Spring in the Apiary

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