Jon

Bad forecast for next week

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Jon
, 28-03-2010 at 07:35 PM (2109 Views)
The weathermen are claiming that the sky is going to fall in on us towards the middle of next week so I did a quick check on stores. There is a good chance that bees won't have much foraging time for a week or so.
I was hoping it might have been a bit warmer today and although bees were flying, it was a bit nippy for inspections.
The bees were working hard bringing in yellow pollen, probably from willow. There were also a lot collecting water from various sources which probably means that stores are being diluted for brood rearing.
I had a quick look at the colony where I released a queen last Sunday and she was beside a small patch of eggs and larvae so all well there.
Roll on some better weather in April.

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  1. gavin's Avatar
    The bees of a near-novice looked fine today but the box was very light and a block of Apifonda almost gone. Ambrosia is probably already on to see them through this coming week. Plenty of willow nearby now in full flower, but as you said they'll not be getting out much in this coming week.
  2. Jon's Avatar
    Mine were better off than I had imagined. It's easy to invent a doomsday scenario in your head when you can't check at will because of the weather. I opened a couple of the stronger colonies as I reckoned they would be consuming stores faster. In one of them I am pretty sure I saw fresh nectar. The strongest colony had 8 sides with brood and plenty of stores above the brood. I saw emerging bees and I also saw some young bees taking orientation flights at the entrance so I would say brood rearing started at least 4 weeks ago.
    I have noticed that they will take fondant even when the box is full of stores. They probably prefer the fondant as it is right above the cluster. If you haven't checked for stores, you could imagine they were on the point of starvation.
  3. Neils's Avatar
    I have noticed that they will take fondant even when the box is full of stores. They probably prefer the fondant as it is right above the cluster. If you haven't checked for stores, you could imagine they were on the point of starvation.
    I noticed that with mine this week. I put both syrup and Fondant on as the previous block I put on suddenly disappeared very quickly. Same again this week, about half the litre of syrup has been taken (and apparently stored) but all the Fondant has gone. Just looking at the rate they took the fondant down I'd assumed that the hive was going to be stripped of stores but there didn't seem to be any immediate shortage apparent.