The continuing cool wet weather is having a serious effect on our bees. There is precious little pollen for them to collect and seemingly no nectar whatsoever. They are in danger of starving to death and so I have to intervene.
The essence of our job is to think two or three steps ahead. May God grant you, Trevor, and all of us, never to be behind the events. 🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🤝🤝🤝🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🐝🐝🐝✌✌✌
sadly where all in the same boat Trev your doing the same as all beekeeper are doing keeping the bees alive it hard not to get down hearted and give up but it’s in the blood keep the bees alive and think about next year stay strong !!!!!!
Yes, thanks John. I am known as a real pessimist BUT honestly I am not as bad as I’m portrayed. The moisture’s in the ground, colonies are overall at reasonable strength and bramble and clover are flowering. IF it warms up it could be a fantastic summer crop.🤞
I’m feeding fondant to the hives and syrup to the nucs it’s raining here now and it’s carrying on till next Thursday the same the bees are bringing in some blackberry pollen but no nectar and l reason that’s because the temperature is to low. It’s the worst season l can recall in 24 years of bees. Hopefully the summer flow will be able to make up for the lack of forage now. Well done for saving that hive.👍
Thank you. I agree entirely with you in that I think there’s not a long enough dry spell or high enough temperatures for nectar production. If it does settle though there could be a huge crop providing it doesn’t all convert into swarming.🤞🤞🤞
I've been manufacturing beehives for 32 years and i have to say this is the quietest year for sales ever. lots of winter losses and no spring build-up, so nobody needs any equipment. We're also competing with loads of cheap imported stuff whilst all our overheads are increasing. Please stop raining!!
Yes Chris I understand and sympathise with your predicament. We sometimes forget the ancillary parts of the bee world that are affected by this awful summer. I know that the inflation rate has had a big effect on us. Wishing you well and hoping for an improvement soon.🤝🤞
@@alyb731 The fruit tree blossom was a long time ago here. All that nectar is long since consumed. Please keep a careful watch on your bees, it’s amazing how much they need just to keep going.👍🤞
I cant believe your girls are struggling so much, when my colonies are having a record year, the recent rain has kept them in the hives though. I have some large lavender beds that start to bloom in June, this makes some very tasty honey. I am based in South Yorkshire.
Thank you Andrew and I’m glad your bees are doing so well. You may be in a unique position there in the entire UK! We would need acres of Lavender or any other plant for that matter to give us a surplus. Please keep a close eye on them though as the rate of consumption of stores at this time of the year with large colonies is huge.🤞
I think you may have made a good choice there.👍 I was thinking of doing the same but as there was some OSR in among it I decided to take it off before it granulated.
I'm sat at me desk watching the rain here. Had a good day yesterday. I've been giving mine 2:1 cos its so wet. gone through 2 bags (50kg) this week alone. I left the supers off now until1st July now.
Yes I think the poor weather is across the entire nation. It’s been fine here most of today but a cool breeze and the bees are collecting a little pollen but I suspect no nectar. There’s no real energy or purpose in their flight,
I don't understand? What time of year is this? Why are you feeding? Or should I say why are they starving? I assume it's not winter?Just because the weather is bad? Also what's to stop the bees contaminating honey frames with sugar? How can you have so many supers on yet have hungry bees? Never seen this
Thank you Richard, I think that I explain all the answers to your questions in the video but just to clarify:- This was filmed a day or two before it was published, mid summer. Most of the UK has suffered a very long dearth, three weeks or more, with next to no nectar coming in. This has been largely due to cool and wet weather. In the video I explain that by feeding bees dry sugar or fondant they won’t store that in the supers the way they would liquid syrup but use it on an as needed basis. These colonies are fairly strong and the supers are needed to accommodate the bees and also to hold honey should conditions change and nectar floods in. If and when that happens it’s no use having the supers in the shed. This video was so timely that last Saturday a gentleman from Kent (250 miles away) phoned me to thank me for the heads up and that he was going to share the video with his association members to urge them to check their bees for stores. If you read the other comments on this video you will see how widespread this problem has been this year in the UK. Thank you.
Same weather here in Ireland. Thinking of giving them some support.If we feed fondant or granulated sugar will they store this or just use it. What they need?
Hello Paul, I think the best feed is liquid syrup but if they have supers on I believe the risk of them storing this syrup in there is too great. My next preferred feed is fondant as this will keep them alive but they don’t store it away but take it and use as needed. The reason for dry sugar was that I could buy and use it immediately, no waiting a few days for the fondant to arrive. Giving them dry sugar is also a very quick process and many colonies can be done in a day. They may end up discarding or neglecting the sugar but they will use it if there’s nothing else but they won’t store it in the supers. I use this as an insurance and if it gets wasted so be it. It’s worth that risk for my peace of mind. Thank you.
I had the same this week caught a swarm three weeks back and saw what looked like dead bees at the entrance looked in and they was near dead.poured honey water mix in a dish down on floor of hive and put some fondant in.they came to an hour later and been feeding ever since.strange that there isn't enough food locally.
Hi Robin. I think there may be enough forage for them if and when the weather allows the nectar to flow. It’s surprising how quickly a stock of bees can go from plenty to nothing.
Thanks Dee. I’m hearing the poor conditions are widespread. To be fair the last three seasons here in Yorkshire have been good and so we were due a bad’un.
If you’d of run a double brood box system with super strong boxes of bees now and being in this type of dearth ,would you say it’s a bad practice if the years to come going to be the same. Would you be saying to newbies other BK not to do double brood boxes ?
Great question James! I’ve tried double brood boxes but don’t like the system. In spring they tend to fill the top box with honey or a good part of it anyway. If that honey contains OSR ( up until now it almost always has ) you just end up with deep combs clogged with granulated honey. The question of super strong colonies is another issue. I never give the bees stimulative feed in early spring because of this sort of weather risk. Building up colossal colonies for a spring flow can be a real problem if there’s poor weather. Those strong colonies may require a lot of feed to maintain them if it’s cold and wet. I run localised mongrel bees and they aren’t particularly prolific BUT I think they can handle these dearth periods better than the more prolific yellow type of bee. Just my opinion, thank you.
The supers are there to accommodate the bees. We took a spring crop but left some honey on. Unfortunately this dearth has lasted so long that some of the stocks have used up all their reserves. If it goes on long enough they will all end up without stores. We are intervening to try and keep them going until better times arrive.
Well, im not quite as bad as this. We had a great dandelion crop that ended three weeks ago, and since then, next to nothing has come in. I put close to 200 gallons of syrup on, the combs are empty, what else can we do!!!!
I’ve never had a crop from dandelions, just the odd frame of honey with the deep yellow beeswax. It’s been about three weeks of nothing here as well. We can only try to keep them going. Thanks David.
@@swaleshoney I live in N/W Spain and they’ve become uncontrollable here the bee and bumble bee populations are in decline because of them, very difficult to know what to do
