Happy New Year!

Last year was tough. But our one saving grace was that we are beekeepers! With many working from home, we were luckily still able to get out and about to do our beekeeping. This year we presume will be much the same, with restrictions elsewhere but the freedom to attend our bees.

As with every new year, we find ourselves in the depths of the British winter. This month we have had some dreary days here in Lincolnshire but also some really spectacular crisp, winter days. We have even seen a few bees buzzing around, presumably on cleansing flights. They never stay out too long though, even with the winter sun on the front of their hive.

Here you can see the pond outside the museum apiary frozen over on a beautiful sunny afternoon: 

This January we did our oxalic acid treatment using Oxybee. This winter treatment helps to keep the varroa levels down so any dwindling caused by varroa is kept to a minimum and hopefully we should have strong colonies coming out of winter into spring. There are of course other factors which can cause colonies to die out over winter but preventing the build-up of varroa is at least something we can do to help them during this period. 

And finally, even though I know we will be very busy soon with the colonies expanding and the beekeeping season in full swing, it is always nice to see the bulbs coming up this time of year as it reminds us that winter will not last forever! Spring will be here shortly and I think, especially at the moment, it is nice to have a little hope of better things to come.