OKEHAMPTON Beekeepers held their first meeting of the new summer season over the bank holiday weekend.

More than 20 members turned out for the visit to Down St Mary near Bow on May 4, to visit the apiary of David and Sue Stephens.

Four colonies of bees had sucessfully survived the winter in deep national brood boxes.

The group split into two groups to examine the four hives.

The first hive was in good health and despite the cold spring, the bees were beginning to build up well with healthy brood in all stages of development on four frames.

The second hive showed a similar situation with healthy continuous sheets of brood and queen bee eggs across the central frames.

One of the other hives appeared to be queenless and was given eggs from the last hive to facilitate raising a new queen.

The branch's testing for nosema disease, held jointly with beekeepers from Tavistock, took place on May 5.

The branch's next big event is the Devon County Show on May 16 to 18.