The winter so far (I fear it may not be over yet) has been colder than I have known it since I started bee keeping some fifteen or so years ago. Only in the last few days (since the first week of December) have the bees been out and about in any numbers and I know that some of my hives havn't survived the cold.
Out of the three hives at the UEA bluebell road site only Honey Stripe's large hive of three brood boxes had flying bees in it yesterday. The other two both had dead bees.
A lot of the hives at Old Costessy seem to have done better. The hive facing south and the hive on bricks were positively booming. One or two of the hives that looked lifeless did in fact have live bees inside but still in their cluster. I decided not the open any more hives there until the weather is positively warmer.
The four hives at Ringland all had flying bees and they still had plenty of fondant to keep them going.
Monday, January 18, 2010
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