Did you know there are 102 million managed bee colonies in the world ?
Personally I have limited stocks of UK bred high quality calm, productive, healthy bee’s available for sale this year due to the scale of what I can achieve in the Midlands. I look forward to taking orders from you as soon as you have checked your own hives for any losses that need to be replenished, or if you are a new beekeeper and wish to invest in trusted, quality disease free UK bred bee’s.
Last year was very successful, but the winter of 2023/4 has been mild, wet and miserable. Sadly during the storms I lost two hives due to tree’s destroying them in a winter storm, and one other hive at a different location did not make it. I still have lots of good bee’s left in my remaining hives and am ready to sell overwintered bee’s to you next month.
On a different note, I planted a few potatoes out for the forthcoming year and sowed my wildflower meadow this week. Potatoes and wildflowers apart Hedgerows are extremely important to the health of our countryside and are a huge source of forage for our bee’s. Hedgerows have been in decline for a while now, but they are extremely important. There are 390,000km of managed and unmanaged up to 6 metres high,and another 180,000 km over six metres high. This sounds like a lot but they are down by 50% this century. May I thank the environment agency for these facts.
Bee’s will shortly be flying every day should the weather be suitable. It’s extremely important to do a spring inspection to ensure your bee’s have enough stores to ensure they don’t starve at this time of year. Do this on a warm sunny spring day when the temperature is above 14 degrees and you see activity. If after inspection you see they have little to eat, introduce fondant or sugar syrup immediately.
During your first inspection see how your hives have faired over the winter, you may need to do some maintenance or repair work to them.
You can start to think about your aims and objectives for the forthcoming bee season now.
Honey flow will start in a months time, so if you are ahead of the game, you will already be prepared for 2024, and will have freshly sanitized empty hives, supers and ready made frames at the ready for the forthcoming year, to save you any stress and time for when things really take off.
Happy Beekeeping, and I hope you have a successful 2024.
