Sunday, March 17, 2019

Spring Preparations

It's been ages since I last posted. I think I've done stuff on Facebook but nothing since September on my blog?  Oops! I seem to have taken my eye of the ball.

Which is not all I have taken my eye off...  I lost two hives over the winter, I think to starvation.  Four were alive at Christmas when I do my oxalic acid treatment, but sadly two of the weaker hives did not make it through to March.  However, on the plus side, the two that did make it seem strong and are currently taking advantage of the mild weather. Lots of pollen is being brought in and there's generally a lot of bee stuff going on.

A couple of weeks ago I cleaned up the two dead-outs and reversed one of the surviving hives; moving the super from above to below the brood box. This morning I removed super (which was empty of both stores and brood) so I now have two colonies, each in a single deep. When I do find my feeders I might consider encouraging some brood rearing but for now I'm happy with where these hives are, given it's mid-March