Too Windy for the Bees

I think we may have had a lucky escape with the bees this morning.

It’s been blowing a hoolie here all day, after starting to do so last night. I took a quick look at the hives this morning and all looked OK, although it was dawn so the light wasn’t great and I was only looking from the conservatory as there was a storm raging outside. Apparently Anna had looked through the bedroom window at them when she got up as well, but a little later on she noticed that it looked as though the roof had blown off one of the hives.

We went down to investigate and indeed it had. The roof was at the end of the garden, an empty super was on the floor and the hive was exposed. The roof and a super had moved a little on the hive next to it as well. I quickly put them both back together again and as I did so bees started bubbling out through the crown-board. I think we may have been lucky in the fact that Anna must have noticed it just as it happened and the bees were only just responding to the disturbance once I got there.

Anna went back in to get some fondant, as we decided that we may as well feed them while they were being disturbed. They had a tiny bit of fondant left from what I’d given them a few weeks ago, but not much so we probably fed them just in time too. It was good to see that there were live bees in both hives, but it wasn’t possible to tell how many, nor how chilled they had become thanks to the wind dislodging the roof of their hives.

They’ve now been fed though, their hives are in one piece and each hive has a huge breeze block on top of it to hopefully keep them pinned down. Let’s hope they’ll be OK.

Tags: BeekeepingWeatherwind