SuMMER UPDATE
- Peter Klauza
- Jun 30
- 4 min read
With regard to Bees, its been a strange year, a very mild Spring, and a hot dry summer that's followed has no doubt affected bees up and down the country. The activity of my bees has been docile compared to previous years, I put this down to less forage being available, and having fewer hives in the apiary. It took the pressure off me. Managing a million bees or more can be quite challenging and takes over your life!
I sold a lot of my bees this year and am reducing the size of my apiary. I wasnt well in April and my health appears to be worsening with age, at least I live a bit longer than 35 days...(the life of a female honey bee) This means next year will be the last year I sell bee's. None of my bees have swarmed this year and, none of them have varoaa either. I spotted a few bees with deformed wings, but it was only a few , so not worried about the strong quality of the bee's I have left.
This week I was attacked by flying ants and rained on whilst visiting a local watering hole in Birstall that I cycle to after I've been looking after the bees.
As I have less bees this means I have got second hand beehives for sale if anyone wants them. Please simply drop me an email peterklauza@gmail.com to arrange a collection in the Midlands.
August and September is the robbing period for honey bees . If there is not enough forage, they will simply fly to a nearby hive and raid it. Its easier for them to do that than go looking for nectar, then make honey. June Gap ( a break in the flowering of plants ) is over, the best way of reducing robbing is to have a feeding station. This is spare NUC hive set up a frame of honey from last years stores, if you have refridgerated some like I tend to do. I tend to do this with 3 or four Frames full of honey . This box doubled up as a swarm box, should any of your bees decide that in July they wish to swarm due to congestion or other environmental factors. Not an actual lot is fully understood why bees swarm, and anti swarming methods I have tried and spoken about in previous blogs do not always work. I actually found a swarm in September last year, sadly they didnt quite survive past March ( which is hardly surprising) This year I already had collected a swarm in April, extremely early in the year for swarming. It proves how interesting and varied a bee season can be.
There are many threats to bees health, the biggest I find is the wax moth, but there is a disease called chronic bee paralysis
What is bee paralysis? It is a virus that paralyses bees.The virus replicates in nerve cells leading to repeated patterns of movement which progress to partial paralysis, full paralysis, and then death within a week. Historically it used to kill whole colonies if it was present in around 40% of the colony. Studies now show that 47 % of untreated colonies perish. The symptom is finding dead bees on the ground around the hive . These should be collected and destroyed. Dead bees offer reservoir of the virus and can be highly infectious if left when healthy bees come into contact with them. Basically it is a very damaging disease which we should try and safeguard our bees against .
Type I Symptoms (Paralysis and Tremors):
Trembling or shaking of wings and body.
Bees appear agitated or unable to fly, often trembling on the ground near the hive.
Disorientation and crawling behaviour—infected bees may walk aimlessly outside the hive.
Progressive paralysis of wings and legs, leading to an inability to move.
Affected bees may remain alive for several days but eventually die outside the hive entrance.
Type II Symptoms (Greasy, Hairless Appearance):
Bees lose body hairs, resulting in a shiny, black, almost greasy-looking exoskeleton.
This symptom is especially evident on the abdomen and thorax.
These bees are often mistaken for robber bees or other intruders due to their unusual appearance.
Hairless bees may be attacked by guard bees, further increasing stress and mortality in the hive.
There are apparently no treatments, but one attempt at limiting it is floor removal, so the infected bees fall to the ground and cannot infect the rest of the colony.
To end on positive....
The world we live in today, is very different to that of 100 years ago. There were many Orchards and meadows, only 22 million people lived in the UK and one million fewer hectares of land were used for arable land. A hundred years ago there were 4 clear seasons with snow on the ground in Southport as late as mid May. Fast forward a hundred years and climate change means our seasons appear mixed into one, with milder winters and strange Springs and Summers. A result is that the predator the Asian hornet lurks in parts of the country, these can eat 50 - 100 bees on a feeding spree.
Despite the struggles and challenges beekeeping is still very rewarding.
Happy Beekeeping!
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