Mad Weather

[Andy Duff]

Its no wonder the bees are out and about, 14 DegC on the allotment today, Wallflowers starting to bloom, clematis doing the same, winter leeks bolting. I still have tomato plants flowering in my unheated greenhouse. I know Bury is sub tropical but this is silly weather.

 

[Erichalfbee]

MAD
15˚ here, bees flying as if it was summer.
The meadowsweet that was cut down has risen again and is blooming.
My crocuses are through and there are dog violets dandelions and wild strawberries in the hedgerows.
My neighbour's purple **** is in full flower and there are some rhododendrons coming.
I had a peek through the polycarbonate crownboard at my poly 14 x 12 yesterday and you can't see the tops of the frames for bees.
I shall be keeping a close eye on the stores.

 

[Rosti]

It's a potential problem IMO. After my losses last year I am wintering 6 not 4 colonies with the aim of combining back to 4 if I exceed that number come spring. They were all well fed but chomping through those stores currently and two of them are wacking through a fondant block each as well (minimal ivy still coming in but nothing significant). I think it's going to be an expensive fondant reliant winter for me unless it cools down pronto and they cluster

 

[Storm™]

Hasnt gone a smidge above 12 degrees here for the last week, however bees foraging on a fushia bush in full flower right by the window. As well as wasps. Dragon flies swooping around and loads of flies everywhere. Every night when going out for a smoke, the window is so thick with midges, gnats and moths you could sweep them clear. But even though its mild, and not as many berries on trees as in previous years, think its going to be the worst winter yet. Just a gut feeling.......

 

[Chris Luck]

It's very interesting reading all these threads and comments about how this autumn is proceeding in the UK and how your plants and bees are responding to it.

Here this type of weather is more or less normal for autumn (very warm again today with a high of 20°C forecast), and although I have some bees flying they don't start until late am, perhaps mid day and most aren't really going anywhere.

Pollen, (which is available), gathering stopped completely about three weeks or more ago on all colonies as far as I know and the bees effectively went into winter mode.

Chris

 

[Nose Ma]

It's currently 11C here, overnight low only 9C.

The bees are flying already (since 0830), and have found some pollen (dark orange, no idea what or where from) somewhere. I assume some nectar too, as others return from a distance with no pollen attached, so not cleanisng. A heft of the hive seems heavy, but will keep an eye on it. Fondant is at the ready.

Interesting indeed how Chris' bees seem to be quite happy with it all, whereas the UK ones seem utterly confused.

Chris - does this mean that ours apparently are aggressively chomping on stores, whereas yours are now stable, and not eating much?

 

[Winker]

I had to put fondant in 2 of my hives yesterday and it looks like im going to have to keep feeding fondant all winter with these 2 hives

 

[Heather]

Yes, fondant on all - and 2 small colonies already taken most up...Others seem to be staying on frames- but judging the amount of cappings under they are certainly getting stuck into stores. (another benefit of OMF -you can see bee behaviour)

 

[Chris Luck]

Chris - does this mean that ours apparently are aggressively chomping on stores, whereas yours are now stable, and not eating much?

Good question and I don't know but this is normal and I don't usually autumn feed, although this year I had some a bit light back in the end Sept / first part of Oct and gave some syrup - honey and sugar mix, equally the late swarm I housed.

I guess I'll do a quick heft over the next day or two but, as I say, they normally overwinter without problems....the catch is that not all bees have the same winter colony size or the same volume of stores, (sorry to state the blindingly obvious), and I haven't opened them at all since early Sept.

.... fingers crossed and hoping for the best - always.

Chris

 

[Teemore]

Bees in Northern Ireland have also been quite active in recent weeks but they are definitely becoming less so. I have already noted that one of my colonies is conspicuously lighter and i'll be hefting it to judge if and when to drop on some fondant. The other colonies will also be hefted to keep track of stores consumption. I'll be tracking the amount of fondant consumed and when the various colonies need it - that will be a factor towards which colonies I raise Queens from in future.

 

[Andy Duff]

MAD
15˚ here, bees flying as if it was summer.
The meadowsweet that was cut down has risen again and is blooming.
My crocuses are through and there are dog violets dandelions and wild strawberries in the hedgerows.
My neighbour's purple **** is in full flower and there are some rhododendrons coming.
I had a peek through the polycarbonate crownboard at my poly 14 x 12 yesterday and you can't see the tops of the frames for bees.
I shall be keeping a close eye on the stores.

Had a peep at mine through poly crown boards mine are the same.
I now have yellow flag iris in foll bloom in my garden.

 

[Beeline]

16 degrees here today and same forecast for next few days. All so very wrong. Bees are so busy outside the one hive it resembles a hot summers day. Bucket loads of light yellow pollen going in. No doubt the mite rate is starting to climb again as she continues to lay in this mild weather.

IMO we're going to have to rely on the guidance of the experienced to get us newbies through this 1st winter as clearly their stores will be deleted before we see the back end of this winter. Probably end Dec at this rate. Fondant currently on both and emergency 12.5 kg box in storage - might need more?

I am concerned.

BL

 

[Chrisfnvs]

Hi BL, it was not long ago that we thought we had over feed our bees as a good flow started just after we had feed them, what is more of a concern to us is this mild weather has seen a explosion in varroa numbers in some hives, due in part we think to continued brooding, (which is still going on),and apiguard treatment not being as effective as it has been in previous years (although it was a few degrees colder than it usually is at the time of treatment) and with the large number of winter bees in the hives at the moment, (covering all the frames in 14x12 BB`S) they can eat a lot of stores very quickly in this weather, we will keeping a close eye on them going into the winter and through to the spring to make sure they are ok and make it through Chris

 

[Vergilius]

16 degrees here today and same forecast for next few days. All so very wrong.

Not that weird to be honest... Autumns over the past few years have been generally very mild anyway. Last year, for example, it was warmer than this and then suddenly turned very cold on about the fourth week of November. Two years ago we had bees flying on Christmas Eve.

If your bees have guzzled through their stores by December thay are - frankly - bad bees.

Ben P

 

[mystil]

Ours here are flying like crazy. They are bringing in pollen by the bucket load.
Was really worried.

However opened one hive today to get the varroa strips out and they had masses of food and not much brood. Hopefully they will keep it that way and the warm weather will not last.

 

[drstitson]

"However opened one hive today to get the varroa strips out"

were these a second line application after august/september thymol treatment?

 

[mystil]

Nope this was the first application.

Had them in late as they were on the heather and also we only got given the hive about 6 weeks ago so could not do it any quicker (was in an inaccessable area).

But the strips were not temp dependant, luckily.

 

[Hivemaker.]

were these a second line application after august/september thymol treatment?

Would not necessarily need to be a second line application, if the strips were Apivar.

 

[paulgid]

lots of bee,s out here collecting oil seed rape which as just started flowering in back field

 

[jezd]

Would not necessarily need to be a second line application, if the strips were Apivar.

use apivar as second hit here, good results too

jez