February has been a fairly cold month, despite seeing the first signs of spring appearing all over the Lincolnshire countryside with plenty of snowdrops for bees to feed from. This month we have been busy trying to set up for the upcoming season, encouraging colonies to grow in size by providing them with Nektapoll, a pollen substitute, which really seems to give the bees a boost while they can’t go out to forage in these cold temperatures.

With our plan for the year ahead, we have been getting the relevant equipment ready. Hive parts have been cleaned, bee suits have been washed and the new cabin has been set up ready for making all the necessaries for the season ahead.

We have seen a little bit of activity here with some bees bringing in pollen but as the weather has stayed quite cold over the last few weeks, our main priority has been to heft the hives and make sure the colonies have enough stores. We are hoping March will bring some milder weather and we can start to get stuck in to this year’s beekeeping!