Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone best wishes for the year ahead. Welcome 2014!

Happy Christmas!

Seasons greetings to you all.

Ivy

Our neighbor has Ivy growing near to my Honey House and today I was jarring up some honey. It was sunny and by lunch time reasonably warm. As I stepped out of the honey house the Ivy was "buzzing" and my bees were working the flowers. A quick walk down the garden and I could see all the hive entrances "teeming" with bees. I could have stood all day mesmerized by the comings and goings; how I love to see the returning bees "waddling" back in through the mouse guards laden with pollen on their back legs.

Nice to see you!

The milder weather has brought the bees out; it was so nice to see the hive entrances active. Re-assurance after the recent cold weather that all is okay within.

Warning!

To the creature that is trying to get into one of my hives - You are being watched!

Mystery Attacks

On checking my apiary sites today, I found a hive with the mouse guard torn off and the entrance chewed away. Inside the wasps were obviously gaining easy access but the bees were there in plentiful numbers and to all intent not seriously affected. I was able to replace the mouse guard with the apertures reduced and put more fondant on as the wasps had clearly been helping themselves!
I had the very same problem on this site last winter, when a WBC was attacked by something, I never found out what, but it led to the colonys' ultimate demise so I need to find out what might be causing this - maybe a need for some form of cctv. Any ideas?

Fat Bodies

In the late autumn sunshine what a joy to see; my lovely ladies waddling back into their hives laden in yellow pollen. They will be storing and building up their fat reserves ready for winter.