At home today and kept checking my bees to see if they were flying- but
not a peek; think we got spoiled by the nice day last thursday. Looks
like a colder week ahead so we may have to wait a while longer for
Spring!
It has to be said.. Congratulations and well done to
Birmingham City FC and to Alex McLeish and Ben Foster (friends do you
sense some envy?).
The start of the season is getting closer. Today was really nice with the crocus and snowdrops in bloom and the catkins full with pollen. It was a joy to see my bees flying, “waddling” back into their hives legs covered in yellow. To cap it all my Jimny passed its’ MOT and is ready to roll. Spring is just around the corner (I hope)!
I really do recommend this book. The principles and ideas are a must for
every bee keeper, even if you don’t follow the method and use the hive.
I will admit I bought a Rose Hive and tried to use it as a Warre
substitute (and something strange happened to the bees – but that’s
another story). Now having read the book and the method, I hope to try
it properly this year.
I moved more hives today to equalise my
numbers better at my main sites; at their new site the bees did peek out
the entrance as I removed the block but obviously thought better than
to fly in the cold temperatures outside!
An excellent talk giving an overview of the pheromones, dancing. piping and quacking: all part of the swarming process within bee colonies. Thank you Celia.
It was great to see at one of my sites today, fresh pollen being brought in at all the hives (except one!). So chances are brood is being reared, a real positive sign. But as if to knock me down when I dare to feel good, the nucleus with no activity had died out – the first casualty of the winter. Looking at my notes it stood little hope really: a fruitful colony last summer that lost its’ queen in July, then struggled and re-queened itself again in August. I dropped it from a full hive into a nuc for winter but only found brood at the end of September. It was in reality way too small to survive the winter and people may argue I should have united it, but… But it still hurts!On a lighter note : Picture taken at one of the hives with bee and pollen just discernable. Note at far end of entrance Apiguard tray that disappeared last autumn (bees have tried to throw it out through mouse guard!).