Bee News - August

The weather doesn't get any better. Everything's brown and there are cracks in the ground wide enough to get your hand down. Then it rains but its too late to help plants produce nectar.
The local Oil Seed Rape was taken in a few weeks ago and this triggered a notice from the Association saying that's it for honey this year.
It has been the worst year I have ever had and took nothing off in May for the first time ever.
I have taken what honey is available which probably won't last me until next year.
To be honest I'm not really too bothered about missing a few markets.
As I said in a previous blog most of the hives have had their brood space doubled which has meant there is little excess to extract. However checking the brood boxes, they are all full of honey and brood so this bodes well for their winter survival.

Swarms and Swarming updates

The swarming season is probably over.. Its been much quieter than I expected although the few swarms I have actually dealt with have taken up a lot of time collecting and sorting The three swarms that have been moved into Ravensden appear to be doing fine.
The highlight of it all has been the unexpected monster in a bait hive that has been transferred in my Top bar Hive.

Things seem to be going well and I am tempted to make another weird type of hive called a Warre Hive, pointless but interesting.

Perhaps a winter project.

Drinker for the bees

Bees need water like we do and this Summer being so hot being able to get some is more important than ever.
At Scald End there is a stream running behind the hives so no need to worry about them but at Ravensden there isn't water for a mile at least.
I have tried various types of drinker with varying degrees of success but the one that has worked is just a seed tray with a sheet of correx floating on it. The correx has small holes in it for the bees to drink from.

Click the button to see the video

Getting stuff back in

As the honey season is over I have been bringing back unneeded equipment from Ravensden and Scald End.
This is the unused supers, brood boxes and nuc boxes.
There is a lot of repair/improvement work to be done over the winter.

Varroa

Now all the supers are off, its time for the first varroa treatment. There us something on the website here about varroa and the treatment will be done in the next few weeks.
Blog to follow

Something new?

Although I haven't done many markets recently I was invited to an Open Day in Gransden.
It was a terrific day and the project Felicity and Sam are running there is great.
Their web site and Facebook page gives you an idea of what they are doing.
I will do a blog about it next week but there is the possibility that they want to have some hives on their land.