A Beekeeper In Winter

After the hard work of harvesting and extracting the summer honey crop, followed by tidying up the resulting sticky mess, it is rather pleasant to have a little break from beekeeping. We add the pungent pads of Formic Pro to brood boxes at the same time as we remove cleared honey supers, and they are removed a couple of weeks later. At this time – around September – there is plenty of boring stuff to do, but we tend to relax for a few weeks. However, by the time we are properly into Winter, I am generally climbing the walls, wishing that Spring hurries along.

Late Season Nucs

One little beekeeping job I did do in September was to make up a few late nucleus colonies on National frames, to be sold next April. I know several bee farmers who leave it as late as October to make nucs. The main thing is to have three frames with brood and plenty of bees, then feed syrup to top up their stores. We like to include a frame with both honey and pollen if possible (people often underestimate the importance of pollen stores over the winter). With the weather being so mild, the bees were furiously bringing in plenty of nectar and pollen from the ivy which was in flower. This season was the first time that my bees were foraging on ivy, as normally, it’s colder and they are not flying.

Climate Change

This brings me to climate change – that thing which Trump calls a “hoax”, along with anything that doesn’t align with his bizarre view of the world. I remember Randy Oliver telling me about how the types of trees that grow in his part of the Sierra Nevada foothills are different now to a few decades ago. Over here in the mild Cheshire plains, the evidence for a warming climate seems to be all around, although not as extreme as in some parts of the world. We often get a week or two of freezing weather, and occasionally snow, but when I was born (in the 1960s) winters tended to be colder for longer. Recent springs have been quite mild, and we now regularly see Summer temperatures approach (or surpass) 30 deg C. Invasive pests from Asia will feel comfortable here, sadly.

Early Resolution

The Mole and I have resolved to shake ourselves from our winter slumber. We have committed to work on beekeeping related tasks for three days per week until spring. Today, we visited our nucleus and mating apiary in Dunham Massey and cleared up all the rubbish that should not have been there in the first place. Some things went on the fire and some went to the bin, and I now have a van full of grotty boxes and floors that need to be scraped and sterilised. That’s tomorrow’s job. Beekeeping is mostly about lifting and driving, in my experience, but there is a huge amount of cleaning too. It’s not all about bothering bees.

I was amazed at how many bees were taking orientation flights in the afternoon sunshine today. It was mild – about 12 deg C – but felt lovely and warm in the direct sunlight. The fact that numerous young bees were flying today means that a couple of weeks ago, when I was applying our oxalic acid winter treatment, there was sealed brood in at least some colonies. At this place, it was mostly nucleus colonies, which we don’t tend to treat with oxalic acid anyway. They will be getting Apivar in early spring, and had thymol in the Autumn. It does make one realise what a lottery the winter oxalic treatment can be. Any mites hiding in sealed brood will have evaded the treatment, and that could result in problems next summer. And, of course, here in the UK we do not have any approved medication that can be used on the bees while honey supers are present. I would like to see some form of extended release oxalic acid treatment be approved for summer use, but I’d also like to win the lottery, and both seem equally unlikely.

Wasted Resources

Some people may think I’m evil, but I reckon I killed half a dozen queen wasps today. It was a heavy wasp year this season, so there are surely thousands of hibernating queens lurking all over the place, but if I find them, I show no mercy. I was surprised to see one queen wasp flying up and down a window in a shed. She probably thought it was Spring, which was clearly a mistake. We also found an old wasp nest in a nuc, and two mice (in different hives) – one very plump and alive, and the other dead and all dried up. This is a lesson; it is best practice to have bee boxes populated with bees because bees keep them clean and tidy, and make honey. Empty boxes are a waste of resources, and they tend to get colonised by other creatures. I hate mice. And spiders.

By the time Spring arrives, we should have lovely tidy apiaries and organised storage sheds, with boxes clean and ready for the season ahead. We will also have made more floors, built more mini-plus mating hives (and associated frames), and purchased in advance any items that we think we will need, such as frames. However, once the frantic activities of Spring and Summer take hold, who knows what a chaotic mess we will create? That will give us something to sort out next Winter.

The Defence Rests

Mrs Walrus (Elaine) and I were at the Christmas dinner event put on by the Stockport branch of the Cheshire Beekeepers’ Association last night. As luck would have it, I won first prize in the raffle, which meant I could choose from the array of prizes on offer. Naturally, I selected a bundle of varroa treatments (ApiLife Var), which caused great consternation to my wife. She could not believe that I would pick bee products over a giant box of chocolates. I was set for a difficult drive home, but the next number drawn was that of Mrs W, so she got her chocolates after all. I would point out that my prize was worth £36, and the chocolates were about £8. I rest my case, m’lud.