Honey Stripes hive attack

After two weeks away (last chance for a holiday until August) I had plenty of email to sort out that had accumulated whilst I was away. I was distressed to find one from three days ago informing me that honey stripes three brood box hive had been knocked over and that I was impossible to find in order to go and rescue the distressed bees.

On my immediate emergency visit I found that there was one box in place and a crown board with fondant on it and a roof in place. So Alex had found someone to help. There were bees in the brood box, although they were using a gap between crown board and brood box for an entrance. I'm now keen to inspect and see if Honey stripes is OK. If she is I will have to move her to somewhere safer ASAP.

The Germans came out

This is what the German Carniolian bees have been waiting for - a day that was warm enough for them to fly and find the snowdrops open to welcome them in. We even had some sun!

I spent most of the afternoon in Old Costessy taking to bits the hives where the bees had died and beginning to sort them out. I have lost bees at station 1, 2, 4 and 5 so far. Not a pleasant task

Old Costessy

It was just warm enough, although not sunny, for the bees from the strongest hives to be flying today. I can often check the hives without flying bees and see live bees by removing the roof where I can see the bees actively eating fondant.

The one hive left on the student's allotment had flying bees and a virtually untouched block of fondant.

There were three swarm queens at Old Costessy last year before the winter arrived. I've lost two of them so far. All losses hurt but the hardest loss today was to find no flying bees in Holly's hive. I have lost both Holly and Cherry in Old Costessy. There were live bees in Holly's hive the last time I visited and they had eaton three quarters of a block of fondant. I was expecting them to pull through. The last few weeks of cold weather have as bad if not worse than earlier in the winter.

Only one hive had live bees but was out of fondant - but there's no shortage of fondant at Old Costessy at the moment.

Clear skys

The sun was out this afternoon and the feeling that spring was not far away and that winter will soon be over did not seem unreasonable.

The bees in GW's old box (No 6) decided it was time to fly and were taking in pollen.

I Postwick I think seven out of the ten hives there may pull through.

New sites

Sunny afternoon but winds still coming from a cold direction and only one or two hardy bees were flying in the allotment. I'm creating some new sites for hives in the allotment nearer to the hedge and away from the allotment next door.

The aconites and snowdrops are now also waiting for a warm sunny day and a visit from the bees.

After a sunny morning the warm weather retreated and the afternoon turned cold again. Our brief respite from winter was over yet again all too soon.

Bill's bees (box 4) were flying again and still around the feeder on the German hive.

I hadn't seen them yesterday I wouldn't think there were bees in hive 5.

Tina's bees were out and all over the hive. I think many were sucking up water from the wet wood. I guess they need it to process the fondant.

I took the bucket off the top brood box of the two boxes that the German bees are in. There were no bees feeding from the bucket feeder but there were a few dead bees around the hole in the crown board. The hive had no flying bees (in stark contrast to Tina's hive next door but one). On taking the crown board off it was plain to see there were no live bees in the top brood box at all. The two boxes were well stuck together but I did manage to separate them. There the bees were in quite a large cluster in the bottom box. I quickly put the top box back on. These bees are not coming out for just a few hours of sun, they seem to know that this hard winter is not over yet.

On the next sunny day I will take another look at the top box and may take it off in order to get some fondant placed closer to the bees.

Bill''s bees have fondant on top of a second brood box. I think I had better check that the bees are getting to it OK.

Bill's bees

In the allotment Bill's bees were flying today and throwing out their dead for a while I removed the entrance and any dead bees that I could. The bees were actively cleaning up sugar syrup from around the edge of a leeking rapid feeder that was still top of the German queen's hive. I guess it shouldn't still be there. I 've numbered Bill's Greengage bottom brood box 4.

The other hive that had flying bees was in the top corner of the plot (I've numbered it 5). They were busy fanning at the entrance. There was some bee excrement around the hive entrance and immediate area. Unlike hive 4. That may be a sign of Nosema in the hive. The colony was the first to have a block of fondant put on in the summer and at the time I didn't think it was a strong hive.