Off we go again

And so another beekeeping season begins, already a complete contrast to last year, which was an extremely cold and very long Winter.  The oil seed rape, which is my main crop only started flowering in June, when it should flower from early May onwards.  This year the oil seed rape has just started flowering, a good month early.  I will take some photos of the fields that surround my apiaries over the next few days and post them on here.


A good early order book this year and the first batch of nuc boxes are ready for their colonies.  All my colonies are going very well already, and some have capped drone cells, so I would guess that there will be drones about in a week to ten days.  As long as the weather holds we will be able to start Queen production very early this year

Overdue oxalic

Its the 31st January 2014, about 5C, there is a stiff South Westerly, its trying to rain.  Sounds like every day we have had this 'Winter'.  We have still not had a serious cold spell and the long range forecasts don't predict one.  Fairly soon if this keeps up the wild willows will flower and then the bees will start production in earnest.

So, push has come to shove.  The bees will have to be treated for varroa control with oxalic acid whether we have ideal conditions or not.  I will be treating my bees on the next cold day that comes along.  There is bound to be some brood present in all my colonies, but hitting varroa after this mild Winter is essential.

Fondant

The first week of December is when I put fondant on all my hives, some take to it more readily than others, but usually a colony will make their way through half a kilo in a week or so.  In normal Winters by now we are knee deep in hard frosts and near freezing daytime temperatures, with howling North Easterly winds that cut across our flat fenlands like a knife.
I say usually because this 'Winter' is not very usual.  Its January 5th today and we had a bairly visible frost first thing this morning, I think we had another a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday, 4th January there were bees flying in large numbers from most of my hives.

hive E

Back to the title, fondant.  As I said usually a colony will take about half a kilo a week.  The pictures are of two colonies, E and I.  They are the only two that have taken any noticeable amount from the first half kilo in the five weeks its been on top of the crownboard.  I have looked down through the crownboard feed holes and all of the other colonies appear to be ok.  Does this mean that the unusually mild Winter is allowing the bees to access their own stores or that the colonies are in trouble.

hive I

Very soon push is going to get to shove and the oxalic acid treatment will have to done.  The ideal is two-three weeks of freezing temperatures, thats not on our forecast any time soon.  Whats that saying, if it was easy...................

Winter reshuffle

The weather has finally turned cooler, and damper.  Time to prepare all the colonies for Winter.

This is how I set my hives up for Winter, I have tried several different methods but this has always been the most successful for me. Colonies are able to stay over their brood without interruption and still access food when needed.

The mouse-guards were put in place a few days ago, we live in a very rural area and have had problems with mice invading the hives in past years.  So although I dislike using them, mouse-guards are essential here.                                                    

As you can see from the top picture there is still a huge amount of pollen coming in, the ivy continues to flower very late into the Autumn this year.

The mouse-guards have been in place for a few days and the bees have settled back into their routine, I try not to change too many things all at once.

I have kept a full super for each colony. Any supers still on top of the hives are removed as are queen excluders.  The brood chamber is lifted clear of the floor and a fully capped super takes its place.  The brood box is now placed on top of the super.  This means that the colony is where it should be, at the top of the hive, where it is warmest.

I will give them a few days to settle again, and then I will give each colony a block of fondant.

Getting ready for Winter?

Well here we are, its the 7th October and the it should be getting colder and the bees should be preparing for the upcoming Winter.  Instead its 20C, sunny and the bees are bringing in so much that I am adding supers.
This has been without doubt the best summer season that I can remember, most colonies and nucs sold, most Queens successfully reared and mated and despite my focus on producing colonies the best honey yield.  As always my colonies will be going into Winter as strong as I can possibly make them, and as I do not lose colonies through the Winter I have always believed that the bigger the colony at the start of Winter the more chance it has of surviving until Spring.

This frame is fairly typical of all my colonies, there are 6 or 7 frames like this in each hive, and as you can see in the background the hive is heaving with bees.There are still drones in each hive, there is still drone brood.
I have not seen that before at this time of year, usually the drones have been driven out by mid September.

As each hive is opened the air is thick with the smell of ivy honey and there are clouds of bees in the air, it looks and feels like May.  I was going to put mouseguards on this weekend, but I think I will postpone that for at least a week.