Last month was disappointing beekeeping-wise as here in Lincolnshire we were affected very badly by the Beast from the East, which brought massive amounts of snow and high-speed winds to the region.

Towards the end of the month however, when the temperatures started to rise and the winds began to die down, we managed to get the mouseguards off and scrape out any of the dead bees cluttering up the entrance to the hive. This enabled them to bring back what pollen they could collect without it being knocked off by the mouseguard. Hefting the hive also gave us a good idea of how much food they had left.

We also treated our hives with Apivar. This is the best treatment if you have varroa and are not taking honey supers off early in the season. In fact, due to the cold weather here in Lincolnshire, local farmers say we are not expecting the rape seed to start flowering for another couple of weeks, which could mean it may not be in full flower until early to mid-May! This gives plenty of time to treat colonies with heavy mite loads and remove the Apivar before adding any supers.