Spring Tales from the Cornerfield Apiary

Its late March and at last the first of the years spring flowers are poking their heads out, they are lovely to see ,the lovely vibrant colours and way they sway back and forth in the fresh March winds.

But first we have to take stock, Unfortunately this year we have lost two of our four hives. Queen Elinor,s swarm has succumbed to what some keepers call “isolation starvation”.

That is to say although we put fondant on all the hives as an insurance against starvation so the bees can cope with the the funny period between using the last of their winter stores and the new plant growth.

Elinor,s the swarm appeared to have gathered at the other end of their hive away from the food, and probably due to the cold of late winter had not ventured away from the warmth of the swarm and thus never found the food we had supplied.

Meanwhile we had seen some evidence of upset tummies on the landing board so we thought ( as we could not open up to see) that maybe the fact that they was not taking the fondant was because they had either dysentery or another disease called Nosema. In the event it was  neither and very upsetting to see so  many bees with their little bottoms in the air as they scraped the last of their honey from the combs.

Our other loss was with Queen Elizabeth's swarm we think she had died at some point though the winter so the swarm was both very small and queen less. So to give them some chance we used a method call “Shook swarm” i.e. tipping them out away from the other hives in the hope that most will find a new home in one of the two active swarms ( Queen Anne and Victoria). All in all a sorry tales I am sure you will agree!

But we must look forward and we are confident that both our surviving swarms will be thinking of swarming come May time and I will need to keep a sharp eye out on my weekly visits as the temperature get above 14 deg to ensure I don't miss the signs. Once spotted , and using a timely intervention called an “artificial Swarm”. I will be able to populate the cleaned out and prepared empty hives and bring back up to four again!

We do have plans to put one of the new swarms down our allotment, much nearer home and more convenient for us and a big boost for the Breeze Hill food production!. To this end we have started making some preparations for one of the hives to be place down their and our “Nuc” a sort of mini hive readied to place the arifically swarmed bees in, too transport them to their new home. A safe seven miles from their old one so they wont go back to where they came from, Something that can happen if the move is under two miles.

We have also registered with our local society so we should be notified if there is a swarm reported in the Wellingborough area.

Well that about it for now, I hope you have a great spring and don't forget to plant some bee friendly plants, with out these tiny busy ladies we would be in an awful lot of bother!

I will write again soon Freddie