Changing climate affecting beekeeping

This year we are experiencing yet another change in weather patterns. We have had almost no frost and a season which has started 4 weeks earlier than average and is perhaps 7weeks ahead of last year. Colonies have been swarming in higher numbers and earlier than I have ever known in 30 years of keeping bees. When I lived in the South of England 20 years ago we were always surprised to see a swarm in April yet this years 200 miles north I have 70% of my colonies making preparations to swarm.

The lesson seems to be that we have to ready for any eventuality and that past experience doesn't necessarily give us any clues to future patterns. We wait and see what the rest of the season brings.

Another first for me, I was working hives in Herefordshire and I moved an empty hive with its floor went back to pick up more equipment and came across this

Its I think a smooth snake non verminous but that didn't stop him doing the full Cobra act as I got near, luckily he hung around long enough for me grab my phone and take the picture.

The Autumn so far

The summer as has been documented was one of the worst growing seasons in living memory. Most crops have been between three and four weeks late right through the season. In my experience most crops catch up by mid summer but this year crops stayed behind for the whole season which effectively meant three weeks lost from the season.
Surprising for me was the fact that Leeks that need lots of daylight were early compared to last year, nothing is straight forward with organic growing. Most of our various crops are or have been harvested but production is generally much lower than previous years.

The Ram is in with the ewes and has done his job on 3/4 of them. We are looking at lambing from the end of March onwards. At the Hill Radnor show and sale I sold all the ewe lambs except one and they fetched a reasonable price. This year will see the last of the other breeds of sheep on our farm and we will concentrate on Hill Radnors.

Following the loss of my sheep dog Millie we bought a trained dog which we've called Shiv. A mature dog who initially was very shy and nervous, she was unsure of everything so was 'sticky'  when working and hesitant taking instructions. Now after four weeks of back to basics training she is starting to show what she is capable of.  

The bees have produced about a quarter of last years crop which in itself was poor. The main concern though is how well the colonies will winter. The poor summer will have meant patchy mating of queens  which could result in high losses during winter due to queen failure. There is little we can do to influence this we just have to wait and see.

Late late swarms

 This year is the biggest years for swarms I've seen. 

 We just had what looked like a prime swarm land on our property in the second week of August. 

Then the next day another was spotted flying past, but they obviously had somewhere else in mind

 Once I had boxed the swarm I knew the queen was in as the workers started fanning to attract stragglers,

 You can see the Nasonov gland exposed as the bees stick their abdomens in the air and propel the  pheromone by fanning their wings. Within the hour all the bees were safely sitting in the box.

The bees have had another poor couple of weeks, I was hoping that the warm spell would continue for two or even three weeks but the weather closed in again and the bees were put back to maintaining honey levels rather than adding to any crop.
The remainder of the season now will be focused on getting the bees into the winter disease free and with ample stores.

Summer weather

Just finished laying the last bio film ready for planting, late finish as rain is closing in. This is a late year our onions and leeks not planted yet, courgettes, Marrows and squash are all in but have hardly moved in the last two weeks. We have only had two days of over 20 C during June but unlike last year we have had plenty of rain.
The weather forecast shows no hot weather for a couple of weeks and we need at least two weeks of good sunshine and plus 22 C if we are to get any reasonable honey harvest. I've bought in a number of Nucleus hives from a commercial beekeeper to see if they will produce more under these difficult conditions, time will tell.

Bees in June

The season so far has proved quite promising, the hot May has starting to fill the first supers. So far we haven't had any swarms although I've had more swarms landing in my spare equipment than for years.

 

View from between the frames showing brace comb and reasonable bee numbers.

Supers stacked ready for the inspection

The inspection complete supers on ready for the flow and the intended extracting date of mid June

Bees and spring

The bees so far have come through winter as a mixed bunch, we have about 33% loss this year I think through Nosema, About 33% have come through weak or under par and the other third have come through very strong in some cases more than 10 frames of bees by the beginning of march

Bees and spring

I've done my second inspection of the year and similar to previous years we have suffered losses of around 30%.

The story goes: check in February all colonies fine , check three weeks later 30% dead or non viable.

The serious losses seem to take place in one site at a time, different one each year and manifest as a complete loss of bees but stores and often brood still in place.

In my view probably Nosema even though I have treated with Fumidil in the Autumn as per recommendations.

I will be using my own survivor bees as breeders and hope to bring disease resistance into my hives.

What I don't fully understand is that the losses concentrate on specific sites while others get through with 5% or less losses. Could it be that larger numbers of hives kept together for a couple of years or more in some way exacerbate the disease effect? This does run counter to the advice that moving bees around increases the chances of loss through disease.

More work needed...

The hives in Shropshire unusually seemed to have fared better this year. Above is a nucleus hive which has a viable queen and stores so I swapped position with a stronger hive to give it more workers, below is one of my Langstroth hives which has come through quite strong so far.
I am also baby sitting a friends hives one WBC perhaps the prettiest hive to be invented,with the added advantage for the amateur of creating four times the work during inspections, not so good for more commercial operations.
This is the modified national a simple single walled hive based on the Langstroth model but redesigned by British beekeepers to make it smaller and slightly less practical that the original. Thankfully both seem to have made it through the winter.

Season so far

We are in an unusually warm spell at the moment a trend which has developed over the past few years of warm period late winter early spring. We may gamble on that next year and bring lambing forward by a month to February.

Lambing is on schedule for first week of March, the ewes are slow at putting on condition so I've upped their rations Perhaps it is a feature of the breed but they will need more condition during lambing, something we will need to keep an eye on over the next few weeks.

The bees have been fed twice during the winter and have been treated for Nosema, I have omitted the Varroa treatment this year a fact I am increasingly uneasy about. I may resort to a late treatment with Oxalic acid over the next week, will have to see how the time goes. I think that to allow some pressure from Varroa every now and again is useful in preventing Varroa resistance to Oxalic or Thymol. But that doesn't stop me worrying about the upsurge in Varroa especially in this warm winter.

The vegetables have not got going yet, Broad Beans, Garlic and Spinach are all in and growing and we have just planted the Leek seeds in a cold frame.

As for the year ahead we are hoping to expand the bees, transfer the sheep flock over to Hill Radnors exclusively. Perhaps move at last to Care farming and last but not least have a litter of Pups from Millie. She has been going great guns recently but more of that in a later post.

Bees and the warm autumn

Last week the hive in our garden, a self positioned swarm had pollen loads coming in, presumably from remnant Ivy flowers. Although if this weather keeps going for much longer we will have spring plants in flower and Rhubarb growing. We already have grass growing at a rate close to that of this summer (slow).

All is fine for the animals and vegetables, the leeks are growing well and the tunnel crops are developing quickly.

The bees though are a worry, warm weather means bees will be active and consuming honey stores possibly rearing young so eating into pollen supplies.

So what to do? Feed and potentially stimulate more activity or leave them and risk starvation? The answer I think is to check all and feed were needed, there may be some increase in activity but the coming cold weather will soon put a stop to that. we are going to get some cold weather aren't we?

Bees ready for winter, almost

Every year at this time we boost the bee colonies stores by giving addition stores we give the equivalent of 15 lbs of honey to each colony to get them trough to Feb when we will give them another 5lbs each. This winter feed we find very useful in preventing starvation and giving the opportunity to do a winter check on the health of the colony.

All our hives have these frame feeders in all year round (seen here on the right of the brood box) As a result we don't have any problems storing bulky feeders and if we have a sudden starvation issue we can feed at a moments notice.

Also in a hot drought summer (remember them?) I can feed water which prevents workers being taken from foraging duties to collect water. thereby reducing stress on the colony.

Feeding the bees is finished for this year, we use Api-invert which is a pre mixed liquid with a sugar levels roughly equivalent in weight / concentration rates. We buy it in pallet tank loads of 900 or 1300kg. A significant advantage of using this pre mixed sugar solution is that it will not ferment even if left in the feeder.

All our colonies are now reduced to one or two boxes now with some of the smaller colonies put into 5 frame nucleus hives.

Just one more job this year, to treat all colonies with Oxalic Acid for Varroa. This will be done by applying 5 ml of sugar solution oxalic mix to each seam of bees in the brood box during late November or December.

Bees, Queen laying pattern

The bees have started flying again, we've just had 4 weeks of cold dry weather and the bees have reduced foraging to the extent that in over half my colonies the queen has stopped laying.

As soon as this happens I always try to feed all colonies firstly to stimulate laying for a supply of young wintering bees and a lack of laying can be a sign of starving bees.

Well I fed last week and this week I now have only 2 colonies not laying, one with a virgin who probably won't make it and the other looks OK and will probably start in the next few days. So things looking good so far on wintering the bees

Beekeeping year so far

Started this year looking good for the bees, then lost 10 colonies due to Woodpecker damage during the very cold part of the year. Also couple went due to lids blowing off and chilling the hive. I've fed Fumidil for Nosema in Feb as outlined on the label.

In what was my best site checked in mid march I found 10 colonies dead from 17 seen two weeks previously, the medicated feed untouched in many hives classic symptoms of Nosema cerana. I've seen this in two other sites in previous years, could be that the disease is spreading north west taking apiaries in its wake.

The season since then has been very early, colonies building up rapidly in the unusually warm and dry spring, I,m hoping this will give the the opportunity to split the larger hives and make up some of my numbers. I've starting cell raising before April 23, earliest ever so providing the weather holds we could make up some of the ground I've lost, time will tell.

Autumn in the Apiary

A common frog making his or her living around the base of the bee hives, no doubt eating fallen workers and drones dropping around the hive base. As son as he saw me he moved between the hives out of reach. These trees are at the entrance of one of my Shropshire sites Crab Apple and Viburnum, Wayfarers Tree. The whole feel of the season now has turned autumnal and the bees have responded.
The Drones are all gone I have seen three hive with drones, which usually spells trouble in the form of a queenless colony or with a virgin. Both mean the colony will not survive the winter so have to be united to make use of the bees and stores.

Wasps can be a problem but this year we have had very little trouble only seeing an attack where a colony is queenless or otherwise weak. Below you can see a wasp being ejected by a worker. A strong colony should be able to defend he entrance even though none have been reduced as is the custom in UK bee keeping.

There is some flying going on, it is noticeable that all my colonies in Shropshire and Herefordshire are bringing in nectar from the Himalayan Balsam, Impatiens glandulifera (I think). This is a garden escape that is rapidlt taking over river banks and damp areas across the region and country. Its an ill wind as it provides much needed nectar and pollen for pollinators at a time of scarcity. I will try and remember my camera next time I visit a site where it grows.

These are my final visits to the bees before the winter treatment for Varroa and Nosema, I gave them a final feed that's four in total since taking the honey each feed is about half a gallon. I will feed again in February when I will include Fumidil B for Nosema and will treat for Varroa in December with an Oxalic Acid drizzle. Final count this year is 45 colonies going into winter. Lets hope we get better survival this year.

Queen cells have gone out

I aim to replace most of our queens this time of year using the supercedure impulse. At this time of year many colonies will replace an older or poor performing queen by raising a single cell, allowing it to hatch and mate resulting in a young healthy queen to go through the winter.
The method I use tries to replicate this by placing a sealed and protected queen cell in each hive which will hopefully be accepted by the colony as their own. The virgin then emerges from the cell, mates and I have young queens going into winter.
This system has a fail-safe in that if the virgin fails to emerge and mate we still have a viable queen established in the hive.
Not the situation when replacing existing queens with new mated queens as the resident queen has to be removed or destroyed before her replacement can be introduced. So any acceptance problems of introduced mated queens will result in a queenless colony.
The bar of cell cups before grafting, six days before they are installed in the colonies.
Each cell is wrapped in tin foil to prevent the colony ripping out the side of then cell and destroying the larvae. We have used electricians insulation tape but stopped when a local bee keeper lost three batches of sixty cells due to some fire retardant on foam he was using. I suspect that electricians tape will have some fire retardant so decided not to take the risk.
When installing the cells I open all the hives on the pallet, fill the feeder then prise apart two frames in the centre of the brood nest and push the cell in, put the lid back and jobs a good'un.

The success rate of this method will vary according to the weather but I estimate it to be between 50% and 75% of cells introduced becoming mated queens.
Will check again in three weeks and any colonies without a laying queen will be united for the winter.

Extracting finished for another year

I have completed extraction for another year, here is our Thomas 12 frame radial extractor I chose it because it had the biggest motor while still being able to take it through a standard door. Its bolted to a 2' wooden platform for stability and takes about 4 to 6 minutes to extract a full load. Allour honey is stored in 10litre tubs which take about 30lbs each.
We had about 90 full depth supers this year , slight improvement on previous years and have extracted a total of 1,500lbs over the season. The honey season was shaping up to be a good one this year but July all but failed completely, judging by the supers I put on at the end of June which were all but dry.
We use standard Langstroth boxes throughout our operation, most of which are plastic which is much easier then making up wooden frames but can be quite hard on the hands when extracting. They are also very robust, I haven't had a single frame break this year for the first time. The wooden frame you see there has a a plastic foundation sheet rather than wax.

Beekeeping

So far so good with the bees, the warm summer has provided an improved spring crop on last year 300lb as opposed to 200lbs last.

The big harvest comes at the end of July and is so far looking good, things could yet change but if the weather stays fair we should considerably improve on the past three years yield.

Some hives are looking very good this is after I took 20lbs of each of these hives.

Thinking about developing the bee side of the business next year I will have to treat for Varroa (as usual) and Nosema which took about a third of my colonies this year as well as reducing the viability of a good number of others. I suspect we have had the relatively new disease Nosema cerana for a couple of years which would explain the poor spring build up as it kills adult bees so weakening the colony with no obvious symptoms in the hive.

So in addition to treating for disease I am going back to splitting hives in spring before they start thinking about swarming. I have been using checkerboard techniques to spread the brood and provide an open brood nest but in a big swarming season like this year it is rubbish at controlling swarms. So I will split as soon as I can put 3-1-1 frames in each split brood- food-pollen, then introduce queen cells into each half. If I find the queen I will make a nucleus up with a single frame of brood as back up.

Bee Inspection

Yesterday, Monday the bee inspector checked all my hives (about 50) every frame was gone through all suspect cappings checked. One was suspect (had a ropey consistency when pulled from the cell) and was tested for American Foul Brood using a new testing kit similar to a pregnancy test.
The larvae is macerated in a jar of ball bearings four drops placed in the kit the wait for 2 minutes. One line is clear (control) two lines is infected. That's the longest 2 minutes of the day. If positive hives will be killed and the hive parts burned or sterilized. After two minutes only one line so we are in the clear.
I got some good advice about losses in my Bromyard apiary we seem to have an infection of Nosema, which kills the adult bees in the spring. I have lost 17 out of 20 colonies in that site. But next year I will be better prepared.
Nosema is a strange organism with characteristics of both a bacteria and a fungi. There are two strains, N.apis which ahas been around for many years and the new kid on the block N. cerana which seems to be responsible for many colony deaths in the USA and Spain. It is normally treated with Fumidil B, but I expect I am too late for this year. We live and learn.
The main thing is that I have a clean bill of health on the brood disease front.

Thursday Sheep bees market

First thing John came round our part time help and he started planting the last of the onions, that job all finished now except that there is a serious patch of Couch Grass invading the allium beds which will have to be hand pulled. Millie helped move some sheep who had escaped into the wrong field.
After organising a visit to check Mum in laws new chair I picked the spinach for Fridays market and set off to pick up the vegetables to supplement our own on the market. On route Millie and I checked the sheep we have in Hereford and took the opportunity to do a little training.
Next stop was to check the third of my apiary sites which had taken a big hit,loosing 75% of the colonies. Six now are left two of which are Nucleus hives still needing feeding. I sorted out all the now spare boxes and stacked them out of the way and checked through the remnant colonies. They seem in reasonable nick and will be checked for brood disease next Monday.
Then off to pick are additional produce from our wholesaler and back home to add our home produced stuff. The market is the next stop where I set up the stall ready for Friday morning. Then back where my day ends after putting chickens away and seperating a broody hen ready to take the chicks we are due to collect tomorrow.

Wednesday,First graft and accounts not done

Spent yet another Wednesday not completing my VAT and year end accounts, will have to wait till next week I guess.

I did get the first graft for queen cells done this season. This cold season is slowing every down the bees are slow as are the field vegetables but the poly tunnel crops are OK, we have already cleared one of them ready for the spring planting of fine beans. We have also planted runner beans but have had to heavily protect them against the frost predicted for the next few year.