How can I find my old pictures?

[Peaches]

Or is it too soon to tell? Our bees are up and out and bringing back pollen and chomping their way through the fondant.

 

Is it safe to be optimistic about our prospects for the year?

 

Have your bees made it through .....?

[Olly]

Mine have survived, and still have stores, although I've been feeding fondant as well.

 

In my local group I'm hearing a lot of reports of people who've lost their bees though, including one member who apparently lost all four of his colonies.

 

I think I was lucky - being inexperienced, and having only acquired a nuc in July, I fed them as much as I possibly could. If I'd had them for longer, I might have been a bit more relaxed about it. It was a long, hard winter in some areas.

[Daphne]

Oh I hesitate to say it after my winter posting.....but yes, clouds of them flying about, pollen abounding....seem to be OK at the mo!

[Guest]

Over-wintered - yes.

 

But still a possibility of spring losses. Starvation can be a problem if the colonies are expanding on fresh air! They may need feeding if they get very large before the main flow arrives and they may have trouble if we have a prolonged cold spell after expansion is well under way.

 

Drone-laying queens can occur as can other ailments, particularly if the colony is weak.

 

Probably be all right, but you never know.... Just need to be vigilant.

 

Regards, RAB

[Peaches]

RAB, don't say that, I'm a nervous wreck as it is. We didn't take any honey from the bees, we fed them sugar syrup for ages and now fondant. They were tucked up safely over winter, insulated etc. If they drop off this spring it shan't be for lack of care and attention.

 

Right, I'm off to stand guard over the hive .......

[MedusA]

We didn't take any honey from the bees, we fed them sugar syrup for ages and now fondant. They were tucked up safely over winter, insulated etc. If they drop off this spring it shan't be for lack of care and attention.

 

I've done all this for mine too, so I'm hopeful my bees are OK. Yesterday, there were loads of bees coming back with laden pollen baskets and they could hardly get in the entrance hole due to all the bees wanting to come out through the door!

 

Is it too early to take the entrance block out?

[Guest]

You say, 'is it too early' I say who can tell? I don't work on one or the other. I have a range of suitable pieces of wood of differing lengths and simply fit an aproprite one. If you have an OMF then all the entrance is doing is restricting the bees' movements and even when completely open, full width, the bees may well enter/exit on one side in preference. Probably a function of warmth inside the broodbox, so the brood is slightly to one side - I have never given it very much thought.

 

My message is always to have at least two colonies; if one fails at least (hopefully) you have a back-up from which to re-colonise the second box. If one queen develops a nasty trait one can replace her from the other colony, if that has better temper, for instance. Sooo much easier with multiple colonies - unless one loses the lot, which is an infrequent occurence. Looks like self-supply of a nuc this year may be worth a hundred quid or more.

 

Perhaps this person who lost all four colonies had bought-in queens which were not quite up to a decent UK winter? Simply a guess, but losses like that should be analysed - there is probably an underlying resaon which needs to be addressed for the future, or there will be no surprise when it happens again.

 

Long, hard winters don't kill bees. Soggy wet winters are probably less good for them than cold and dry. Don't understand all the hype about a cold winter (this last one) as it was not exceptional, unless considered over the short term (people have shorter memories than me?). I remember '63.

 

First year beeks often have a good start as the whole kit is new and disease free; with one or two colonies, transfer of pathogens is less likely to occur. Inexperience can really kick in after that first flush of success. I know, I remember ten years back when I was a new beek and I know things did not go entirely 'as plan' in year two. Not so much internet forum help then.

 

Expand slowly, taking only strong colonies into winter, have spare nucs around during the summer to enable strengthening of colonies in the autumn by uniting. So start planning now for a more stress-free winter of 2010/11.

 

Regards, RAB

[OXFORDBEE]

Is it too early to take the entrance block out?

 

If you lift the crown board off the brood box and bees come tumbling out to say hello and bees also appear at the entrance when you've put the roof back on you can be pretty certain that you won't have any problems increasing the size of the entrance and the bees will be able to defend it.

 

Full width entrances are hardly ever needed in this country and I would suggest that 4 inches at this time of year would be adequate. If you have a mouse guard you should put it on as the nights are still a bit chilly and mice can be quite opportunistic.

 

I mainly run with 1/3 width entrances all year round (a solid block of wood blocks the remainder of the entrance). The only exception to this is nuclei in Augst/September which are being bothered by wasps/potential robbber bees. These nuclei have their entrances significantly constricted so they can easily defened them.

 

I put mouseguards over hive entrances for the winter. I usually take mouseguards off in mid April as the night time temperatures are not as cool as they are now.

[MedusA]

Thanks again to both of you for your thorough and very helpful advice.