Calum
A funny year so far
by
, 26-06-2012 at 09:55 AM (11976 Views)
Altogether a strange year for me so far..
I lost 2 colonies over the winter (absconded), and from the 19 that survived I kept 7, the rest I sold on or traded for wild boar.
Everything was looking great for a super spring crop and then April went cold and wet, with may bringing more of the same. no honey, lots of lost queens on their maiting flights, not much joy at all.
With far more TLC than should be needed I have got myself back up to 20 colonies, the Linde and clover is flowing, the sun is shining and queen raising and mating is a doddle all of a sudden. Pity there is only 6 weeks left till I'll be winding everything up and getting everything ready for the winter. If I can just get another 6-8 artificial swarms down I'll hit one target for the year. The honey- well I'll be happy with 150kg and probably very lucky if I get that much!