At this time of year a bee keeper needs to check the colonies to see if the stores the bees have built up will be enough to get them through the winter and if necessary feed them.
The latter part of this year has been terrible for bees and a while ago the National Bee Unit issued a bulletin saying
In many areas of the UK nectar flows have ceased and reports are coming in from Regional and Seasonal Bee Inspectors of starving bee colonies, where the beekeeper is not aware that the bees are severely short of food, or the colony(s) have already starved to death.The feed normally given to the bees is either Ambrosia, a sugar liquid that contains consists of fructose, glucose and sucrose, or syrup of 2lb sugar to 1pt water.
As with most things there are very different views on how much to feed the bees; an eminent member of the Beds Bee Keeping Association tells me he gives his bees a gallon of syrup a hive and no more whereas another says she feeds her bees until they stop taking it.
At the moment, with one exception, they are slurping down everything I give them.
Touch wood they all seem OK at the moment but inevitably there are some colonies that are stronger than others. A little while ago one of the smaller colonies was attacked by wasps [I have lost 2 colonies to them already] but I fitted a tiny entrance that only just allowed one bee in at a time and it worked.
Also at this time of year the bees are treated for varroa.
There are a variety of different types of treatment, mostly based on a chemical called Thymol. These include Apiguard, Apistan and ApiLife Var.
The 'api' part refers to honey bees latin name apis mellifera mellifera. and I have wondered if anybody would market a feed for bees called Api Meal but I suspect McDonalds have patented it.
At the end of the year I will treat the bees with oxalic acid and on the advice of an association bee keeper I have brought a new toy called a vaporiser to dispense the acid.
More varroa stuff in the next blog.
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