After a bad day at work I was looking to the bees to help me chill. As I arrived on site at 6pm my wife phoned to say that there was a power cut at home (though this was not just our property) but I was allowed to stay with the bees! Phew, but was I stressed!!
Sure enough an hour later and I was completely chilled; the lovely change in weather has put my bees into over drive. All have stores and needed supers to store more- the fondant can be put back into reserve for now. The ladies were all in fine fettle and not least bothered by me being there. Definitely the best beekeeping so far this year.
To further my feel good factor a swarm had arrived into a nucleus hive, with lots of nectar, and eggs being laid in the freshly drawn comb. I got my dowsing rods out and sure enough I had left this nuc on a geopathic stress line purely by accident but further proof of what John Harding had told me. Thank you again John.
Oh and I had a text while I was there to say the power had come back on!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Queen Failures
Due to the really poor weather of late, I am having to take drastic action on some colonies where virgin queens have hatched but failed to get mated. It hurts me to say that these queens have had to be culled because they were drone laying and frames of eggs have been put into these hives from other healthy colonies in the hope of raising a new queen. However bearing in mind that the season is on the wane and assuming a new queen is raised and gets mated it will be mid August before she gets into lay and that means that colony numbers may be very low as autumn and winter approach! This is the worst season I have known with these extra stresses in addition to problems the bees already face.
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