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Thread: How do your bees look at this time of year?

  1. #1

    Question How do your bees look at this time of year?

    Well at this time of the year you would expect your bees to be all cuddled up and not taking up much space in the have ? YES!
    WELL NOT these ones! have a look that the picture taken on the 10th december
    IMG_0714.jpg
    They have demolished the first block of fondant which I replaced, so after this picture was taken they had two blocks again, I thought that would be the end of it but no they are now on a double brood box as there are that many bees in the hive. I can't get into the bottom box to see what the queen is up to as its too cold yet but it looks like she has forgotten its winter ? Its just an unbelievably strong hive.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
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    Well, after all that wind and snow, they were out and about today enjoying a windless sunny day.
    Kitta

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by gwizzie View Post
    WELL NOT these ones! have a look that the picture taken on the 10th december
    Looks to me they're all busy chewing back the poly walls of that Paradise box so that it's the correct size to take a National frame

  4. #4

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    4 hives blown over in big wind 1 Smith 2 polynucs 1 polyhive
    All well strapped and OK
    Lost one nuc so far some scattered drone brood (queen died)
    lost one hive 2 mice no bees
    lost one mini nuc died out no sign of queen
    Rest OK so far and stores look adequate
    Surprised by that though as the mild weather means they have been active a lot of the time
    Next Month might be different but so far so good

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    I'm not counting any chickens yet ... it's the next couple of months that matter.

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    Senior Member busybeephilip's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by The Drone Ranger View Post
    Rest OK so far and stores look adequate
    Surprised by that though as the mild weather means they have been active a lot of the time
    Next Month might be different but so far so good
    Here, no big winds but overall the weather has been very good, a bit too good for my liking, the bees are out and about these days and bringing in some pollen and sniffing around my bee shed, a good sign but very early. What worries me is that the mildish weather will continue resulting in a greater than normal loss of field bees leading to very week colonies by the end of march akin to the situation last season. I can already see / find bees resting on bushes, walls of the house etc where it has just got too cold when the sun goes in and they sit there without the energy to fly back to the hives.

  7. #7

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    Bees very active the last two days. Very few casualties thus far, and those were most likely queenless in autumn (there are always a few and we don't have time to seek them out).

    Stores transfer and feed taking (syrup...in poly hives) going on yesterday and today. This morning they were all over my bird table picking up the dust pretending it was pollen. Quite a few bees with nice little white pollen baskets seen entering hives.

    Today a few early hazels at one site were heaving with bees, so many that each was only getting a fleck of creamy coloured pollen.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    Bees very active the last two days. Very few casualties thus far, and those were most likely queenless in autumn (there are always a few and we don't have time to seek them out).

    Stores transfer and feed taking (syrup...in poly hives) going on yesterday and today. This morning they were all over my bird table picking up the dust pretending it was pollen. Quite a few bees with nice little white pollen baskets seen entering hives.

    Today a few early hazels at one site were heaving with bees, so many that each was only getting a fleck of creamy coloured pollen.
    Excellent to see the Hazel catkins starting to yield. Mine are not bringing in pollen but are active on cleansing. Whats "stores transfer" ?

    I have some capped frames of syrup spare that I was going to stick in smaller hives as stores instead of giving a lump of fondant if I can do it without disturbing them too much. Is that the kind of thing you mean ?

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    Senior Member fatshark's Avatar
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    Mine were piling in pollen (bright yellow? no clue) late morning but highlight of the quick visit was seeing a red squirrel at the apiary ...

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    Quote Originally Posted by greengumbo View Post
    Excellent to see the Hazel catkins starting to yield. Mine are not bringing in pollen but are active on cleansing. Whats "stores transfer" ?

    I have some capped frames of syrup spare that I was going to stick in smaller hives as stores instead of giving a lump of fondant if I can do it without disturbing them too much. Is that the kind of thing you mean ?
    No, its just the bees moving stores from the outer reaches of the hive to where the active cluster is.........sometimes...especially with little or no brood, the cluster moves to the stores, sometimes they move the stores to the cluster, esp if there is a little patch of brood there to pin them. Many colonies so large this winter at this date (can change radically as we are just at mid winter climatologically) that they do not have scope to move much so just pull in the stores from the fringes.

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