Considering my hives are being continually worked to provide nucs, starter colonies and queens, and that I am not really looking to produce a huge crop of honey, one of my colonies has already given over 100 kilos. of the sweet sticky stuff.
This was my first year rearing my own Queens on a serious basis, and it means I will be buying in just two or three Queens next year to provide some diversity of DNA in the apiary.
As you can see from this photo the bees have done their stuff in this small orchard, the apple and pear trees are heaving with fruit, unfortunately the damson and plum flowered when it was still very cold and are almost fruitless.
The hedgerows are full of brambles around the apiary and they are covered in blackberries. We have been picking them now for over two weeks and they still keep coming.
Beekeepers talk of a 'June gap', a month when there is little for the bees to forage, as is usually the case beekeepers have been proven wrong, again. This year June was flat out, I was emptying and replacing supers almost on a daily basis. I refuse to put more than five supers on a hive, even if in theory it is required, a full super at head height is very difficult to manage. I fell over once with a full super, not a pretty sight.
Not a June gap, but perhaps a late August gap.
It has calmed down considerably over the last few days, giving me time to catch up on getting my records up to date and typing this.
Although it has quietened down, I did notice over the weekend that there was an increase in activity again. The old pear tree in the photo is not only covered in pears, but also ivy, as are a few other trees that surround the apiary.
It is possible that at the top of the tree the ivy has started to flower, it would be early, but there are an awful lot of flower buds that look ready to burst at ground level.
If the good weather holds on for another few weeks we should take a crop of ivy honey. It would be a good end to a very good season.
