Bee News

The weather has not been good for the bees this month. Too wet, cold and windy. Some of the hardy ones will fly but you can see them getting blown off

course. I picked up my new swarm from Tadley and fed them 2 litres of sugar syrup while they found their new foraging sites. They consumed this in a day! I had to give them another load. I also gave them a new Super to make honey comb but they haven’t bothered with it. I don’t think there is enough of them to make it worth their while. Plenty enough to drink the syrup though.

We will be harvesting over the bank holiday weekend. This is quite an operation as the supers are quite heavy and the bees are reluctant to let it go. They will even follow it to the house so we have to close all windows and doors. Each colony is allowed to keep a super for themselves. This will enable them to get through the winter, even if the weather doesn’t improve enough to make much more honey.

It will take 5 of us a couple of hours to remove supers, de-bee, uncap the honey, extract, cold filter, bottle and clean up the sticky mess. The result is a wonderful sight, pure, natural, golden goodness. I am hoping they will have produced enough for at least 120 jars. Slightly more than last year, but still not enough to make a profit. The empty honey comb goes back to the hives and the bees clean it up and start filling again…..if the weather improves.