Day Nineteen

Whoa! That was a long break from writing! However, the truth is, a lot of beekeeping is also about waiting. True, you are very busy during the active months, especially if you have more than one colony to fret about, but when winter grips, then things change completely. I did a varroa treatment in December using tiny dribbles of oxalic acid in syrup. Varroa are nasty little creatures, no doubt beautifully designed for purpose, that attach themselves to the bee's body as parasites. In themselves, they can probably put up with that, but there are other things like the amounts of pesticides that they unfortunately injest that might mean that the varroa become a critical factor to bee stress. It's like catastrophe theory - one or two things at a time are alright, everything at once destroys the bee's ability to cope. As the weather dropped in temperature, I have done everything I could to make their chance of survival increase. I have changed feed to 'candy' (a bit like soft fondant icing) which is easier for them to process during winter. I have also wrapped the whole hive in shrub protecting covers and placed an extra roof over the lot so that they have some insulation. Not too soon, as it happens, since we are now in the middle of the worst snowfall for thirty years. Great. Just what the new colony needed. So much for the 'Bar B Q' Summer and the mild winter. The only way I can tell that things might be alright is through observation. The bees are still pushing out the bodies of those who have died - so at least they are doing their housekeeping, which is a good sign. Today, on a deep, fresh snowfall, I saw about five bees' bodies lying on the surface about three feet away from the hive mouth. They had evidently flown out like kamikaze knowing they were dying and had frozen in mid flight. I wrote:

Snow softens each line
with icy hands, only death
gives some hope for life.

Day Eighteen

The bees were going mad today. I have never seen them so active. They must have found a seriously good food source since they could hardly get in and out of the hive entrance fast enough. It was the apiarist equivalent to Heathrow on a bad day. They were coming back covered with a whitish pollen as if they had been in a flour fight. Also, it was a warm, sunny day – sadly, a diminishing treat for those who like to wander about the garden like myself and the chickens. Advised by a fellow beekeeper how quickly they empty the feeders at this time of year, I checked to discover that it was almost dry! I will have to check it weekly through this month. In October, things should really begin to quieten down and I will replace the syrup with candy (a little like fondant) which is easier for the winter bees to digest.