Get a grip woman!

Suffolk_lass

No word yet from the eye clinic. No breakthrough for DS either.

The second bouquet of roses from M&S have arrived at my Mum's (after they told me the first was cancelled, I ordered a second, even though the goodwill gesture 10% off voucher failed). I await some sort of response from M&S. Also, still no revised home insurance documents or invoice (it expires tomorrow). The broker reassured me that we are covered.

Remarkably, a delivery that has being shown as being collected from the seller on 15th March has actually been delivered. It is a box of 45 toilet rolls that we have just returned from dropping off at the foodbank in one of the adjacent towns. I mentioned they were loose in the box and the volunteer on the donations counter said how brilliant that was as she knew she needed to put some out and they were running low. In a town that big it is a drop in the ocean but it made us feel better. We agreed we can do this more often.

Oh yes, it looks as though we may have lost another two (small) honeybee colonies. It seems lots are finding their small colonies have not made it over winter so we are not alone. DH is making up new frames and I intend doing a Bailey Comb Change/ provide a second brood box on each for April so they don't run out of space while we are away and swarm. I have made about 15L of thin syrup (thin so they don't store it and although there is forage, we want them to draw the new comb without wasting nature's resources, so we feed them to help them draw out the comb.

Suffolk_lass

Bees
DH took over my greenhouse yesterday afternoon as the wind chill increased, in order to make up new brood frames for our bee hives. Along with many in this area, we have had several smaller colony failures this winter. We lost two last summer to wasps (we knew they were weak colonies) before winter, in August/September then another one in late Sept/early Oct, also to late wasp attack (very bad year for wasps!). Another that was on 6 frames has failed over winter at one of our out-locations and the smallest colony in the garden in a nucleus appears to be bringing in no pollen and might be being robbed out by bees from other colonies. We think the recent cold snap and Queen failure is the cause at the out location but not sure re the nucleus yet, maybe just too small.

This leaves five. Our plan is to put a second brood box of undrawn foundation over each one and to feed thin syrup to help them draw the comb without expending too much energy. When we get back from Scotland at the end of April we may leave these on to build up for Spring honey but I hope to split at least 3. Eight is plenty for us.

Karmacat

Once again, fascinating insights, SL - I'd no idea that the very existence of the hives was so fluid.  I hope things stabilise somewhat soon.

Suffolk_lass

Karmacat said:

Once again, fascinating insights, SL - I'd no idea that the very existence of the hives was so fluid.  I hope things stabilise somewhat soon.

As beekeepers we attempt to manage the colonies but newish beekeepers are often the cause of failures, often squishing or otherwise making the Queens vulnerable and generally fiddling when we don't need to.

We (beeks) need to remember that bees naturally want to reproduce and will do so by swarming. As beeks we try to control this by intervention, either by dividing colonies ahead of them leaving, or by interfering to make them think they have swarmed while we keep or discard the new colonies. Advice is to look at least weekly between April and July to be able to intervene to both ends of the swarm season.

Then there is a whole other skill set around breeding, rearing and desirable and undesirable traits.

We try to keep it simple here, but I do like to look when it is warm, so I know what they are planning (sounds like Chicken Run!)

Suffolk_lass

Oh yes, a small sale (collected) this morning; DH listed the very ancient black enamelled paella pan on Faceache MP and sold it for a fiver. We bought it about 35 years ago in Munich Idea! I think we might have used it once - for coleslaw at a party!

Merlin's_Beard

Always interesting to hear about your bees - not something I know very much about at all but all fascinating.

Suffolk_lass

More Bees
As some of you are interested, here is a bees only post (feel free to skip past) of what we have been doing to prepare for summer and us going away for two weeks

Lots of (Ashforth example) Feeder cleaning ready to undertake a Bailey Comb Change in April. The feeders fit on top of the brood nest and have a larger reservoir for (thin) syrup and a protected area that the bees can climb up from the colony and collect the syrup without drowning.

We use thin syrup in Spring because one of our mentors maintains that the additional water in the syrup means the bees will use it to draw new foundation (sheets of new wax with the hex pattern on them), rather than turn it into syrup honey (which BTW is what analysis of some supermarket honeys shows is in your cheap honey from "EU and non EU Countries" - it's a bug-bear of beekeepers; HUGE farm colonies fed on syrup all year with almost no nectar, sold cheaply).

A Bailey comb change is where the comb is beginning to look manky, or is broken and you want to replace it without sacrificing the brood (eggs, larvae and capped pupae) that is already in the nest. It needs a complete brood box of undrawn frames of foundation to be put on top, with a feeder on top (then the roof) so the colony expands upwards, into the new space. Here is a diagram. We plan to start our next week. When we get back from our holiday we will have missed the putting on the super stage so we might have to depart from the ideal unless we get a friend to check and add it for us.

themadvix

Fascinating stuff SL, thanks for sharing!

Baileys_Babe

Thanks that is very interesting 🍯

Starlight_at_Sea

Thank you! I'd love a bee-insight post from time to time.

 One thing I find fascinating about all the diaries is the insight into seasonality that comes through, particularly viable from those who are avid gardeners or have snallholdings but evident in other ways in more urban diaries. As someone who is always taken by surprise by the progress of a year, I am trying to pick up some seasonal habits from others!