I encountered left over sugar which hadn’t dissolved towards the end of October when I went to check to see whether the bees had enough stores, luckily as the sugar didn’t crystallise it could still be utilised by the bees in addition to their stores.
Varroa be gone! End of season varroa treatment is essential for helping the bees get through winter ❄️ If left unchecked the varroa mite can decimate a colony.
Remember to treat your varroa mites. I use polymer strips. These strips contain pyrethroids which varroa have been shown to develop a resistance against if over used. Rotation with any varroa treatment in which the active ingredient is not a pyrethroid is required.
Feeding your bees white sugar syrup is a must this time of year. I do this alongside a pollen substitute which gives the hive the protein to assist with the raising of winter bees.
Capturing a queen can be tricky but I use this queen catcher to do so. I prefer it to grabbing one of her wings as I feel it is a safer option. I found a queen release video from 2021 when queens were marked white to show how the queen catcher works.
Trying to prevent swarming? Have you tried the Demaree method of swarm control? This involves splitting the brood boxes with a queen excluder and two supers inbetween.
Between April 2019-20, over 43.7% of beehives across the U.S. were lost. It's likely something similar is happening across Europe. Honeybees are so important to supporting our environment, urgent action is needed! https://t.co/MOSKJ3HDQY
Heavy rains meant the plants have grown so big they’ve obscured our path to our bee garden! 🌿 Need to scythe our way through... feels very Secret Garden-like! 🐝
On average:
5 daisies 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼
2 dandelions 🌼🌼
6 buttercups 🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼🌼
Are enough to keep one bee happy for one day! 🐝
It's not much - but if we want a lot of bees we need a lot of flowers! Let your grass grow this month and look after pollinators.
#NoMowMay#Growdontmow