Rain, Rain and more Rain, a cancelled Basic exam and a flooded Apiary

[NoBBy]

Well the horrendous rain we had in Lancashire on Friday caused me all sorts of Bee Keeping headaches

I was due to take my Basic Assessment on Friday only to have it cancelled because of the weather. No one had told me it was cancelled so I thought I should go along anyway, just in case. I was pretty peeved to say the least as the round trip took me 2 ½ hours because of the conditions to find it cancelled. Before you say ‘should of phoned’ I did but it went to answer machine.

It went bad to worse. Our allotment where I keep my bees is next to a brook and was totally flooded. I couldn’t even get near because of the depth of water and couldn’t see the hives. I just had to leave them and hope for the best. When I went down today the water had receded and all 5 hives were still on their stands and luckily there hadn’t been much damage to our allotment apart from pots and wood been floated around. The hedge all around had protected it from any current.
Out of the hives 4 had stayed above water level but the tide line on one brood box shows it must have had about 2 inches of water in it. However all seems well as they were flying today and I had a quick look, just lifted the super up and the brood box is full of bees. So fingers crossed all should be well.

 

[BBG]

Decent amount of sunshine next week.

Glad bees were safe.

 

[richardbees]

Nobby,

ditto bbg - so it could have been worse!

"There'll be sunny days tomorrow, the clouds will soon have gone away"

 

[hiveabee]

How do Nobby,Your not kiddin. I live in Hoole which must not be to far from you. This morning my hives where surrounded by a lake, thank the lord the stands were high enough off the ground. I had to dig a trench to drain it away.

 

[BeeBus]

Feeling sorry for you guys in the west, not too bad over in the east although its just hammered it down for about 20 mins this morn, bloody weather

 

[justme]

yes, very sorry to hear about all that. Sounds horrendous. Glad bees are all ok and heres hoping you have good weather for rescheduled basics, so you have no doubt that it will be on.

 

[susbees]

Feeling sorry for you guys in the west, not too bad over in the east although its just hammered it down for about 20 mins this morn, bloody weather

20 minutes??? What a lightweight...
Grateful - except in the depths of a cold winter - to live up a hill.

 

[NoBBy]

Thanks, yes was the worst rain I can remember it just didnt stop for 36 hours. A lot of people have had their homes flooded in Croston thats only a few miles away and prity close to Hiveabee. So a bit of mud around the allotment is nothing compared to having your home flooded.

 

[BeeBus]

20 minutes??? What a lightweight...
Grateful - except in the depths of a cold winter - to live up a hill.

Lightweight!! thats a monsoon for us in the dry side, flipside is when it is dry (haha) we miss all the rain

 

[iand]

Checking nucs today eventually got wet thru' but ran out of syrup anyway. So time to pack up & go home.
This weather WE are getting is not yet as bad as a few years back, when hives were washed away. Some found a mile or so downstream. Others were lost because the water level went above the Q excluder.
Those Q's with snorkels or just lucky & plenty of bees surviving in the supers, within a week had cleared out the !st couple of frames and had got a new batch of brood underway.
Yes they had a set back but were not lost. Amazing when you think of all the muck/rubbish washed down & into the hives.
Mesh floors a positive benefit on this occasion.