New floors - box 5, Tina

I replaced the floor on box 5 today and moved the hive back a couple of feet onto a new level paving slab so that it no longer looks like a leaning tower. The floor was a bit of a mess and very wet on one side. No wonder the bees are on the other side.

I did the same with the hive next door (Tina's hive) replacing a solid floor with an open mesh floor.

The weather is gradually improving and I should soon be able to give the hives a full inspection.

Honey stripes moved

This is what Neville found when he went to sort out honey stripes.

I inspected the one brood he had left set up today. Honey stripes was still there.

George's bees didn't survive the winter so I have moved Honey Stripes to the safety of his back garden.

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.