Dear Member
Well, this summer is certainly breaking all the records for hot dry weather. My bees suffered from the long cold winter and were much weaker than usual at the start of the season, but this long stretch of dry warm weather has meant they have been out foraging every day and the result is that they have all built up into strong colonies.
Dear Member
As one dry warm day followed another in June after the long, severe winter which extended to the end of April, it seemed that at last good fortune was smiling on our bees, allowing them to fly and forage to their heart’s content week after week. The only drawback is that when the weather is so dry, plants don’t provide as much nectar and the bees are therefore having to still work hard to bring in their honey stores.
Dear Member
The bad news of this month is the discovery of EFB in a local Rugby hive. This raises anxiety for all of us and means we need to be careful - isolating swarms and not moving bees or equipment between apiaries until we have been given the all clear from the bee inspector. Please ensure that your bees are registered on BeeBase so that your apiaries are on the bee inspector's radar.
Dear Member
In mid April the sudden improvement in the weather meant at last we were all able to do the first inspection of the year - almost a month later that I had ever done a first inspection.
Dear Member
Once again while I am writing this we are being subjected to blisteringly cold winds from the East which will be putting our bees under some pressure as brood rearing has now begun in earnest to replace the winter bees, but the opportunities to forage have been curtailed by the extreme weather conditions. I hope you have been monitoring food levels in your hives and have not been tempted to disturb the bees by doing an inspection!
