyed glorious weather at the Carrigrohane apiary for the first outdoor demonstration of the spring 2007 season

At the beginning of this session, our demonstrator for the day Mary O'Riordan showed us how to light a smoker. She used a mixture of dried grass clippings and straw which she kept with her in a small plastic sack throughout the demonstration. First a small piece of crumpled newspaper was lit, then a small amount of grass added while working the bellows. More and more of the grass & straw mixture was added until Mary was satisfied that the smoker would remain lit until the end of the inspection.

Proceeding into the apiary, we puffed some smoke at the entrance of the first hive and lifted the roof and crownboard. A super had been placed on top so that was also removed. During the course of this inspection we handled a frame and saw worker and drone brood as well as sealed stores and nectar, and also some pollen on this frame. Eddie O'Sullivan and Mary used an uncapping fork to remove sealed drone pupae to check for varroa mites in two hives - none were found.

In all four hives were inspected, and in one case the queen was found, clipped and marked. In two other cases the queen was seen but was already clipped and marked. Finally on the last hive, the queen was not found, and Mary guessed that she was on the side walls of the hive, and did not wish to disturb the colony too much by rooting around the hive looking for her.

Noel Power also demonstrated to the other half of the attendees, with Noel inspecting the remaining hives in the Apiary. Two of the colonies are on double brood chambers and are being fed to provide cell raising colonies for Noel's queen rearing demonstrations to take place over the coming weeks.