State of colonies this spring

[Calum]

Yes indeed....our colleagues in the Midlands got a taste of that on Monday while we were having a great day up here.

22°C here tomorrow, this spring is crazy.
Very very dry winds, so the bees are only getting pollen - so keeping a stern eye on their stores still.

Selling 14 colonies this weekend, about 2 weeks earlier than I'd like but the buyers are clamouring for them...
Oh and setting up the herb garden for the trainee beekeepers site aswell- with our first meeting- all 10 of them - Lucky me, Friedrichshafen have 60 in their course, Wangen im Allgau 40, so our course is really small!

[alancooper]

West of Ireland - Fermanagh: all my hives (7) and my first over-wintered poly nuc are busy and pollen loads coming in (willow, alder and gorse mainly). Plenty bees and stores, no varroa drops at all so far. Spring is late - blackthorn not flowering yet - too cold so far for a quick inspection.

[Neils]

Not a great winter for me, again. I built up last year basically from swarms taking 4 in the end into winter. In december I had 3 still going and taking fondant, as of last weekend I've got one sad little nuc still going. As with last year the hive I would have put money on in December as being fine has bit the dust come March.

I tried rebuilding on the cheap with swarms nobody else wanted last year, so this year I'm swallowing my pride and ordering a couple of replacement colonies to try and get things moving again and try and supplement with any passing swarms if possible. I'm just don't want to write off another year's beekeeping hoping on a half decent swarm again.

[fatshark]

Neils ... sad to hear that. What was your Varroa treatment regime? I'm just reading something by Tom Seeley about the proportion of mites lost with swarms (35% if you're interested). Although there are lots of reasons swarms might not flourish, if they're laden with pathogens they're bound to struggle ... particularly in mid/late winter. I always hammer mine with miticides soon after hiving them ... the worst thing that can happen is that it's a cast and the virgin doesn't get out to mate (or can't stand the pong and never returns!).

[Neils]

OA when they were hived, Thymol in late summer. I didn't OA as well again over winter, maybe I should. There were no obvious signs of Varroa, counts were low but part of the issue I think is that they were never strong enough going into winter to begin with at one point I had 8 swarms, by time we got to thinking about winter I combined them down into 4 half decent coloinies. All had to be fed because they missed the spring crop and there wasn't a summer one, this wasn't topping up hives; if that hadn't been fed they'd all have starved.

[fatshark]

OK. If it's any consolation I doubt the missed (omitted) midwinter OA treatment would have made a difference.

[The Drone Ranger]

Hi Neils
I looked at the Somerset Beekeepers Newsletter
http://www.somersetbeekeepers.org.uk...Spring2016.pdf
No bee suppliers though that's why folk buy online

[Neils]

Indeed, I know someone nearby who used to put nucs together for later in the year, I might well give them a ring and try sort out another one for later. This year can't be as bad as last, surely! There seem to be a lot of people round this neck of the woods who've lost most if not all their bees this winter. That's not much of a consolation but it is somewhat reassuring that it isn't just me. For only being 15 miles up the road, it's a very different environment round here and some things I took for granted in the city just don't apply; Year round forage (well spring/summer) is just one element that's very different.

[Bumble]

Neil. We're off to the right of you geographically, I think. One of our association members has a good number of overwintered nucs for sale. He's honest and reliable. If you're interested I can give you their contact details.

[The Drone Ranger]

so far one hive gone out of 25 or so
two nucs gone out of 22
8 keilers gone out of 14
theres a pattern there somewhere