Met Office predictions are that next week we will see wintry showers and much of early March is likely to see below average temperatures, with a greater-than-average incidence of frost, not a good start to the beekeeping year.
I am looking forward to this year as this will be my first full year as a beekeper, last year I planned to get together some equipment ready to start this year, but whilst I was away on holiday last May-June a swarm decided to take up residence in the new hive I'd put down the bottom of the garden. They turned out to be a docile swarm that helped ease me in to the art of handling them.
My first attempt to mark a queen turned out a bit messy and she now has yellow wings as well as a splodge of yellow on her back.
I wasn't hopeful of keeping a viable brood over the winter as they had no chance of gathering a decent amount of food stores during the late summer due to the wet weather we had. I was feeding them with syrup during the autumn and over the winter months some candy, so far a brood about the size of a coconut has survived so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good spring.
