1. Nectar Collection Honey bees collect pollen and nectar in the spring when most flowers and plants are in bloom. They use their long, tubelike tongues like straws (called proboscis) to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their stomachs and carry it to the beehive. This is called foraging. … Continue reading How Bees Make Honey
New Equipment
Winter is a busy time for beekeepers, all spare kit has to be cleaned and disinfected ready for the new season, broken and damaged equipment needs repairing, and all the new kit for the coming year has to be made.
Queen Rearing
Some photos from 2017's Queen rearing attempts - kit used etc.
New Roof
We've got the Grandkids today, as usual for a Sunday, so just a quick job this morning. I finished putting the metal roof covers on the new nucs.
Brownie points…
I started today topping up the brownie points bank, by building a set of bunk beds ready for when the grandkids stay over. I'm now working my way through a pile of 150 frames adding wax foundation to them. I still have one complete hive to build and paint, along with 4 supers. The only … Continue reading Brownie points…
Spring
It's the Spring Equinox in Northern Hemisphere at 16:15 today, the first day of Spring, I for one am looking forward to longer days and the start of the new beekeeping season. The recent cold weather and snow has seen the bees smashing through their feed - the increasing number of brood, and the lack … Continue reading Spring
Painting…
Finally managed to paint some of the wood ware today, 4 floors, 4 roofs and 4 brood boxes painted. It'll be a while before I can put another coat on them, as the weather forecast is pretty poor for the next week or more. I'll be able to put the metal covers on the roofs … Continue reading Painting…
Warming up
The BBC weather app says it's 9 degrees here, but my weather station tells me it's 12 degrees - either way, the bees are out in force, with lots of orientation flights going on, and pollen coming in. If the weather keeps improving, and we have a spell of double figure temperature days, I'll take … Continue reading Warming up
Flying
Glad to see a lot of bees flying today after all the snow and ice of the past week. Judging by the numbers on the front of the hive, and those flying, they look like they have come through the winter quite strong too.
