Hurry up Spring

At home today and kept checking my bees to see if they were flying- but not a peek; think we got spoiled by the nice day last thursday. Looks like a colder week ahead so we may have to wait a while longer for Spring!
It has to be said.. Congratulations and well done to Birmingham City FC and to Alex McLeish and Ben Foster (friends do you sense some envy?).

Getting closer

The start of the season is getting closer. Today was really nice with the crocus and snowdrops in bloom and the catkins full with pollen. It was a joy to see my bees flying, "waddling" back into their hives legs covered in yellow. To cap it all my Jimny passed its' MOT and is ready to roll. Spring is just around the corner (I hope)!

THE ROSE HIVE METHOD BY TIM ROWE

I really do recommend this book. The principles and ideas are a must for every bee keeper, even if you don't follow the method and use the hive. I will admit I bought a Rose Hive and tried to use it as a Warre substitute (and something strange happened to the bees - but that's another story). Now having read the book and the method, I hope to try it properly this year.
I moved more hives today to equalise my numbers better at my main sites; at their new site the bees did peek out the entrance as I removed the block but obviously thought better than to fly in the cold temperatures outside!

Branch AGM and Talk by Celia Davis

An excellent talk giving an overview of the pheromones, dancing. piping and quacking: all part of the swarming process within bee colonies. Thank you Celia.

POLLEN.... But it still hurts!

It was great to see at one of my sites today, fresh pollen being brought in at all the hives (except one!). So chances are brood is being reared, a real positive sign. But as if to knock me down when I dare to feel good, the nucleus with no activity had died out - the first casualty of the winter. Looking at my notes it stood little hope really: a fruitful colony last summer that lost its' queen in July, then struggled and re-queened itself again in August. I dropped it from a full hive into a nuc for winter but only found brood at the end of September. It was in reality way too small to survive the winter and people may argue I should have united it, but... But it still hurts!

On a lighter note : Picture taken at one of the hives with bee and pollen just discernable. Note at far end of entrance Apiguard tray that disappeared last autumn (bees have tried to throw it out through mouse guard!).

Our Government Loves Bees ?

How pleased I was to hear that David cameron AND Vince Cable are patrons of their local bee keeping associations. Strangely I haven't heard or seen mention of them in any bee keeping press or articles, but I am sure they are leading the fight against pesticides; and no doubt the government "millions" promised to research the demise of this vital pollinator will come freely flowing into bee keeping coffers. After all they are interseted in bees aren't they??

YUM,YUM!

I moved some hives today in preparation for the coming season. At their new site, two of the three emerged as I removed the entrance block - obviously wanting to know what was going on. The other remained quiet; fearing the worst I carefully lifted the roof and was pleased to see that the ladies were pre-occupied with feasting!

BBKA...Grrrrr!

It is my opinion:
The BBKA should pull right out of ANY sponsorship with any pesticide company.
The BBKA is NOT able to cope with the influx of new bee keepers; the result could be almost as bad as the problems already prevailing: systems appear archaic and dogmatically controlled and the only reactions of late somewhat "knee jerk".