Finally a bit of decent weather, which is great for the varroa treatment. This Thymol gel is only activated if the temperature is over 15 degrees Centigrade - that's not normally a concern at all in the summer but it explains why this treatment can't be done much later in the year.
The nettles are clearly fighting back, though I probably won't clear them away before the autumn now as they won't really be getting in our way for much longer now (and they provide good cover from any stray ramblers who sometimes appear along that tree line in the background!). Besides, we're planning to do a bit of landscaping around here soon, but I don't think it will be necessary to move the hives at all (they're sitting on top of the pipeline to the septic tank so the JCB won't be able to drive over here anyway).
There aren't many photos because everything went smoothly today, no surprises at all!
We cleaned all the frames down again as they'd become quite built-up again.
We found Bea really quickly (shown in the centre of the picture) and everything looked healthy in both hives. We put the Thymol gel packs on top of the brood frames then closed everything up. It all needs to be closed up for a fortnight, then we repeat the dosage.
