My eco solution to rat problems

[snowcloud]

Rather upset as we've lost our top chicken this week to peritonitis and last weekend I also found one of our colonys of bees have not survived the cold weather . I know the varroa was very low, they have stores to eat and extra fondant, and the hive smelled ok, so unlikely to be foul brood . Spoke to some local bee keepers and they think the bees just failed to keep themselves warm enough during one of the nights it got down to -12c here. Fortunately we have another colony still doing ok, but hope to get another swarm in the spring. And probably some more chickens too (any excuse).

http://beekeeperuk.blogspot.com/

[Daphne]

sorry to hear that Hopefully you might find a swarm in the Spring.

[Olly]

Sorry to hear that. Quite a few of my local group lost colonies last winter - it seems that even if they have enough stores within the hive, sometimes they just fail to move to where there is more food and starve anyway. Hope your other colony survives, perhaps you can do an AS in the spring and build up a second one from that.

[Old Speckled Hen]

Oh that's bad luck: sorry for chook and bees

[snowcloud]

Thanks all. We hope to get another swarm in the spring and build up the apiary again; I notice buying bees for last year from Thornes and similar were going for £200. Can't afford to do that, although it seems the interest from new starters in the bee keeping associations is dropping, so there may be less competition which will bring prices down. It's great to have more and more bee keepers out there, but supply and demand for bees does drive the price up! Hope everyone else's bees are doing ok. Any more bee-hives in snow pictures? Ours looked lovely!