Merioneth Beekeepers' Association
Tuesday 03 January 2011
John T writes:
Although our three hives got through the cold snap at the start of December, the later longer and colder period, with temperatures of -5°C to - 7°C during the daytime (colder at night), seem to have killed the small colony in one of the hives. I couldn't see anything wrong with the bees (other than they were dead at the bottom of the hive!) - their wings weren't deformed and the hive was clean and had plenty of stores. It would appear that there were just not enough of them to combat the freezing weather. The other two hives are fine and during the thaw, when the temperature got as high as 10°C, there was a lot of activity outside the hives for an hour or two in the late morning.
Tuesday 05 January 2011
Clive H writes:
At the beginning of December my son, Glyn, and I started some experimental measuring of temperatures and humidity in one of our hives (see pictures on 'Photos' - '2011'). Three probes were located in the hive - centre of the colony, on the crownboard and above it - and an additional one outside the hive. All four measured temperature, but only three humidity (the dual purpose probe was a bit too big to put into the centre of the colony).
Initial readings showed the cluster maintaining around 20°, but during the cold period in early December, where outside temperatures were -5°C to - 7°C, the colony dropped to 9°C. We were concerned that they were suffering from the cold and about to die, but when the outside temperatures rose all appeared well inside.
All the readings are recorded on a data chip and current readings can be seen on a display unit, although this uses too much power from the batteries to keep it on full time. The readings on the picture of the unit are a mock up - our bees can't communicate by writing.... yet!
Tuesday 30 January 2011
Chris H writes:
We have had some activity around the Warré hive following the cold December weather and the bees cleared a lot of dead bees from the hive, this was a little disconcerting at first but after getting advice I realised it was the first opportunity for them to clean the hive up for quite a few weeks. Since then I have noticed the bees doing cleansing flights on the warmer days but haven't managed to spot them bringing in any pollen yet.
I decided to weigh my hive today to assess whether I need to consider feeding as I know that this is the time of year that most colonies are lost through starvation. So I set up my heath robinson weighing device and have calculated I have approximately 10kg of stores remaining which I am quite happy with. Advice from other Warré beekeepers is that about 8kg and above of stores should surfice to get the bees through the winter/spring period and into the main foraging season, so fingers crossed.
I have also carried out a verroa drop count over the past two days and have found zero verroa drop which I am happy with, so at this point I'm not planing on a spring treatment but I'll monitor the situation over the coming weeks.