Today's Buzz!

[Keeper]

Monday 21st Oct, 12C. A bit of sunshine and out they come! Colonies recently back from the heather all out bringing in yellow and orange pollen. A good sign there is brood being produced, boosting numbers of winter bees with any luck!


A sunny spot for the winter months gives them the best chance of remaining healthy through to the spring. Entrances are reduced to exclude vermin, and allows the bees to defend against the wasps that are still mooching around.

There will be no brood nest inspections from now until spring. Keeping an eye on the varroa board debris gives an idea of what's going on inside, as does a quick look under the roof through the glass quilts, and by hefting the hive we've an idea of what honey stores they have. Ekes and fondant feeders will be put on later when honey stores are depleted.

[Keeper]

17th October, sunny 15C to start, then rain. Just enough time to check on the colonies brought down from the heather. Bringing the colonies off the hillside was eventful. The ground conditions were too soggy at the first attempt. Our 2WD just slithered about, but following some drier weather we managed at the second attempt. Once back in the lower apiary, where they will overwinter and spend the spring, they were configured for the autumn season. Supers of honey placed under the brood boxes and varroa strips in. It's late in the season for Flumethrin strips but temperatures are remaining up enough for them to be effective. Varroa loading seems to have been very light this year, but even so that's a ball we won't take our eyes off.


Inspecting and cleaning varroa boards. A lot can be learned form the debris found on these, not least if and where there is brood being produced!

Not a jar of honey to be had the year. what was produced has all gone back to the bees. At least we still have healthy colonies. Lets hope next year is better. !

That's just how the cookies have crumbled this year

[Keeper]

23rd September, 12 degrees, overcast and cold. Garden bees are soldiering on and have produced just short of a super of honey. Pretty poor, but they'll need that for the winter.

Out apiaries haven't produced anything and are being fed syrup. The hill bees have produced a little honey but the heather is now finished so they'll be brought back down.

Varroa control - all colonies being treated with Flumethrin strips, the hill bees will be treated once back down and surplus honey taken off.

That's it, season over, lots of running around and nothing to show!

[Keeper]

Thursday 5th September, a cold and dreich day, with temperatures down to 12C and no bees out flying. not the best for checking bees but today, needs must! With the weather is still very changeable and overall temperatures dipping towards autumnal levels, and winter prep just over the horizon, it was time for a quick inspection of honey supers. Brood boxes were left undisturbed.

After full inspections and manipulations at the end of July the colonies were in decent fettle for the heather and for any late blossom. August would normally have produced something. On inspection, the colonies on the heather are producing, albeit not as much as expected, however the heather still looks as though it will last a couple more weeks. With decent weather we may just get a bit more in the supers.



Visits to the hill bees are always interesting. Not only did we have to contend with a stiff easterly breeze driving heavy drizzle, the heilin' coos came to see what we were up to, surrounding the car. They had calves with them and the matriarch looked at us with intent so we exercised suitable caution.

Garden hives had produced a bit of honey and have fared reasonably well, better than the others for sure. There may be some excess that we can harvest.

The out apiary hives have not done well at all. Little or no honey has been produced. In fact after hefting them, they are in desperate need of feeding all ready. Mostly down to weather patterns, but perhaps other areas may have fared better.

[Keeper]

Spoke too soon!

30th July, sky full of sunshine, 25C, enjoying an afternoon on the lawn until that familiar buzz of a swarm filled the ears. A sizeable swarm from who knows where decided fly into the garden necessitating a quick retreat for my sunbathing better half!

Thinking the season had moved on, swarm traps and nuc boxes had just been stacked away for next year. Some would still contain old brood comb but would still be smelling of fresh bee habitation and clearly were too much of a temptation for this swarm. There was a gentle breeze blowing that made the swarm sway too and fro around the boxes but after about 30 minutes had settled in one of the nuc boxes.



Click here for video of late swarm arriving

It's always an amazement how so many bees can pack themselves in to a relatively small cavity!

[Keeper]

29th July, After a hectic few weeks, finally things in the apiary more or less under control!

Swarming was slow to start at the end of June but continued well into July. This was complicated by the fact we were feeding syrup during the cold weather when the colonies had used up what honey they had produced, filling brood space up with syrup instead of producing brood. There were many swarms to deal with, a couple from our own colonies but most from unknown origins. Quite a few had no queens, or no laying queens with them, and trying to get those queened proved more than a challenge. Similarly, our colonies that had swarmed, did not successfully re-queen even with donor frames added. Other colleagues have reported other unusual swarming activity, catching swarms that stayed in the box long enough to consume all the syrup provided before absconding.

Normal looking hatched and unhatched queen cells were evident but no sign of laying queens. This was a concern. Sample sealed queen cells were sent to SASA for analysis and thankfully there were no abnormalities. However they did pass on that, during a recent meeting, bee inspectors reported they had seen widespread issues this year with queens failing to mate, mating poorly, or not returning from their mating flights, along with very late swarming. Our experience was just that, and has meant a lot of running around right through June and July trying to ensure queen-right colonies.

The local farmer at one of our out apiaries mentioned the noticeable lack of fly activity around, especially while he was moving a large midden from the Steading out to a field. He thought the prolonged cold weather had a lot to do with it and he was probably right. Lack of fly life means that birds in particular would have to find alternative food sources when their normally abundant supply didn't materialise. A virgin queen out on a mating flight would be pretty conspicuous and would make an easy target. I've watched young sparrows sit near the entrance of the garden hive and pick off the odd returning bee. Not their normal diet, but there they were. Perhaps this may account for some of the missing queen problems.

The heather is coming into bloom on the hills, two strong colonies were taken up. Fingers crossed for some favourable weather.

[Keeper]

27th June, it's been a busy couple of weeks, carrying out swarm control, making splits, collecting swarms and checking how well the colonies did this spring, and not that well at all is the quick answer to the last point!

The colonies in the garden apiaries faired better than the out apiaries which have yet to really get going. From four overwintered successfully in an out apiary, only two remain and they are not performing as well as we hoped. Around the town and village there was plenty forage early on for the bees and some honey was produced, but it came to a halt as the June weather became unsettled, temperatures dropping overnight to low single figures. The home bees quickly consumed a fair amount of their labours while up at the out apiary, which is 100m higher and more exposed, the bees simply ignored the large areas of gorse and broom in full flower on their doorstep, and as yet have failed to build up numbers as expected.

The swarm traps worked their magic and caught swarms have since been transferred to hives with drawn comb and plenty syrup to keep them busy. Not every attempt at taking a swarm was successful. One large swarm that had flown into a neighbours garden settled on a small stump a couple of feet off the ground. It had been there for three days before we went in to take it. Easy job, prepared a polynuc and placed it below the cluster, one good thump on the stump and they all fell into the box. A quick inspection to make sure there were no clumps left on the stump, removing the small section of comb they had built and placing it in the box, then we left the polynuc with bees and syrup in situ to be closed up in the evening. By evening they had all retuned to the stump! The following day before we could get ourselves into action they took off, then resettled, then took off again disappearing into the blue yonder. Colleagues have reported similar experiences this spring, catching swarms, feeding them well only to see them fly off again in a couple of days, some leaving freshly laid eggs behind. Strange times indeed!

[Keeper]

May 27th, overcast, 14C, but the break in the persistent inclement weather we've been having offered a chance for a swift and timely round of the apiaries.

Garden colonies were all performing well, producing honey, and not showing signs of swarming yet. However in one very strong colony the queen had managed to get up into the supers (beekeeper's carelessness!) and had chimneyed up the centre of the three supers with eggs and brood. Despite extensive searching she wasn't to be found so no alternative but to remove the excluder and let her find her own way back down.

Out colonies were not nearly as far on as the garden's. Their much higher elevation brings a harsher climate. Much less in the way of brood and honey production, even though they are immediately surrounded by gorse, broom, willows and Mays in full bloom, and no sign of swarming. Their time will come later as the weather improves, with any luck.

Being mindful of last seasons dreadful weather and it's affect on mating virgin queens, only one nuc was prepared from one of the stronger colonies. We'll see how this goes before doing any more.

[Keeper]

8th May, temperatures up into double figures and holding at last! With better weather the colonies were all very busy bringing in nectar and pollen of many colours. They are generally in good humour at this time of the year and tolerate a full inspection without becoming defensive, which is ideal when you need to carry out a full examination of every frame in the brood chamber. Any that are readily defensive at this time are telling you that something needs attention.

We carried out the first full inspections this week and all but one were remarkably well on with brood across 9 frames in couple of hives, which goes to show that even in all that very poor weather and low temperatures they were getting on with it. Brood nests were carefully examined and queens were marked. As with previous years we replaced two or three frames in each with fresh foundation, which ensures complete replacement every three years. Old frames are kept for swarm traps unless they are beyond use. Donor frames were taken to boost the colony that was not performing as well as the rest.

Ekes and fondant feeders were removed, mesh floors cleared of debris, varroa boards cleaned, then three prepared supers put on each. All colonies are now queenright, have stores of honey and pollen, and space to build up. A final check on the structural integrity of each hive and we were done.

There were no signs of queen cells at this inspection but drones were observed in most colonies which confirms the swarm season has started. That changes the frequency of our inspections to weekly for the time being. Happy days!

[Keeper]

29th April, 10C, sunny intervals, gusty winds. We've experienced more up and down weather over the last weeks often keeping the bees inside. When the sun did come out so did the bees, and they worked furiously, bringing in a range of different pollens and some nectar. Today the weather was good enough for a quick check round the apiaries.

The garden hives all had comb built in the ekes, some with a little drone drone brood present. Fondant in the feeders had been mostly used up. A quick look at an end frame revealed fresh uncapped honey, and by carefully prizing the centre frames apart slabs of brood were evident. They had been busy. Feeders topped up.

Out apiary colonies had no comb in the ekes and the feeders were empty. These being at a higher altitude and more exposed were not as advanced as the home apiaries and looked a couple of weeks behind. Feeders topped up.

Going through the colonies thoroughly, marking queens, changing old frames, adding supers and rapid feeders etc would have been on the cards in a normal year, but the weather is too variable yet. These tasks will be carried out the next few days as the better weather forecasted permits (fingers crossed!).