In the Apiary - Feb - April
In the Apiary 27th April 2002
Both unites were successful.
The weather changed dramatically and they were all able to get to work. All hives are on one super and some are on two. I have given them the scraped back comb to repair, having found that they are more prepared to tackle this early in the season. This will increase the amount of good quality drawn frames to be used later.
Unfortunately my coppicing of the rear hedge was a season too early. I should have waited until the field behind contained cereal crops. The bees have been working the rape vigorously and because they have no hedge to drive them up, their flight-path is about 4 feet off the ground and going straight across the public footpath. Normally they are well behaved but the excitement of such a large crop right on their doorstep has made their behaviour unpredictable. As a consequence I have had to put notices on the footpath advising walkers to make a detour.
In the Apiary 14th April 2002
It has now been bitterly cold for two weeks. The biting northerly winds have made beekeeping and foraging almost impossible. The rape has been flowering beautifully but no nectar has been collected. There has been the odd moment when the wind has dropped but no sooner do I get a hive roof off then it picks up again and I have to close everything down quickly to avoid chill-brood. The forecast doesn't seem to be very optimistic either and it's all quite depressing for both me and the bees. I have united some hives. Three of my colonies were raised from artificial swarms and nuclei in the latter part of last season in order to get young queens. Somehow they were never used and grew on to become full size colonies. Two colonies were displaying undesirable qualities, one was a bit short tempered and another consisted of 'runners' so I decided to cull the queens and use two of the new ones. As I have been unable to look inside I don't know yet whether I have been successful.
In the Apiary 1st April 2002
The season is well underway. A few days of good weather and the queens are laying like nobody's business.
I have already found one colony with a single queen cell layed up and being fed ready for supersedure. There are no drones ready yet so I have had to cut it out. Five of the hives are now converted to take 14x12 frames so that the colonies will eventually be 50% larger. Each hive has only two of the larger frames so far but this number will slowly increase as each sheet of foundation is drawn out into comb.
Some years ago I made a bee's drinking fountain consisting of an old steel drum with a pinhole such that the water could drip onto a sloping board covered in peat. The bees just didn't want to use it and eventually its timber stand collapsed under the weight of 40 gallons of water. I have now rebuilt the stand and will erect it in a sunnier spot. In the meantime I have placed a small container of wet peat in the centre of the apiary. The bees have started drinking from it and I will move it a little each day in an attempt to draw them to the new barrel site.
The rape in the field behind the apiary is almost on flower and that will be when the fun really begins.
In the Apiary Sunday 17th February
It was such a glorious day that it seemed a shame to miss the opportunity. I like to give them a 3 week shot of Bayvarol to start the year off whilst there is very little brood for the varroa to use. I naturally didn't disturb the cluster even though they were flying but was pleased to find them all well and thriving. Colony sizes varied from a 6" cluster to almost half way across the brood box. I am going to move them into 14x12 brood boxes bit by bit so maybe when the Bayvarol comes out I can transfer one or two into new deeper boxes.
Archives: In the Apiary 2001