apiary news

Weekly Inspection 21st April

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Weather: Been fine and higher than normal temperatures 16ºC – 18ºC but still chilly in the evenings. Some showers forecast but temperatures staying above average for April.

Forage: Still lots of blossoms out – notably hawthorn, Chesnut and dandelion.

Been a strange week for my bees. Decided to start queen rearing with Cyan as I wanted to increase the number of colonies. Started grafting on the 19th April but only got 2 cells started. Probably down to me not being careful enough but also chose a frame that was new wax and the Chinese grafting tool was going right through the wax. Did a second set of grafts the following day – not sure of the success rate yet. I am using a Cloake board and raising in the same colony as they were started in.

Found 4 charged queen cells in Blue, so did a nuc split – original queen in the nuc in the same apiary. So shook extra bees in to offset foragers returning to the parent hive.

Finally found that Indigo was queenless and 2 sealed but scrubby looking cells, so took down. Plan is to requeen with a Queen raised in Cyan,

Honeybee on heuchara

Weekly Inspection 12th April

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Honeybee on heuchara

Weather: exceptionally warm for April with temperatures 18ºC – 20ºC.

Forage: Pear, dandelion and quince and laurel finishing.

First swarm of the season reported!

Need to start making up more supers and also add in drone trap culling frames.

Honeybee on dandelion

Weekly Inspection 6th April

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Honeybee on dandelion

Weather: very warm for this time of year – temperatures 16ºC – 20ºC. Still chilly overnight but perfect foraging weather.

Forage: Abundant blossoms out – Laurel, Quince and Blackthorn and dandelion and pear just starting.

Checked on Cyan and the progress of the Demaree – found lots of seared QCs – all small. Need to keep an eye on it to make sure it’s not going to swarm.

 

River Mole Apiary

Weekly Inspection 18th March – First Look

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River Mole Apiary

Weather:started to warm up with temperatures 12ºC – 15ºC. Still relatively chilly but lots of activity of front of the hives, so after looking under the roofs could see that they had all taken down the Ambrosia fondant. Chose a nice sunny, warm day and had a quick check.

Forage: Blossoms starting to appear – mainly Blackthorn

 

River Mole Apiary

Colony Updates Over Winter In 2025

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Snowdrops Out
At River Mole Apiary

I’ll post updates to the intermittent activity I undertake with the colonies over Winter. The main items will be feeding with fondant and checking for woodpeckers that have visited in the past.

The weather in November and December was mild and the bees were flying on the warmer days until mid-November. January has started off very cold and wet.

  • 16th January – hefted the hives and lifted the crownboards. Looks like Honeydew & Indigo are both  small, Indigo just 2 seams of bees, and would be surprised to see it survive despite having plenty of stores. Decided to feed 0.5Kg slabs of Ambrosia fondant to 4 of the 7. Blue, Flax, Honeydew and Indigo.
  • 25th January – Checked a week later and see that Flax has already finished the Ambrosia, while Blue hasn’t touched theirs.
  • 31st January – added 300g more fondant to Flax.
  • 2nd February – Looked at Honeydew and Indigo & only Indigo has touched the Ambrosia.

  • 4th February – Temperatures slightly higher 8ºC – 9ºC and bees are flying and bringing in pollen (crocus?). Jade is a dead out, seems to have dwindled with the remaining bees dead on floor and frame, no brood so could be due to poorly mated queen. Hive activity rankings: Flax, Cyan, Blue and then Aqua
  • 25th February – Weather warming up to 9ºC – 11ºC but very rainy. Fed all colonies: Flax, Cyan, Blue with 1Kg of Ambrosia, Honeydew & Indigo with 1/2Kg Ambrosia and Aqua with fondant.

Honey Packaged Up for Sale

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