Beekeeping In Winter

 

If you’ve been wondering what beekeepers do in Winter when their bees are huddled in their nests read on!

 

The AGM and annual dinner of the local beekeepers’ association takes place in the quiet season when beekeepers actually have time to attend.  We went for the first time this year and we thought there must be a lecture as well as the AGM because we couldn’t believe it would last 75 minutes – but it did!

You may be  surprised to hear that bees were barely mentioned.   However, if you've paid attention to our blogs, you will be far from surprised that the main news in the Treasurer’s report was the announcement that new teapots have been purchased.

 

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The dinner surpassed all our expectations.  What kind of 3 course dinner do you get for £8.00 per head these days?  We certainly thought that we would be paying for drinks and coffee separately but no!!!   A choice of starters was followed by a clever, seasonal main course with generous portions and seconds for those who could manage it; then there was a choice of 3 desserts or cheese.  Red and white wine and water were on the table when we sat down and coffee and chocolates were provided too.      Wow!       We could hardly believe it either.

 

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By far the best bit was talking to the other beekeepers there.  All our fears about the Beebettes were allayed by Douglas, who sold them to us.  He thinks their apparent disappearance is quite normal for this time of year… and so is the exuberant activity of the G Bees.  Other beekeepers reported similarly different behaviour from their colonies.  We are encouraged and hopeful that both colonies are OK.

We also heard the heartening story of how a colony of wild black bees was found in January when a large, dead Ash tree was felled just a few miles from us.   A section of the tree, now furnished with a sort of roof for added protection, still homing its resident colony, is now being cared for in a local apiary.  

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But that’s one evening;  we’ve been, painting new lifts and a nucleus hive the fetching shade of house greeny blue to match the hives in the apiary.   We’ve acquired some bottom bee space supers and they have to be routed to make them top bee space to be compatible with our 14x12 brood boxes.   Everything has to be super clean and that means, scraped, scrubbed with washing soda and lightly scorched with a blow lamp to ensure there can be no residual disease on anything.

I didn’t imagine there would be quite so much carpentry or so much cleaning involved  in beekeeping.

 

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Finally, we've been planning the military logistical exercise that is required to move the G Bees onto their new 14 x 12 brood chamber and onto a clean floor (a good hygiene practice).   The G Bees' floor then has to be thoroughly cleaned so we can switch the Beebettes (if they survive) onto a clean floor, and finally, as our spare floor isn't a varroa mesh floor, we then need to clean the Beebettes' floor and switch the G Bees on to that, rendering the spare solid floor spare again.

 

Now we're waiting for the weather to warm up enough for the early inspections and equipment switch.