All you read on Twitter and Facebook at the beginning of the month was that across the country fellow beekeepers were reporting that their colonies had died as a wet summer last year gave way to a cold winter that extended well into spring.
Flowers where I live are only just starting to bloom and my hive which survived the winter is now weeks behind where it should be at this time of year. I was feeding fondant up until two weeks ago but after the last feed I left them to their own devices and the colony are now out collecting pollen as the outside daily temp is finally above 10°c
I needed to check the brood to see how well the colony stands ready for the summer, but I waited until today before carrying out a full inspection as the temperature finally reached above 16°c.
There was two frames of capped and uncapped brood but the brood pattern wasn't good, not a lot of drone brood. There were lots of pollen stores building up and last years queen was seen.
No disease seen at all so all in all after the long winter it's a good start to the year for me and let's hope for a long warm summer.
I also managed to build a new base for the hive which has some hooks to attach a strap.
No comments:
Post a Comment