When will it end ?

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.