First reports of vast losses.

[Hivemaker.]

Any news about the Scottish Bee farmers? Are they importing packages yet?

This looks like being another dodgy year....cold,wet, and snow forecast for Scotland.

 

[OXFORDBEE]

Maybe there will be some funding for poly tunnels to keep the heather warm...

 

[Hivemaker.]

Maybe there will be some funding for poly tunnels to keep the heather warm...

With this year being even worse than last year weather wise, i think a lot of poly tunnels would be needed....better to just move south with our bees, to warmer climes, like southern Portugal.

 

[Into the lions den]

With this year being even worse than last year weather wise, i think a lot of poly tunnels would be needed....better to just move south with our bees, to warmer climes, like southern Portugal.

I think you probably need to. Was in Dijon on Monday collecting a load of packages for the restocking, and the weather was very cold and utterly vile.....heavy rain all day and only 8C max..and stayed thus all the way to Calais. The OSR there was going past, and the local guy we met there said they should have been extracting.....but no honey....and they should have been selling new seasons queens for 6 weeks already......but ZERO mated.

Everything SO late here in Scotland, half the OSR ploughed back in, this so far is last year without the good spells in March and May. However, things do have a knack of evening themselves out a bit, and the second half of the year can still be good.

 

[Chris B]

However, things do have a knack of evening themselves out a bit, and the second half of the year can still be good.

It needs to be. I was lucky to find an alternative income last winter. I can't rely on luck again. I worked out I need an 80lb average just to get by. I know they can do it in an amazingly short time IF we get a sustained warm spell. But over the last few days too many look like they'll need feeding very soon.

 

[Haughton Honey]

Currently in south Burgundy - part holiday/part beekeeping.

4c at 10am this morning when the frost warning came up on the dashboard - 10c expected by mid-afternoon - and it has rained and rained for the last few weeks.

Temps were 20-23c at this point last year and my local bee farming contacts are tearing their hair out. Like the UK, everything has come at once and acacia is due to flower this week, but no weather forecast warm enough to let the bees anywhere near it.

I've spoken to two 500+ hive guys in the last day or two and they report 30-40% losses over winter and an increase in DLQs.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Definately needs to be southern Portugal then, temps there are going between 18c and 27c.

 

[Norton]

Early May we had temperatures up to 37C and then stormy weather for the first half of the month. The migrating european bee eaters were stuck here for ten days, I mean thousands of the damn things. Usually they just pass over on their way to Turkey and beyond, but the stormy weather prevented them from continuing. How did they know that Turkey has very high mountains and unsettled weather? These birds have done a fair amount of damage to drone populations this month. Things are slowly getting going again and queens are coming into lay a week late.
Many phone calls and emails, on some days more than 40, for queens that we cannot supply. I've had to switch the phone off several times this week as we are unable to work due to calls coming in.
Last year we could have sold seven times the queens we supplied. This year looks like that number could be exceeded. Clearly a case of success killing the business. There is only so much a person can do!!!!
A sabotage attack on the breeding apiary in March was an enormous setback and we have had to concentrate on saving as much mating station material as possible so that the genetic material will not be lost.
Best regards
Roger.

 

[Hivemaker.]

The migrating european bee eaters were stuck here for ten days, I mean thousands of the damn things.

A few of them have attempted to set up home in this country on several occasions, luckily without much success, despite help from the RSPB, bloody swallows are bad enough, without having bee eaters as well.