Starting to come along.

Today is the first inspection since we carried out the shook swarm that I've come away reasonably happy. There are at last signs that the colony is starting to build up again. The queen appears to be in rude health and is laying across 2 and half frames right to the edges. It's a little light on stores, but while they build up I'm keeping a feed on and there does appear to be plenty of pollen coming in.

These are my bees, there are many like them, but these bees are mine:


They've got a frame and a half of foundation to play with before the dummy board, which should be more than enough to keep them busy until the next inspection.

Before closing them up again I gave them a dust with Icing sugar. The varroa count has dropped like a stone in recent inspections, but I suspect this just means that it's now in the brood rather than on the bees. Post Icing sugar they end up looking like this:


and you get treated to the sight of "ghost bees" flying around the hive aftwards.