Hello again, well winter is well and
truly here! Its just 4 degrees as I am writing these lines and with
an Arctic wind coming down the the north the temperature is close
to zero.
You will recall when I penned my last
tales from the Corner Field Apiary that I had just finished all the
early winter preparations.
So it seemed a good idea to complete
them today. So wrapped up warm from the bitter wind I recruited
brother Kens help and drove over to the Corner Field armed with four
cut lengths of quilted foil covered insulation.
It was bitter walking down the bees
the wind cutting through my three layers of of clothes!
The nursery where our girls live,
looked deserted and locked up for the winter. The only sign of life
was their small flock of sheep, who as usual bleated their welcome
and came over to see if we had any nuts for them, sadly we had to
disappoint them!
Once down in our copse it only took a
few minutes with my brothers help to slide the insulation in between
the hives and the wood pecker guard.
About a week earlier I had put on the
mouse guards and as I had a close look, one of the ladies came out
out our Elizabeth hive , did an about turn and very quickly went back
in!
Nothing else to do now except a weekly
visit to see help with my withdrawal symptoms and see that every
thing looks OK.
Around Christmas time on a suitably
sunny afternoon I will quickly lift the lid on all the hives and
dribble some Oxalic Acid from a syringe along the top of the frames
over the main swarms.
The acid does not harm the bees, but
because the queen has almost or completely stopped laying eggs. It
means that all the cells are empty and thus the horrible Varroa bugs
have no where to hide
( in the summer they get sealed in with wax by
the bees and latch onto the developing bee grub). Thus the Oxalic
Acid can do its work and severely cut back their numbers.
We that's about it for now, I hope you
are all well and I will write again soon.
