The Cleaning of Parts.

It was a nice sunny day today so I took to cleaning some of the apiary equipment. This stack of boxes is empty hive parts being given an airing after having had a coat of wood preservative. they do pong a bit. The important task now is to make sure that I have a functioning sugar syrup feeder for each of the four colonies. Now that the warmer weather seems to have arrived, the girls are going to need a lot of food so that they can build up their population sufficiently to be able to produce a crop of honey. I recently read that many bee keepers feed their bees too much; it’s an odd thing to say when many have lost more than half of their colonies this winter, whereas I rarely lose any over winter. Last year, however, I did manage to lose two colonies which refused to raise new queens when needed; it’s not something I have experienced before but would now, not try to cure it of the trait, but unite it with a strong queen-right one which would then be suitable for use as a breeding colony. I also lost a small, but viable colony due to robbing by bees frame another hive. It’s a known problem but, again, one I had not previously experienced; the remedy is simple: take it away from the apiary and keep it in the back garden for a month or two until it is strong enough to fend for itself.


I've just posted yesterday's, "Weapons Grade T-shirt."