The yellow fields of Oil Seed Rape are in full flower during May and some of June (about 6 weeks in total), the bees are very active collecting nectar and making it into honey, so Alistair, one of our large animal vets, has added some ‘supers’ to the hive....
First opening of my hives this year. I took the opportunity to open my hives on a nice day at the weekend and check to see if the activity of the flying bees bringing pollen into the hive indicates that I have laying queens inside. I don’t want to have the hives...
Third week of February and we see the bees venturing outside and even feeding. The warm sunshine has woken the bees up from their winter slumber and they are busy taking ‘cleansing flights’ (that’s polite bee talk for ‘going for a poo’)....
Bees don’t hibernate, they huddle together in a cluster and use movement to generate heat and keep warm in their hives. If I open my hives they could get chilled so a simple check on them over the winter is to ‘heft’ the hive. This is lifting up one...
