Beekeeping at the Services

Reyaz, time broker and resident beekeeper, has been taking care of Gloucester Services two bee hives.

He was joined by some Services’ staff members who were keen on learning more about bees in general and how to care for them, hopefully being able to care for the two hives themselves in the future. One of the hives is a veteran, having been there since the Services’ opening in 2014, but the second is a more recent addition after having been rescued recently.

In spite of the dodgy weather during the first visit, the bees seemed to be settling in well. The queen had even began laying eggs. At the second visit the weather had warmed up and made suiting up slightly more uncomfortable, but the group perservered and this time when checking up on the bees received a lesson on swarming, the queen, drones and queen excluders.

We’re all crossing our fingers and hoping they’ll give us another great batch of honey this year.