'Telling the bees'

Who do you know who has died this month?

Telling the bee’s is an ancient custom, when you go to your bee’s and tell them about who has died. I guess this method of mourning can be very effective, remember, bee keeping has many purposes, and telling the bee’s is just one of them.

Trainee beekeepers

This year I am training up three new beekeepers. If you want to learn the art of bee keeping please get in touch, I am taking bookings for next year. Beekeeping can be a very satisfying and therapeutic hobby, not to mention that the world needs more flying inspects, especially in the UK, where our wildlife depletion has reached new lows.

Let me turn my attention across the pond, where I can only say there are 'troubles'. Not only do they have an insane president, America is in big trouble. Water shortages and colony collapses are affecting beekeepers in a terrible way over there, and there are much wider ramifications. My guess is that America will become a third world country in many parts under the leadership of the Ginger headed nutcase. Its no joke. When the environmental collapse that the world is currently undergoing and continues the farmers will suffer even more. This means, less almond crops, less wheat, in fact less food worldwide, all crops in America will be affected.

A big shout out this month goes to Martin Kunz in Kolkata, India, for the good work he is doing there.

As a bee keeper, these are the questions you should be asking yourself at this time of the year:

1.       Have you see the queen or laid eggs yet?

2.       Are there any Queen cells?

3.       How many frames are covered by the bees?

4.       Are you thinking about applying treatment for varroa?

5.       What is the temperament of your bees?

6.       How much did you spend on feed last winter?

7.       Was it necessary to feed your bees over the winter?

8.       Do you have an outside thermometer?

THINGS YOU SHOULDN’T DO

Never open a hive when it’s raining

Never open a hive if the temperature is less than 16 degrees

THINGS TO CONSIDER

Insulating your bee’s over winter

Ensuring you have at least two hives – if one fails the other one will still keep going and you can repopulate it.

Happy Beekeeping folks