October Review.

Varroa Treatment

I have finished the treatment on the colonies at Ravensden and Scald End. The colonies at Stevington Manor were treated by someone who was temporarily looking after them.
The next thing to do is to treat them with oxalic acid. This is normally done at the end of the year and should be done when the queen has stopped laying as the treatment also kills any brood in the hive.

Autumn Feed

During September beekeepers will give their bees a liquid feed of syrup to help the bees build up their stores for winter.
Syrup feeding is a pain. Because of the volumes needed I have 25 ltr plastic cans at each site. I check the feeders twice a week and so far they have been taking it all.
Thankfully, this job will be finished this week.

Syrup feeder - smaller bottle is for the water feeder

In November winter feeding starts and baker's fondant is normally used.

Winter work

Although people are aware of the showbiz, rock'n'roll  lifestyle bee keepers enjoy, and their Hollywood parties that sometimes go on past 10 o'clock fuelled by the consumption of vast quantities of Horlicks and Chocolate Hobnobs, less well know is the number of dirty boring jobs they have to do and winter is when they are done.
I have been stacking stuff at the end of my garden, getting ready for repairs/improvements etc. It was a mess made worse when one of the tables collapsed.

Some of the jobs to be done include:-
- cleaning a load of dirty brood and super frames and recovering wax where possible.
 - wax moth treatment for supers.
 - replacing foundation in brood boxes and supers.
 - making some more solitary bee boxes - I might sell some of these at markets next year.
 - making a Warre hive - a pointless exercise but an interesting one.
 - the nuc boxes I made this year for swarms had a slight design fault so they all need to be adapted. The plywood ones have delaminated so will have to be replaced.
 - make swarm boxes for Stevington and Strawberry Grove and repair the one at Scald End that was wrecked.
 - the frames in the hives at Stevington are a different size to all the others so various bits and pieces have to be made especially for Stevington.
 - buying and constructed brood and super frames.
 - making work tables for Stevington and Gransden.
 - preparing the fondant feed.
Sounds like fun doesn't it?