We again visited the bees on the Oil Seed Rape to check the hives stores and to promote all colonies to double brood chambers. All looked OK despite the cold season we are having but I would think they are 2 to 3 weeks behind colonies in what we have come to think of as a normal season.
All colonies are on two brood chambers, all have been checked and fed if needed so all we need now is warm weather to get the OSR yielding.
While we were out we had time to check all the Herefordshire sites and although we didn't do a full inspection due to the weather all seemed to be in order with just one colony loosing its queen , this was united with a colony next door.
While checking the hives today I noticed that stocks on double brood chambers have more resources to fall back on, in late cold seasons like this. The single brood chamber colonies obviously use less equipment and are easier to move around but they are always more prone to starving in cold springs. I haven't decided if the cost and hassle of double brood chambers on wintering colonies is worth the improvement in development in a poor spring.
In any case in the next two weeks all stocks will be split to make new colonies for the queens we are buying in, more of that later.
No comments:
Post a Comment