What to do on another cold wet snowy day? Make up frames of course.



Starting from scratch? These are the parts
for a Hoffman (self spacing) frame.

Beginners- this is what you need

These should have been finished by now! It's been too cold to go out into the workshop, and the wax foundation was too brittle. My excuse anyway. Now I am keeping it in the house. WBC supers take 10 standard shallow frames. I'm using wired worker premium foundation today.

After 1 hour job well done!!
A nice clean super ready.
 

Last year's cleaned frame can have fresh
foundation slotted in.

April mags.

April editions of BeeCraft and BBKA News arrived today.
I mention them because they carry items of particular interest.
BeeCraft - "Why did my bees die" and "Shook swarm"
BBKA News - a very useful list of "Garden Plants Particularly Good for Honey Bees" and "Swarming - how can we mininize it and "Become IT Savvy". QBzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hailstorm, sleet and hot sun - a typical pollen-gathering day!

What's a Queen Bee to do?
There's plenty of pollen coming in but then it suddenly goes cold.

 

 A happy half hour watching the comings and goings on chionodoxa and species tulips. Every pollen grain is carefully tucked away into the corbiculae on her hind legs. I'm off to the hives now
to check the candy/pollen patties. QB.

Patience

Not much to say or do! I've had bees for 42 years and I still can hardly wait for the time to open up.
Yesterday I decided to make up some frames in the workshop - but the wax foundation was so cold it kept breaking up, so I gave up.
Today, 9C but the wind is cold. A visit to the apiary told me the 5 surviving colonies are still alive - despite that sudden snow and return to Arctic conditions. Spring-cleaning is still going on. Some brave bees are out sucking up water from the moss around the hives. (They need water to dilute the honey). These are signs they're using up stores -so I need to be watchful. If feeding becomes necessary thick syrup, 1kg sugar:650ml water.
Anyway, I'll wait for the flowering currant to bloom before I take that first peek!
Happy days are just around the corner. QBuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzing

Just when you think Spring has sprung.......

"Stone" colony has been busy bringing in pollen (temp. 9C)
but today the Siberian blast is back!  It's very windy and 2C so all have gone home and it's very quiet. I checked the Candypollen block (above the feeder hole in the crown board and found it full of very busy bees.
Anyway, I'm worried that the freezing Easterly wind which is blowing almost directly into the hive entrances will chill any early brood and the adults too. Tomorrow we're expecting more snow.  At the same time we need an airflow. So this is what I do under these circumstances. The mouse guards are still on, and the hollow trays shelter the entrances from strong draughts and drifting snow. This time of the year I watch the hive entrances very carefully - the bees' behaviour tells me what's going on inside without opening up and upsetting the ambient temperature.

 I won't take even a quick peek inside until the outside temperature is 12C-15C depending on the weather.

QB back into cluster 'til next week.

Bees bringing in pollen!

Friday - the snow's disappearing without floods and all 5 colonies are busy.
I've just come in from visiting the apiary. It's buzzing. 3 colonies are bringing in pollen - most likely from the crocus, aconites and snowdrops all of which have emerged undamaged from the heavy snowfall of last week.

 The aconites are also buzzing with bees. OK - only one! The others have gone home with their pollen load.

Bees on the Winter Aconites. 9C today.

Plan to give them blocks of Candypollen tomorrow if the weather holds fine and warm.
QBzzzzzzzzzzz

This lovely Weeping Cypress is named Gandalf.
Our favourite among  all our trees.

Spring prep.begins

The Red Colony hasn't survived.  The Q. was my favourite but quite old. I should have replaced her but in July she was laying well. The bees tried supersedure but the virgin didn't mate and they were left queenless. I tried to introduce a young mated Q (white) but by now it was getting too late in the season for the brood to build up - so not enough bees to cluster successfully.
When I discovered the few dead bees with plenty of stores I closed up the hive to prevent robbing. Yesterday, I removed all hive parts, brood comb (empty) and super(quite heavy) and took them into the workshop for a thorough inspection. Looking for signs of disease - found none - not even Nosema splodges! So - what to do?

Blowtorch all parts - into every corner after scraping off propolis. There may be spores hidden in cracks so I must be thorough! All outer parts of this WBC hive to be painted. Once this hive is cleaned and reassembled it's ready to be reused.
Every colony will be put in a cleaned hive - once the weather warms up to around 15C. QBuzzzzzz