Feeding Bees

Sorry no pics today.
It's such a bright, warm(ish), dry day I decided to find out if the colonies
are alive and if so are they hungry? First put on beesuit & veil & gloves!
5 colonies - White, Blue, Red, Yellow, Silver.  Working very quickly, one at
a time, I took off the insulation and the top 2 lifts (WBC hives).  Then using hive tool
gently levered up the top board and peeped underneath. If no sign of bees I levered
up the top box (shallow) , checked its weight and peeped under to find if bees were
in the brood box.
The outcomes:  White/Blue/Red- plenty honey in top box; loads of bees clustered between top
box and brood box. No candy needed.  Colonies strong.
.                        Yellow- bees in brood box; some capped honey in super but some empty combs.
Action - uncapped some comb above bee cluster. Put eke, then 500g candy above super.
                           Silver - we've had a lot of dead bees in this hive but there are still some alive.
This colony is now weak and could die if we get a long cold spell as the cluster will be too small.
Anyway, put eke on and the 500g candy above where the bees are. Hope for the best!                          
 Back to cleaning up frames ready for Spring.
QB says be watchful of the weather - keep sliders clear of dead bees - brush any snow
off the let board.  Winter's not over yet!
Once you start feeding them you need to carry on.
                       

Time to heft your hives!

Hi Buzzers - this very (comparatively) mild weather will keep your bees more active and so they'll
be reducing the stores more quickly.
Decisions need to be made about how much food they have AND if they are able to reach it.
Bees in cluster tend to move upwards to find stores rather than sideways.

You can quickly lift the quilt and shine a torch down between the combs to see where they are.
Or, as above pic., you can insert the varroa tray (if you have removed it for the winter) and after a few
days check where the hive debris is. Above you can see the cappings dropped by the bees as they unseal
the stores.  This info. + the hive weight will enable me to decide whether to feed them with candy and if so
where to place it.
Remember honey bees can tolerate cold, dry conditions but not moisture.  My hives are double-walled so
condensation tends not to be a problem.  However I do check the roof and insulation.

Left pic. is inside a very damp roof most likely caused by driving rain, not condensation.
Right pic. shows a very dry roof which has been dried against a radiator
in my house.  Having a spare roof is handy as I can work along the row
of hives exchanging wet for dry!
Good idea is to register (free) on BeeBase to be kept informed on
various issues eg. colony threatening pests and diseases.
(online www.nationalbeeunit.com) Next "When to inspect".
  

Honey Cake 2

Birthday boy liked the honey cake but thought it would be moister with honey/butter icing sooooo.....

QBzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Bellingham Christmas Fair

Redesdale beekeepers - sorry to miss our last meeting at the First & Last.  I enjoyed a night-out at
The Errington Arms with friends from the Border Reiver days. It was a Ratpack night - great music
and very good food too. BUT no Bourbon and no Scottish malts either!

I'm selling candles at Bellingham Late night Christmas Shopping - I think this will be the last Fair before I go into hibernation. If anyone wants any candles please let me know.

It's Senior Drone's birthday tomorrow so QB made him
a Honey cake from the recipe on an earlier Blog (19/11/2013)

Hope it tastes OK.  This is my first attempt.

Stil buzzzzzzzing QB

BBKA Survey: Honeybees warm to their work.

Headline : Honeybees warm to their work 

If you go on to www.bbka.org.uk you'll find some interesting highlights from 2013 Survey.
For example : Honey production rose to 24.7lbs/hive in 2013 compared to 8.1lbs last year.
(3x last year's but still below average )
20years ago you would expect to get 40lbs/hive.
In 2013 1:10 beekeepers took no honey crop. Some decided to leave all the stores in the hive
in preparation for a potentially bad, long winter 2013/2014.

Weren't we lucky?  Those black, hardy northern workers
managed 70lbs each productive hive. QB left a full super on each
hive + whatever was in the broodbox + all those kgs of sugar syrup
we fed them in Sept.
It's still vital to regularly heft the hives as winter deepens/lengthens, making decisions about fondant when the weight is estimated as
alright or low.


If you are thinking of giving gifts with a honeybee theme this Christmas try The Pollen Basket , the BBKA
Official Shop.  There are some OK things, depending on your taste for the 'corny'!!
QB XXX

Not much Forage

A brisk walk around my frost-bound garden soon revealed, well, very little of interest to a honeybee!

The mahonia is just coming into full bloom - for the first year as it's only 2 years old.  Bees love this but of course they're all tucked up snug in their cosy double-walled WBC homes. Air temp. is 2C and Big Cheviot is covered in snow.
Still QB is happily buzzing around!

Recipe for Honey Cake

HONEY CAKE : to make if you're lucky enough to have any honey left!

225G butter ;  250g honey;  100g dark muscovado sugar;  3 lg. eggs beaten; 300g S.R.flour.

Preheat oven to 160C (140c fan)

Grease and line 20cm. cake tin.
Cut butter into pieces and drop into med. pan with the honey and sugar.
Melt slowly over low heat.
Then inc. heat and boil for 1 min.
Leave to cool.
When cool beat eggs into honey mixture.
Beat flour into egg and honey mixture to a smooth batter.
Pour into tin and cook for 1-11/2 hrs. Test with skewer - done when comes out clean
and cake is golden brown and springs back when pressed.
Turn cake out onto wire rack and glaze with 2-3 tbs. melted honey.

Thanks Jean for this recipe.