I did the first proper inspection of the year today, checking all the hives in my garden. All were lovely and strong, plenty of bees and brood, but one was a bit low on stores, so I will have to keep my eye on that one. I moved the overwintered nucs into hives for them … Continue reading Start of a new season
Handle with care
I purchased a lot of new hives in the winter sales, probably more than I should have (like you do) and decided that splits and swarms would not get me all the bees I needed, so I had to splash out £540 on three over wintered nucs which were delivered today. You can bet your … Continue reading Handle with care
Recovering from winter losses
The winter of 2017/2018 seems to have seen larger than normal losses across the UK, with forum and social media reports of up to 80% losses for some beekeepers. Colonies fail for many reasons; Disease, queen failure, starvation, lack of forage and cold wet weather restricting foraging activities and forage availability, amongst others. Luckily, I did … Continue reading Recovering from winter losses
New Hives
Setting up new hives from over-wintered nucs