Emergency Feeding

Hi all

Went to the 'Canal Side' apiary today, cold and bit damp but I needed to check the colonies out.

Most were fine but a few more had left this mortal coil - this is a very difficult time for the bees, all the bees are really old now - hatched October last year (5 months as opposed to the normal life expectancy of 3 weeks in the summer). So any stress to the colony and ....

The colonies which had died had dwindled over the winter and finally died out. The other colonies had very little stores so time for a quick feed, I use fondant which is very similar to fondant icing,

I've given each colony at that apiary about another kilo each so they should have enough to get them through the next few weeks until more flowers are out. I'll be checking the other apiaries this week, if I have time, note to myself - make time!

In the winter some beekeepers put on 'Mouse Guards' these are metal strips with large circular holes in them which you pin over the entrance, the theory being that the mice can't get in. I was a bit lazy last year and a couple of dead colonies now have a little furry occupant. They don't seem to go into an active colony, I think normally the bees would attack any incomers, however dead or empty colonies are a bit tempting. However as they say 'Every silver lining has a cloud' and the mouse nests are excellent for attracting bumble bees to bumble bee nests. So I'm going to remove the mice and collect the nests.

Just a slight worry at the Canal Side Apiary - the farmer of the next door field was spraying tonight, I could smell some horrible chemical - hopefully it wasn't some dreadful pesticide which could kill all the bees. I will keep an eye on this apiary over the next few weeks to check.

All the best

Tony

They're collecting pollen!

Hi

Just had a few really nice days - temperature over 10C and the bees are flying. I managed to get some photos so will stick them here

Here's a picture of a bee just going to collect some snowdrop pollen. She's just hanging on the side of the flower but has not collected anything yet, (no pollen in her pollen sacks)









This one's a bit more difficult to see.

She's hanging on the side of the snowdrop but is facing the top of the picture. You can see her orange pollen sack just behind her leg. This is actually hairs that hold the pollen. She is very yellow since she is covered with pollen from head to abdomen!








This one is in flight over the snowdrops. Note the fly to the right of the beee














Here's the entrance to the hive. You'll notice one bee towards the bottom of the picture with it's abdomen in the air. Bees have a gland called the 'Nasonov gland' that is used to send a chemical signal (pheremone). They exhibit this kind of posture to fan air over the nasonov gland and so there's a chemical trail blowing the smell of the colony into the air. You often see this behaviour when you've just hived a swarm, where the bees are telling the rest of the colony where the queen is. However they don't swarm in February so another mystery of bee behaviour!

It was really good to see that this, the garden apiary gentle colony had survived so well. If they're getting pollen in then there's probably new brood being laid by the queen. I didn't want to disturb them so didn't open the hive.

However, for all my hope that this was a gentle colony, one of the guard bees came out while I was taking the photo and stung me on my eyelid. Yes, I know I should have been kitted up, but I was lazy! Just goes to show that no matter what you do the bees are wild animals!

All the best

Tony

February makes me shiver...

A bit too cold to open up the hives, but I had a look at the apiary in the garden last Saturday (7th Feb). They seem fine. I've got my eye on one colony that I collected as a swarm from a caravan site last summer.
I have great hopes for this colony since

1. They've been in a tree on the site for several years and so may be somewhat resistant to varroa - most of the other wild colonies have died out due to varroa over the last few years.
   
2. They're some of the most gentle bees I know. You can stand next to the hive without any kit on and they'll just ignore you. Some of my other colonies are what my friends call 'friendly bees'. They come and greet you when you get near the hive and then they come home with you and sting your wife, the cat, and anyone in a 5 mile radius (that's a bit of an exageration), but you do need to wear a thick jumper under your bee suit and a hat. otherwise they'll sting you through the suit.

If the colony survives, I will attempt to make more colonies from it and raise some nuclei(small colonies) which I will feed up. I will tell you my method for this in the next blog.

Anyway the colony is occupying 2 frames and gave a really good warning response. Normally this is a bit difficult to see but in the cold weather the bees show it very well without flying. I don't like smoking them in this weather since it does, I think,disturb the colony. So I just quickly lifted the roof and looked under the crown board. I've got an empty super on top of the crown board which is useful when giving them some fondant. They've started to eat some of the fondant but seem to have plenty of stores (honey) left.

The warning response consists of a low, quite loud, buzz and you can see the stings on the bees. This is to tell any predator, specifically bears, (extinct round here) to keep away.

So, what's going on in the colonies? Well, as the days get longer the queen will start to lay again. The old bees who have lived throughout the winter need to get very busy.
They keep the temperature of the colony to about 20 degrees C when there's no brood but have to raise the temperature to 35 degrees plus when there is brood to ensure that the eggs will hatch and the larvae develop into new workers.
They keep the temperature up by gently beating their wings and this of course uses energy, burning carbohydrate which is the honey and winter store they eat.

Interestingly, this winter being so much colder, is I think, good for the bees. I may be a bit of a rebel, but I like to keep my bees cold in the winter. Why? I have 2 reasons, all dependant on the queen stopping laying and then there's no brood.

1. We've all got Varroa, the dreaded bee mite, in our colonies. This little pest lives on the adult bee, but spends most of its time (about 80-90%) in the brood. The male varroa lives almost exclusively in the brood and the females lay their eggs on the larvae and then parasitise them by sucking their blood, haeamolymph. When they're in the brood we can't kill them since the cells are capped and impermeable to any treatment However when there's no brood the varroa are all on the bees and our winter treatment can kill up to 95% of them. Unfortunately we have to treat for varroa - if we don't then all the bees die.
   
2. When there's no brood the old bees have an easier life. They don't have to go out and get pollen, they can keep the temperature to 20 not 35+. This means that they're using less honey and less stores so can keep going longer.

So I like snow and cold weather and I've been very satisfied with that this winter, sorry to all you guys who like mild winters!

I'm hoping to do another post at the end of February and tell you a bit more about the bees etc.

Just a question to you guys reading this - do you want some more bee facts? Or just a log telling you what I'm doing?

Keeping you posted!

All the best

Tony

January Inspection

Just checked all the bees. The weather has been really cold over the last few weeks so I'm a bit late in checking the bees and treating them from Varroa.

They're not doing too bad and have now been treated and fed with fondant as a winter treat so we'll see how they go.

We currently have 4 Apiaries.

'Canal Side' An apiary on a farm near the canal - where we have 40 hives. After the appalling weather of last year and the cold snap we're down to about 36 colonies here.
'River Side' An apiary on an organic egg farm. There's about 38 colonies here. They all look pretty good but it's very muddy and some of the stands and hives appear to be making their way down the slope into the ditch! I will have to get back and move the hives and reset out the apiary.

'Mountain Side' An apiary on a smallholding in the Welsh Hills. There are about 12 colonies here and they all seem Ok now. Strangely the colonies which were more protected (next to the hedge) appear very weak and so we'll have to see how they progress.


'Garden Side' An apiary in our garden containing some really gentle bees. They seem fine and I'm hopeful of breeding a few more from these bees. The original colony was a wild colony and have survived for many years without treatment so I'm hopeful that they may have some kind of innate varroa resistance, but then again I may just be kidding myself.

Next month I'll hopefully be feeding the bees with a spring feed. It's something I haven't tried before but with the last 2 summers being so bad I'll try anything once!

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to keep this blog going and keep the bees going too.

All the best

Tony