Hi there, from a very autumnal and rainy cosy day. I thought I'd take this opportunity to update you again on the bees and the apiary. As the season draws to a close it's brought with it certain challenges and learning curves that Greg and I are currently navigating. Any tips from other 'Beeks' would be greatly appreciated.
The main update is that for the last two weeks we've done no inspections! "What's going on!" I hear you cry. "Kate, Laura, won't they die?" The answer is no; it would have done them more harm to inspect them currently as it's been too cold. Instead, we've checked by lifting up the crown board and looking down into the hive to see where the bee cluster is and how big it is. Generally, the cluster huddles over the brood to keep it warm or in the warmest spot it can find in the hive when there's no brood and the queen has stopped laying for winter.
When we did this two weeks ago the bees in Kate were clustered toward the back corner of the apiary away from the wind. We, therefore, took out some of the frames which were well away from the bees (so as not to disturb them) and checked the stores. To our dismay they were bare! This is not good as we want them to have as many stores as possible to see them through the winter.
Since our last post, we've been feeding both colonies non-stop and so it was pretty worrying to think that they still didn't have enough stores. We then checked the feeder, which should have been empty, and found it almost full with quite a few dead bees clogging the feeding hole. This can happen because there is such a rush to get to the food once it's been put on that the front bees get pushed under and drown in the syrup. They then clog the feeding aperture so that the others can't get to the food. Because the dead bees are sticky with the syrup feed, the others are unable to clear them away.
After some initial panicking from Greg, he (all together now) did some research and made a plan! He cut the elastic part away from a sock and then sewed up the top part to make a little hat which he placed over the feeding aperture and pushed it down so that it would soak up the sugar syrup.
This means that the bees can come to the top and feed on the saturated cloth but can't access the liquid itself to drown in. It also means that when we lift up the roof bees can't fly away and the cold doesn't permeate down into the cluster as much. This seems to have been working really well. We went back a day after attaching the socks and a litre of the syrup had already been taken from both hives! This is fantastic news. Hopefully, we can continue to feed them up for winter however, Greg is concerned about Kate's current size. If she doesn't create enough stores for food and bees for warmth, we may have to put her in a nuc to overwinter her.
Both hives now also have their entrances reduced to keep out the draft and any pests.
We hope that we might have some nice warm days left this year so that we can give them one last thorough inspection before we set them down for winter but I think we'll be lucky judging from the weather forecast today.
In other news, we may have a new apiary for next year. Greg has been in talks with a local landowner and it's been agreed that we can have up to 10 hives if we want to! At our current apiary, we could fit 5 at a push. Greg is very excited and has lots of big plans! Pray for me.
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