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Thread: todays news

  1. #1011
    Senior Member prakel's Avatar
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    Bumble, an interesting comparative. The comment about things being much better further North (within reason) bears well with what I'm hearing from others. Not sure it's so much to do with drainage; doesn't take long for Portland to take on the appearance of a desert -albeit somewhat windswept.

    As a small divergence from this topic, I have a well sheltered apiary on the side of a pond (used for growing tench for selling on) which is always further ahead, in the Spring, than any other no matter what. I've always put this down to the easy access to water 'on the doorstep' failing that, I just can't explain the difference. Definate micro environment which is unduly good for Spring build up.

  2. #1012
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    Just managed at last to "go thro" my bees yesterday. I got quite a shock at the number of dead bees in the bottoms of the boxes. The colonies are very small - all alive and with live queens. The queens seem to have only just begun to lay with some colonies stuffed with sealed stores from last year. I needn't have put candy on any of them , but had chosen to do so to be on the safe side. It was warm enough to manage to hive change them all into my poly hives with Apivar on them all to pick off any mites. I will have to remove a lot of their sealed stores to give the queens some laying room. The bees obviously suffered from the excessive bad weather - with being buried in deep snow adding to the problems.
    Flowers and fruit tree blossom is now starting to look as tho' it might be showing - with hedges just starting to show some leaf at last. The grass isn't growing yet and with most of the local farmers struggling to make their silage eke out.
    The bees on the apiary site I acquired from one of our ex ass'n members are further forward than at home - they are at an elevation some 400 feet lower than at home and are at a much more normal state of development for the time of year. All have queens which I found and marked with quite extensive brood on about 6 to 8 frames. They are also the most gentle bees I have ever come across - the don't run on the frames, don't harass you when you've got them open and are as black as soot. I will have to find someone who can do a wing test on them to see if they are A.M.M. They could be worth breeding from.

  3. #1013
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Send me some samples and I will do the morphometry for you.
    Ideally about 50 bees.

  4. #1014
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Send me some samples and I will do the morphometry for you.
    Ideally about 50 bees.
    thanks Jon P.M. me your address and I will do so.

  5. #1015
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    Quote Originally Posted by prakel View Post
    Bumble, an interesting comparative. The comment about things being much better further North (within reason) bears well with what I'm hearing from others. Not sure it's so much to do with drainage; doesn't take long for Portland to take on the appearance of a desert -albeit somewhat windswept.

    As a small divergence from this topic, I have a well sheltered apiary on the side of a pond (used for growing tench for selling on) which is always further ahead, in the Spring, than any other no matter what. I've always put this down to the easy access to water 'on the doorstep' failing that, I just can't explain the difference. Definate micro environment which is unduly good for Spring build up.
    I don't know if there's a link soil type and drainage and plants waking up, but our garden is well behind those of friends who are on chalk or sand. It's still so wet that we're using pallets over the worst parts. The only thing that's beginning to show any leaves is a weeping willow, which is unusual because Elders are normally coming into leaf at the same time. Nothing else is showing.

    Even though they're in dampish place, the bees seem to have come through. There's only been one day that would have been warm enough to open them, and I wasn't near the house that day. This week there have been heavy showers with sleet and hail.

  6. #1016
    Senior Member Bridget's Avatar
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    Heard my first cuckoo this morning, Lots of sunshine, but rain forecast by lunch and ice on the birdbath with a freezing wind so still unlikely to do my first inspection today.

  7. #1017
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Mine were all over my gooseberry bushes earlier on this evening

    bee-on-gooseberry2-small.jpg

  8. #1018
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    Just a call from a neighbour to say that the hive that looked fine the other week is now showing signs of dysentery on the front of the hive. There were no signs at all the other week. Granted I didn't spend a huge amount of time with the hive open, it's still relatively nippy, but there was no sign of any problems at all. I took all the other hives away and they've been sat in the garden getting a good dose of Acetic acid since.

    I'm going to wait until Friday until getting too down over it, there's always a chance it's a mistake but I'll be taking a bottle of thymol Syrup up with me just in case and if it doesn't look good then I might shook swarm them at the same time which would be a real blow to this year's aims.

  9. #1019

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    Would they survive a shook swarm Neils it's a bit drastic this early
    Mind you your weather is probably better than up here

  10. #1020
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
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    Hang in there Neil and don't get discouraged.
    This is a bad winter.
    I know about 20 beekeepers who have lost all their bees and the majority of them are people who know what they are doing.

    The most important thing at the moment is to reduce space in the small colonies using dummy boards.

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