2012 - Second Bee Update

 

 March 2012 Update

As the spring weather has been unusually warm and sunny, the Gardening Society’s bees have been making the most of the surge in nectar and pollen from the mass of crocuses, daphne, clematis, and other flowers blossoming all over Abbots Langley. Chris and I decided to do a full hive inspection on Sunday afternoon while the sun was shining and a lot of the bees were away foraging. We had several tasks to undertake:

1. Locate the queen – vitally important she is there, to ensure the hive is not abandoned
2. Look for eggs, larvae and any sign of queen cells being drawn from the comb: if the hive starts getting overcrowded, the bees will get the urge to create a new queen and swarm – it would be very unusual this early in the year, but with the unusual weather it doesn’t pay to be unprepared!
3. Look for any signs of disease/infestation or damage to the hive
4. Check the honey stores.

We located the queen, eventually! She has been busy laying eggs as we found a lot of larvae in the cells, but we also found that the bees had started forming a queen cell – they may have just been practicing, but we are taking advice from our various colleagues in the beekeeping fraternity. The bees were looking healthy and active, bringing back huge amounts of pollen – their source of protein, and the honey supplies were pretty full.

We decided that it was time to put on a ‘super’ with some more frames for the bees to continue collecting honey stores – this will give them more room to work, less overcrowding and therefore less risk of swarming, and might even give us a supply of spring honey to harvest.

We spent an hour and a half carrying out the inspection and putting on the new frames – but it only seemed like 5 minutes. I saw a bee doing the ‘waggle dance’, telling the other bees where she had been foraging, and Chris took a photo of a bee we thought might have been a victim of varroa attack, but on studying the photo later we may just have been lucky enough to find a bee just hatched, with its wings as yet unfurled. More questions for our mentors!

It was interesting to hear on Country File, the farmer talking about the need to prepare for the coming weeks. Beekeeping is very much the same – we are learning how important it is to try and anticipate what the bees are likely to do, and when, and have everything we need to hand.

With the lack of winter rain, it may well be a difficult spring and summer for all of us – plants, animals, insects and humans. If we can all do our bit to help our wildlife to thrive to pollinate our plants, we can hopefully avoid a poor harvest of our fruit and vegetables later in the year.

I can’t wait for our next hive visit; each visit brings either a new delight or a new problem to solve. If you want to come along and watch us at work, or even lend a hand, let us know – you are more than welcome to join the adventure.

Kate Macnish