Beekeeping Blog
February 2020
Well, what a horrible month February has been! Thanks to both Storm Ciara and Storm Dennis, we made more trips to the apiaries than usual to make sure the hives were still upright and intact. Miraculously, the only bits to have made their way across the apiaries were a couple of roofs and feeders from the empty hives I had placed out. All of the hives with bees in were still standing, so I consider us to be very lucky. Time will tell what effects, if any, the storms have had on our bees.
As pollen can be in short supply at this time of year, (and let’s face it, the weather has been so horrid that even if there were a lot to forage on, bees wouldn’t have been able to get to it), we fed the bees a small slab of Candipro, a protein supplement. As I have done with Nektapoll in the past, I cut the Candipro up into smaller pieces to make it easier to monitor how much protein the bees are getting through. This avoids wastage and gives an idea of the state of each colony without having to open the hive. Early on in February, although it felt cold, some days were rather sunny and the bees did actually venture out, as you can see in the first photo.
This month, the apiary has finally started to take a different shape, as the slabs arrived and were set out in blocks of four. When eventually we get all the hives in position, we should start the year with two colonies of bees and two empty hives per set of four. This will help with artificial swarms as well as being able to rest one roof on top of another during inspections and not on the floor, which will help our backs out no end!
This winter has generally been quite mild in temperature and as a result there have been lots more mice about than in previous years. I have spotted a few mice and mouse holes around so I have my fingers crossed that we managed to get the mouseguards on in time last autumn… Next month, fingers crossed, we will start to see some weather more suited to beekeeping and will be able to enjoy being out in the apiary a bit more. It will probably be the last month before the season really kicks off so all those little jobs we have not yet got around to will need finishing off before we get too busy!
