Winter 2003-2004
A mild, dry Winter and a warm start to the year means all our 10 hive colonies may have survived so we needed to re-think and revise our equipment - the ageing, cheap hives we bought about 6 years ago needed replacing so we decided to buy some new brood boxes from the Thornes' Winter sale on their website and we ordered 5 brood boxes and 50 frames plus wax foundation from our local beekeeping society, giving us a total cost of nearly 200 - quite an investment.
Another job during January was to sort out our large stockpile of supers,
brood frames and boxes checking them for signs of mouse and wax moth damage
(moth balls have now been banned).
In February we began sorting out and assembling the five new hive boxes,
checking all the pieces fitted securely together. Late February and early
March saw this job completed and we began the messy, labourious task of
coating them with hee-friendly, Cuprinol wood preserver.
As soon as the weather permitted John and Paul did the first hive inspection
of the year, opening the small colony at Paul's bungalow - sadly it had
not survived the Winter.
A bee that has crash landed into the cold snow.
We warmed it up and returned it to the hive.