After the sad demise to my colonies I decided not to get too downhearted as it appears that over 50% of my association membership have lost colonies - this is not an isolated incident.
I also received news that I was shortly to be sent back to the Highlands for a 2 year tour of duty so during a recent visit I decided to attend a local bee-keepers meeting to get to know the locals; they could not have made me more welcome and I listened to a very well delivered presentation on Morphology and bee breeding which is a subject I knew absolutely nothing about but I am now fascinated and I shall be joining in with their workshops when I go up there and hopefully bringing a couple of mated queens down with me to see if we can improve the nature of our colonies.
Last week at our own association apiary meeting I was asked if I could take away a colony to look after as someone had too many ! Gosh - I didn't expect that ... so I duly turned up and removed a fairly small but vigorous colony from the allotments in Gosport and they are now in the holding apiary on the farm before they go to my new site; I felt it wise to observe their temperament before I placed them in a site where the public are near (but not close).
So actually all is not lost and I shall move them this weekend and then shook swarm them next week all being well.
A sad day at the apiary yesterday - I decided that the weather was warm enough to warrant a proper inspection of both colonies but upon arrival it became clear that all was not well as there was a distinct absence of any flying bees.
I suited up and lit the smoker just in case but opening the first hive confirmed my worst fears - the colony had perished despite there still being stores available. The second colony was exactly the same although there were more bees in a lifeless cluster.
I suspect that they broke the cluster and the temperature dropped - they were flying 2 weeks ago and I gave them fondant so I was hopeful that they would get through this spell and emerge safely but it was clearly not to be.
The only positive to come from this is that I have now resolved the vile temperament issue although I now have no bees at all. Bring on the swarms !
The weather has yet to improve and I have no idea what is going on inside the hives; I've not had the opportunity to get to the apiary for a few weeks but it has not gone much above freezing. I think we are all getting nervous about the near future.
In the meantime I have decided to get some formal qualifications under my belt to give myself some credibility as I have joined the committee of our local bee-keeping association. I've also been asked to stand as a delegate member of the county association so I have no excuse - the first requirement is the BBKA Basic Certificate and I've recently sent off my application to the area education officer with an intention of taking the practical element towards the latter part of the summer once I've got myself back up to speed.
BBKA Modules so I have just signed up for the correspondence course and intend to take the exam in the autumn this year - I've bought the required texts and just received my first assignment so there is plenty to do.
