Neils

As I was asked if I was going to do one this year I thought I'd inflict it on the Scottish Beekeepers. I did [try and] keep a blog last year, but actually sitting down and writing about stuff is frequently far less interesting than actually doing it. I wont rehash last year's shenanigans but at time of writing, my little colony of bees appears to have come through winter very well so I am going to tentatively announce that my aim from last year's beekeeping has been achieved: I didn't kill my bees.

I'm actually based in Bristol which is almost as far from Scotland in the UK as you can get, but I like it here and Gavin hasn't banned me yet I've currently got one colony of bees in an apiary on an allotment I share with a guy I met on my Association's beginner's course last year.

Over the winter I've been studying for my Module 1 General Husbandry exam, losing my job and trying to develop a colony inspection/management database which might actually be ready about this time next year at the rate I'm going.

My Colony currently lives in a single National Brood box with a litre of 1:1 syrup and, hedging my bets, a pound or so of fondant on the other hole in the crownboard while I wait for spring to emerge properly.

I've only taken a peek under the crown board so far and a few weeks back there were a good 6 seams of bees bubbling around inside the hive and, when it's not raining, lots of bees bringing in bright yellow pollen.

As for my aims this year, I'd like to think that I'll start to get more of handle on what my bees are doing and why, last year I felt very much like I was reacting to them all the time, this year I'd like to try and start anticipating them a little more. I've a new apiary site that I'm going to prepare this weekend and an empty hive in the back garden ready and waiting, hopefully, for a split this year, If I can get a Nuc too for the allotment site I'll be even happier.
I guess in short I can boil my primary aim this year to "get on top of [managing] swarming".