polomadh
House Bee
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2011
- Messages
- 134
- Reaction score
- 72
- Location
- ramsbottom
- Hive Type
- 14x12
- Number of Hives
- 4
I have just been to one of my Abelo poly hives that I was asked to put in a garden in the middle of “nowhere”. It has a large meadow of around 1-2 acres that the owners are rewilding, but apart from that it is surrounded by large fields used for cattle grazing.
A month or so ago it had 1 capped and full super and one filling super, so I thought I would be extracting one super, however when I checked it was pretty much starving, having consumed the stores. In a bumper year for my other hives it was really surprising to see so little stores at this time of year.
There were no signs of wasps, and the hive is otherwise healthy.
It was the same last year, I didn’t take any honey. I had a hive and a nuc in the same place, but only the nuc made it through.
My point is that it is really alarming that there is so little forage in areas that would be considered “the country side of green fields”. It’s not surprising that there is so little wildlife in the countryside if there isn’t sufficient to support honeybees.
Feeling very sad and alarmed.
A month or so ago it had 1 capped and full super and one filling super, so I thought I would be extracting one super, however when I checked it was pretty much starving, having consumed the stores. In a bumper year for my other hives it was really surprising to see so little stores at this time of year.
There were no signs of wasps, and the hive is otherwise healthy.
It was the same last year, I didn’t take any honey. I had a hive and a nuc in the same place, but only the nuc made it through.
My point is that it is really alarming that there is so little forage in areas that would be considered “the country side of green fields”. It’s not surprising that there is so little wildlife in the countryside if there isn’t sufficient to support honeybees.
Feeling very sad and alarmed.