Out Apiary Woes

Unfortunately the news from the out apiary isn’t quite so good… The larger of the two colonies seems OK. I didn’t check them properly but there were definitely bees in there so I gave them a good feed and left them to it. The smaller hive that we had to move here over the winter didn’t look promising though and sure enough when I opened it up I was greeted with the sad sight of a dead colony. Thousands of dead little bodies with their heads buried deep into the cells where they had been looking for food.

It’s never noice having to deal with a dead colony, but I cleaned it out, brought home the frames that had lots of dead bees in and will now have to clean those out as well. Hopefully that will be the last time I’ll have to do that this year. We therefore currently have 3 colonies, two in our home apiary and one in our out apiary but we will need to keep on top of the feeding for a couple of months yet just to get them through the early part of Spring. We’ll have to check them properly soon as well, just as soon as it warms up. When it does, they’ll each get a proper inspection, a clean of the floors, some frames might need replacing and they’ll get a general tidy up and assessment. It won’t be long before we get that done and then the beekeeping season will be underway once again.

3 Responses

  1. Avatar forComment Author mum says:

    Ahh what a shame 🙁

  2. Avatar forComment Author Emily Scott says:

    Very sorry to hear this. I fear a couple of my hives may go the same way soon. It’s so hard to keep our poor bees alive 🙁

    • Avatar forComment Author Alan says:

      I suppose we should expect some losses over the winter as that’s all part of life, death and natural selection, but it’s never much fun when it happens.

      Al.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Avatar forComment Author

Alan Cole

Alan is a Freelance Website Designer, Sports & Exercise Science Lab Technician and full time Dad & husband with far too many hobbies: Triathlete, Swimming, Cycling, Running, MTBing, Surfing, Windsurfing, SUPing, Gardening, Photography.... The list goes on.

You may also like...