Cooled Off!

May has brought the bees to a shuddering halt. After the warm April where the bees were building nicely, this month has been cool and the bees have done little. A few have looked to swarm and the Rape has yet to bring any surplus honey (though that is not a bad thing to me!). I do hope the weather changes though or I fear another bleak summer for the bees.   

SWARMING!

I had to carry out my first artificial swarm today; there were four charged queen cells in one of my hives. I am a bit sceptical about whether its too early, though a good few of my hives have drones in them. So the swarming season has begun. Looking back to last years notes it began around this time in 2014 too!

Turning Yellow

The fields of green now have a hint of yellow; it appears the Oil Seed Rape is coming into flower in my area. The bees will be working it soon and the colonies will expand quickly.

Been A Long Time!

I managed to check all my colonies this week to ensure that they are okay after the winter. As I updated my records I saw that the last time I checked brood was nearly eight months ago, such a long time, hard to believe! So I am more than happy to have seen over 30 queens during my checks . :-)

A Good Sign...

It was a lovely sunny day today and I couldn't resist going to see if my bees were flying; they were and bringing fresh pollen back. This is a good sign that the queen has started to lay and brood is being reared. Great to see!

Almost.....

I checked all my sites today and saw that there were bees in all hives. It's almost Spring and the trees and bushes had buds appearing. A few more weeks and things should burst into life! 

So Pleased To See You

The sunshine today brought my bees out at home, a good assurance as we head towards spring. It was great to see them making cleansing flights (though hope no one had washing out!) after this latest cold spell. It also means that they can re-cluster over fresh stores if required. Cant wait for the active season to begin again!