An Apiary Update
The weather has been pretty good for the bees. There have been a few days that have been too windy for them to venture out and it has remained fairly cool most days but the afternoons tend to be getting up into double figures on the thermometer and there has been plenty of sunshine.
I checked in on the bees a few weeks ago and was pleased to see that there were still colonies in each of the hives. I’d since had a slightly better look and had seen signs of a queen in both of them, but one of them was only a tiny little colony. Although there were a few eggs in this colony there was no brood.
A Full Inspection
I managed to do a full inspection the other day and get the hives ready for the summer. The first hive with the tiny little colony in it now had some brood as well. They were on a brood and a half configuration so I have taken the lower Super away so that they are now on a single brood box with a single super. I could see the queen, there were eggs, larvae and sealed brood and a small amount of stores as well. It is only a very small colony but if the weather stays good they should hopefully start to build up quite quickly now and should develop into a full size colony by the summer.
There is plenty out there for them to forage on at the moment. The hedgerows are full of blackthorn blossom, the bees were enjoying the blossom on our cherry tree this morning and they seem to be liking the flowers on both the Bay Tree and the blackcurrants at the moment as well.
I’m sure there is plenty more around for them as well, what with Dandelions, Celandine and Buttercups all brightening up the the place with their golden yellow flowers too. In the garden the bluebells and Forget-me-knots are painting a sea of blue.
The second hive had more bees in it but is still also quite a small colony. They were on a double brood box configuration as I had merged two colonies at the end of the season last year. The weather then turned and I was unable to do anything with them so I left them as they were for the winter. As this was the first full inspection of the year I was able to remove the bottom brood box completely as it was mainly empty. The queen, all of her eggs and all of the brood were in the top brood box so I’ve left them with just that single brood box topped again with a single super. This colony looks a little stronger. It still only had about a single full frame of brood but that should be enough for them to really start to get going now. There were plenty of eggs as well so the queen seems to be in full flow now and the bees were returning with plenty of pollen.
Other people are reporting swarming already but our colonies seem quite a way behind at the moment.
The Apiary
The apiary itself is looking OK as well. One of the main problems we have with this as an apiary site is the wind. In fact, that’s one of the main problems for the garden as a whole. It is exposed to winds from all directions and the winds here are generally much stronger than elsewhere. Just the other day a friend of mine posted a photo of the harbour in Aberystwyth commenting on how still it was. At the same time as the photo was taken, Ivor, our local katabatic wind was battering our garden with 50+ knot winds! Everywhere else was perfectly still but our garden and therefore our apiary was experiencing freezing cold Storm Force winds.
After many years of perseverance though I have now managed to grow some taller plants to provide some shelter. It’s still windy, it’s still often cold and the shelter does also create shade but the apiary is now sheltered from the worst of it and in the summer should be almost totally enclosed.
The advantage of having an apiary at the bottom of the garden is that it is easier to carry out inspections, the honey couldn’t be more local and in the current Coronavirus lockdown I can easily get to it whilst remaining completely self-isolated, even if it does look as though I’m wearing a hazmat suit in my garden!
