Spring 2001: March &April
A rare sunny April morning (Note the mouseguard).
Over the Winter we had honey to spare so we were able to give a few jars to some of our friends, we were also able to sell a few jars and we still have some left for ourselves; I wonder how well they will do this season.
Once again the cold, damp weather prevented us from making an early start
with the bees, but there were still some jobs to be done.
During March and April we spent time making preparations for the season
ahead of us. Paul and I checked and scrapped some of the frames we used
last season, some new frames had to be built and the hive boxes also have
to be checked, scraped, cleaned and treated with Cuprinol wood preservative.
Ready to be placed on the hives.
We also assembled some new brood frames with sheets of fresh wax foundation ready hopefully for a good active season of beekeeping and honey production.
Our main beekeeping project this year is to create a proper enclosure
for the bees in the garden and move all three hives together into it.
But once again the cold, wet weather has made this very difficult. It
has also delayed our early April "spring cleaning" of the hives.
(Dismantling
our old enclosure)
and now moving the hives (no more than a couple of feet
at a time).
Rain, rain, rain, hail and cold winds have made impossible weather conditions
for working with the bees. It was not until April 23rd that the weather
improved enough for Paul to have a long look inside Hive 2 during an extended
lunch hour from his work. There was quite alot of new "drone"
brood but they had no visible food stores at all. Their food reserves
had been reduced to nothing - a good feed of sugar solution was needed
urgently!
Paul also swapped brood boxes over on all three hives to encourage the
bees to spread through the hives - just as we did in June last year, remember?
Spring
cleaning hive 2
The weather continued to be very changeable and it was not until Wednesday 25th that Paul and John could investigate the next hive - Hive number 1. There was plenty of strong brood and food stores left in this hive, but there was also Varroa! We added two strips of Apistam to the hive. We also swapped the hive boxes over in this hive as they were hardly touching the lower box, hopefully this will encourage the bees to go upwards. We also added a few new frames of fresh wax foundation to the hive to help the bees make a good start to the season.
I hope it works.
(Our new enclosure takes shape).