And still it rains … my poor bees
must be extremely confused by the weather, we have had the occasional warm
spring day that has drawn them out of their cluster and into the sun and then
it has proceeded to virtually freeze again followed by downpours.
All this leaves me with a dilemma.
I’ve had a quick peek and they’ve not touched the fondant but there are still a
fair few bees crawling around. I’ve bought pollen patties for them but I really
don’t want to open up in this unsettled weather – not only am I concerned about
the temperature but also the stress that it places on the bees and resultant
bad behaviour. My bees aren’t renowned for their temper.. Construction of the
new hives and Snelgrove boards is now all but complete and I shall hope to
transfer the bees across when I get the first full hot afternoon with the
foragers away from the hive. And in doing so I really hope to catch sight of
and hopefully mark the queen as both are due to be replaced this season and
sooner rather than later ..
So why am I looking at
re-queening? It is a question often asked as you see many texts stating that a
colony should be re-queened every 2 years and it is a procedure that most
beekeepers should be able to accomplish (says he who struggles to find the
queen!). Anyway my rationale is that by re-queening I will improve behaviour,
improve honey production and increase the survivability of overwintering. At present I’m not buying in any queens as
our local association is starting up a queen rearing focus group and I’m
heavily into that so hopefully I’ll get enough local queens to fulfil my
requirements.
