Title photo: Bees busy flying fourth week in November.
Well at last the winter arrives with the cold and wet ensuring all our colonies stop the breeding process and cluster to survive the onslaught.
The month started off well but then the frost and snow arrived curtailing all activities.
You may be tempted to “poke around” the hive but if they are well fed waterproof and vermin protection fitted, leave well alone.
If you have glass or Perspex crown boards you might take a peak but don’t worry about a bit of condensation above the cluster they will use that as their water supply or circulate it out.
On a fine day remove your Varroa slide, count the mites and put it back in that evening that will allow circulation if you are at all concerned but not necessary really.
But Varroa mite monitoring is a necessity as the hives that gave you your best crop of honey this year maybe the ones with the biggest population of Varroa.
Early December, if you decide to treat, could be a good time to use one of the authorised treatments as there will little brood about where the ‘parasites’ breed.
Ensure you record what you treat the colony or colonies with and maintain this record for 5 years. It’s the law.
That’s it really with stormy weather predicted in December always a good idea to check on out Apiaries every now and again especially after named gales.
On a more pleasant note earlier this summer I received a call on my mobile via the Swarm link on the BBKA.
In one of our small local villages a colony had set up home inside the lid of a compost bin and fortunately “Pest Control” refused to kill them as they were honey bees.
As normal I asked for verification photograph, I’ve chased too many Bumble Bee nests in the past, and lo and behold find they were honey bees.
So off I went car loaded took the lid off the bin and of course combs fell in a heap into the compost!
Okay back home to collect more kit and collapsed combs stood up in a floor and brood chamber, compost bin moved away and then left until the evening.
That night moved them to my Apiary, put a crown board on top with brood chamber of drawn brood comb above .
As is normal a week later bees had not moved into brood chamber of drawn comb but built wild comb underneath the crown board linking it to collapsed comb in National brood chamber.😡
But they were very busy with loads of pollen and nectar pouring into their wild comb.🤣
Well I fed them for the winter and we will see what I find in the spring, but clearly a good young Queen who is going to survive whatever the weather or incompetent Beekeepers throw at her.
Happy days!
Well let us see what weather throws at us next month.
What’s this all about? Explanation next month!
