We’ve seen some pretty hot weather this month and the bees have loved it! With all the water in the ponds here at Thornes, we never really have to worry about the bees getting thirsty, but we do often struggle with the June gap. This year though we have seen a rather small June gap and now there are lots of wildflowers out for the bees to forage on.

As we said last month, we haven’t seen that many swarms this year but we were in the apiary for this one. Once the bees stopped swarming, they settled on a hive – it was a pretty big swarm! Obviously, it was all collected up and hived properly once we’d finished the photoshoot.

This month we have also had exciting things taking place in the apiary, as we have hosted the training and assessment days for the BBKA Honey Bee Health Certificate. The participants have been involved with talks and used the bees here in our apiaries to carry out tasks pertaining to their course for example Bailey Comb changes. This has been on top of continuing to provide nucs for customers so it has been a busy and involved time for us.

As always at this time of year we have huge growth not just in the wildflower area but also the grass surrounding the hives. If the grass is left to grow too tall, it can hinder the ability for the bees to access the hive easily, so we have strimmed the grass round the hives. It not only keeps the entrance clear, but also reduces the risk of any dampness growing inside the colony.

We are also beginning to see the first wasps out and about in the apiaries. Here you can see a fight between a wasp and a honeybee taking place. Unfortunately, the bee came off worse in this scenario. It is something we see every year; we always see loads of wasps but we do have traps and will start reducing the entrances down once we see a few more.

It has been a busy month but next month should be slightly calmer (I feel like we say that every month) as we should have fewer nucs to take off. As mentioned above we will keep an eye on the wasp situation and if we feel it necessary will reduce entrances. We are also hoping not to see any more swarming and are looking forward to the bees continuing to build up over the summer.