January 2015

6th January

I hadn't really expected to have a look at the hives yet as it had been so cold recently but when I moved the hives from Roxton to Ravensden, two of the hive tables collapsed and needed repair. I also needed to have a check on the various bits of equipment as the main bee keeping equipment supplier was having its sale and so it was a good time to get what I needed for the coming season.
The temperature was ~10 degress and it was a nice day so I thought I would do a bit of repair work and preparation.
I took The Boys with me and they did their usual 'vampire' thing where they stay outside the apiary and wait until invited in. Jarvis is anaphylactic so I always worry about him with the bees but he and Charlie have now learnt they mustn't come into the apiary unless I call them and they just root about in the fields outside.
After fixing one of the tables, I had a quick look at the Poly Nuc which is a polystyrene starter hive that housed the swarm I collected last year.  Polystyrene has good insulation properties making a good vehicle to get a relatively small colony through the winter before being transferred into a full sized hive in the Spring.
There was a small woodpecker hole in the roof and I gently eased the roof off. Under the roof is a clear perspex cover and I was delighted to see some bees slowly come up to the perspex. They have survived !!!!!!
It is still far too cold to take frames out of a hive to inspect them as they will lose heat that would be difficult to replace, but I just couldn't resist having a quick peek under the crown board to see how things were going with the other hives.
The next two hives had active bees but then the first disappointment. The WBC hive hadn't made it.


Fortunately the Mad Vicar's Bees, the Snow Queen Hive and the Nutters [I'm afraid I do give my colonies names] but then the next disappointment. The Top Bar Hive colony didn't make it.
This hive had been an experiment for 2014. It is widely used in Africa and in the UK are often used by devotees of 'natural' bee keeping. I have something about them on the web site - Bee Informed > Types of Hive.
It didn't get the same chemical medication as the other hives so was this to blame? I don't know but once the hive has been repaired [it started to bow during the Summer] I intend putting another colony in it.
As it warmed up, bees started to emerge from the hives but just did very short flights or just crawled around on the landing boards.
As the 3 colonies in Scald End appear to be OK, I have lost 2 out of 11. Two is two too many but as the average loss in the UK is 35-40%, I suppose it could have been worse.
A new package of bees [a queen and a load of bees in a box] is £150 a time, so this year I will make a proper attempt at rearing my own queens, make better use of the Queen cells the hives produce and put a couple of swarm boxes up at Scald End.

8th January

One of the major problems bees face is the Varroa mite and it is considered to be main cause of honey bee loss. I will be doing something about Varroa in the 'Its Not easy being a Bee' section in 'Bee Informed' on the web site.
It is a reddish crab like mite, about 1.5mm, that lays its eggs in the honey bee comb. The mites hatch and attach themselves to the bees.                             
These charming creatures stick a feeding spike between the 'plates' on the bees body and drinks its haemolymph [blood]. It also spreads diseases like Deformed Wing Virus.
It's full name is Varroa destructor which says it all.
It has proved to be impossible to eradicate and Australia is now the only Continent that is varroa free. Therefore bee keepers are encourage to adopt what is known as an Integrated Pest Management System, which basically means don't rely on just one method of trying to deal with varroa. This is a huge area and the source of constant debate but I can only cover what I do.
The first thing I do at the beginning of the year is to treat the bees with a dilute solution of Oxalic Acid. This is fairly unpleasant stuff but it does kill the mites. Problem is it also kills brood so it is done at the beginning of the year before the queen starts laying again.
Bee farmers with far more hives than I have would buy OA crystals and mix it themselves but I buy a 100ml bottle of Oxalic Acid in syrup solution that does 10 hives.
It is drizzled onto the bees in the seams between the frames and I use a syringe with a tube going into the acid mixture that refills it self and means it can be done more quickly than using a normal syringe so less heat is lost from the hive.
I did the Ravensden bees first without too much drama although the woodpecker damage to the Poly Nuc was worse than I first thought. Predictably the BB's took it upon themselves to make it very clear they resented the intrusion and would I mind going away and leaving them along.
When I arrived at Scald End all three hives had lots of flying bees although they weren't going very far. The smoker fuel had got a bit damp and took ages to get alight and in the meantime the temperature must have dropped slightly so by the time I was ready to administer the OA, they had all retreated to the hives,
The first hive was done without a problem and then as I started the second, a sharp pain in my cheek. A bee was inside my veil. In fact several were as yet again I had forgotten to do the zips up properly. I made a strategic retreat and two stings later returned to complete the job.

12th January
Although hopefully the bees have put aside enough honey to last them through the winter, beeks are advised to check them and, to use an Old English word, 'heft' them. This means lifting them to see how heavy they are. It is possible these days to buy electronic surveillance equipment that tells you how heavy the hive is, what the temperature is inside the hive, monitors the sound levels, what they are watching on television and their Facebook status. Its stupidly expensive.
Like us, bees  need to get rid of any excess water they take on. In Winter its so cold they can't get out of the hive to have a pee and if they do it in the hive, things get a bit unpleasant.
Therefore you feed them with fondant, which like the icing on birthday cakes, and has a very low water content. I dropped lumps on this into the hives through holes in the Crown Board for them to feed on.
One of the hives in Ravensden looked worryingly small.

28 January

Weather still horribly cold. Had a tiny, quick peek under the Crown Board of the 'worrying' hive and it hasn't made it.
The hive I promised to Jack is due to travel to Norfolk in a few weeks time and therefore I think I need to add to my flock.
Speaking to Sue Lang, he has said the shop now takes up a lot of her time so she will be cutting back on her bee keeping and will be selling some of her hives. Its too cold at the moment, so we will sort something out in March.
I might also contact Steve Kennedy a fellow BBKA member, who produces very good queens and nucs [small starter hives].