Hi ,well it the first day of spring to day , so its time to put the first
blog of the new year. I hope you have all come through the raveges
of the last big blow. Our allotment was a bit battered, but an
inspection of all the hives proved that they were all intact although
with a couple of fallen branches on them!
Its
not generally possible to open up hives through the winter period
because keeping the clustered colony warm is essential There has been
a few warm days as you know , but I was never around to take
advantage of them!
But
one colony I was able to peek inside at was the small “ mated cast”
I referred to in my last blog. Sadly they did had not survived ,
probably several very cold nights we had as well. So the Bodica
Colony is no more!
What
I am able to look at however however is the bees stores. Now you will
know by now that we leave the first “super” that the bees collect
on the hive because that is their store for the winter. One of the
problems of the several warm periods we have had this winter is that
the bees become more active. Now normally on the odd warm day in the
winter the girls will come out for a fly around and do their
business!
But
on an extended warm period they remain active and the consequence of
that is they eat more food!
So
there is a risk then of starvation, as a general there is no way
the bees can collect more nectar or pollen to replenish stores so
this period from February to April is a food critical period for the
bees.
In
previous years I fed to bees with sugar water after the end of the
session ( late August, Sept time) or if cold and wet, fondant because
then there is no risk of damp sugar fermenting that can have a server
effect on bee health.
I
feed them again in reverse order just after Christmas . This year I
have given them Api Candy and commercial formulated food substitute
that has all the ingredients a bee needs and is not effected by
temperature or weather changes.
This
proved to be the right move because all the colonies are up in the
top of ( probably) empty “Supers” feeding on the Api Candy
sachets placed over the feeding slots in the top board.
So
looking forward the signs are good but not guaranteed that we will
come through with one colony on the Beeze Hill Apiary and three on
Cornerfield site.
I
have just decided it s time to check my swarm collecting kit because
as you know we are the swarm collectors for the Council and our
Association in the borough
,
and it wont be that long before the phone starts ringing!
I
will right again soon kind regards to you all Freddie
