The Summerhouse

The new apiary (or, as most people call it, the "garden") has a bee shed (a "summerhouse"):

Summerhouse

Complete with deck for tea-drinking and bee-observation.

A neat row of hives

Inside the summerhouse, I am storing hives and equipment, cleaned and oiled and ready for the new season.

Mouseguard - still there

Undoubtedly, the summerhouse will have mice. And I've heard that mice like beehives (cosy and with tasty wax to gnaw). I had some of these punctured metal strips, "mouseguards", kicking around. They are supposed to be fitted over the doors of (occupied) hives in winter to stop mice from climbing in. I don't fit them to my active hives, but I put a mouseguard across the entrance of this empty hive in the hope of keeping it empty. It's only loosely rested there, and hasn't been knocked off yet (surprisingly) so presumably the mice haven't got in (that way).

The new apiary (to be)

Waiting for bees!