Bees flying this morning at 11am

[Liam C Ryan]

Bees bringing in orange and light grey pollen this morning 08,01,12 at 11pm

 

[dpearce4]

wow nice and busy.

both of my garden hives were active but one was much busier than the other.

 

[burren]

checked mine today, nice and dry here. 2 were fairly quiet and one perked up on hefting, just to let me know all is ok

 

[burren]

checked mine today, nice and dry here. 2 were fairly quiet and one perked up on hefting, just to let me know all is ok

 

[region2]

Bringing in very pale yellow pollen here in SDNP, Sussex...

R2

 

[Heather]

Where are the mouseguards on the pics... we may get a few cold weeks yet. Too early to have none on, really

 

[Andy Duff]

We have 2 busy hives and 1 less so. Roll on spring.

 

[alexander]

my hive not been that active yet, was one bee out on sunday, wandered back in when i arrived. Should I be worried that they are not more active? everyones hives seem to be so busy.

 

[victor meldrew]

my hive not been that active yet, was one bee out on sunday, wandered back in when i arrived. Should I be worried that they are not more active? everyones hives seem to be so busy.

Don't worry , been down the apiary today, +9C, not a single bee flying , checked fondant , bees chomping merrily away, two or three corpses outside one hive !
Nearer they are to amm , less easily kidded by a mild spell
VM

 

[milkermel]

Heather - TBH I never do mouse guards the standard ones that come from the main suppliers would not stop a mouse getting through so see no point in bothering. Standard industry pest test is if you can put a pencil through it then a mouse can get through.

two of my hives were nice and busy today as well not quite as good as the pics but happy enough to show me they were about.

 

[RoofTops]

Standard industry pest test is if you can put a pencil through it then a mouse can get through.

Heard that before and it is utter bo***cks. Check the size of a mouse's skull and it is bigger than a pencil. The test applies where the beast can get its jaws round something and can then chew it larger - and for that a pencil size is indeed probably big enough - but when the hole is in a metal strip I suspect the average mouse would find it a little hard to enlarge the hole.

However, my hives are poly and they have an entrance about a bee space high and mice never enter them even though they could probably make the opening larger. The umpteen thousand poly hives in the UK mostly all have simliar entrances.

I wonder if the UK obsession over mouse guards is really justified? How many mice enter hives and how many colonies are killed by mice?

 

[oliver90owner]

and it is utter bo***cks

My, my, John. You've got much more direct than you were a little over twelve months ago. Must be the freedom from the business end of beekeeping? Inclined to agree with you. A slot the width of a pencil is likely a good generalisation. All pencils are not equal, either.

I don't bother too much with commercial mouseguards, per se. But I would not expect a lot of incursions - and one, for the one hive owner, is pretty well a comprehensive disaster.

Regards, RAB