Happy New Year! Last year was another difficult one for everyone so this year we have our fingers crossed we can get back to some kind of normality. As we cross the border into the new year, we really start thinking in terms of the busy season starting in just a few weeks. For some reason at Christmas, the start of the active season seems so far away and yet now, just a few days later, it seems imminent! And so, the panic sets in…

This time of year is mostly just making sure the bees are ok. We don’t do a lot apart from treat with oxalic acid and make sure all the hive parts are still intact. Obviously, food stores are a priority so any colony that looks hungry gets fed. Ideally, the bees are all hunkered down into a tight cluster but what we have seen a bit of this year is colonies that are loosely clustered, meaning they are consuming slightly more food than usual. This is normally due to the mild weather and so we are still hoping for some prolonged cold temperatures to keep them inside the hive, warm, safe, and well rested so they can make it until we come out of winter. We don’t want the bees to exhaust themselves and not survive until spring. You can see from the photos that the bees are clustering but not in that, ‘Oooh are there even any bees in here? Oh yes, they are all tight inside the frames, so I didn’t see them’ kind of way! Not bad though.

We will also wait for some prolonged cold weather to appear before treating for varroa because oxalic acid treatment is most effective when the colony is broodless. With mild weather (for the majority) so far here in the heart of Lincolnshire, it is unlikely that any of the colonies are completely broodless and it just seems a pointless task to treat before the outcome looks favourable.

Roofs take a battering over the autumn and winter period, particularly when it has been wet and damp so we have been double checking for leaks under the roof that may drip inside the hive. The last thing we need is for bees to suffer and dwindle because of a simple hive part failure.

Another crucial but very simple task we have been carrying out is to make sure the hive entrances are clear. Even at this time of year, bees need to be able to get in and out of the hive, particularly for cleansing flights, because this helps to prevent disease spreading inside the hive and also keeps the area ventilated. So, any dead bees blocking the entrance are removed from the hive.

Hopefully for the rest of this month we will be able to keep the bees safe and fed and continue to organise ourselves for the season ahead!