Slow year??

[snelgrove]

I would have thought everywhere away from this northeast coast of England and Scotland would have had a bumper year with the weather good weather.
It's been an east west split for weeks now. Temps have rarely been above 14 degrees with elsewhere in the 20 s.

 

[Teemore]

Have had a good start to the season. Have extracted 8 supers and have a lot more capped and ready to come off when I can make the time... really need some workshop time to make more supers.... I thought I had plenty in hand!
Have a couple of colonies that superceded and really didn't do much with the Spring flow but they will be nicely built up for the summer flow. Very little in the way of swarming so far. Only needed to do one artificial swarm to date.

 

[thenovice]

the one colony that came out of winter guns blazing has produced a nice 17kg already and still going strong. My other 2 either died or muddled along. My uneducated guess is that many colonies suffered from the weird winter and missed the spring flows? Many people in the club have complained about slow colonies and spring losses. Collected swarms are expected to start producing honey soon as filled up the broodbox nicely now.

 

[Binge]

Errm, St Swithun's Day is 15th July.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swithun

Temporarily misplaced my marbles.

 

[Swarm]

Oak before ash, you're in for a splash
Ash before oak, you're in for a soak

Heard that one before, too. I've never seen Ash in leaf before Oak, Ash is one of the last in leaf and first to lose them.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Prefer the saying they had in Cardiff docks (refering to Flatholm and Steepholm)

'If you can see the islands it's going to rain, if you can't see the islands - it's raining'

 

[Amari]

Heard that one before, too. I've never seen Ash in leaf before Oak, Ash is one of the last in leaf and first to lose them.

 

[Ely]

Hi all
I have noticed that all my hives are doing well in themselves however there has been no honey put in the supers, there is plenty of brood and the queens are laying well, some hives I had to split, Yet there has not been honey in the supers to remove yet in previous years I have extracted something like 300-400 lbs by now ?
Anybody else noticed a bad or slow year??
TB

Beekeeping in Britain is like Bobsledding in Jamaica. You can have a good go at it, but don't expect much

 

[Teemore]

Heard that one before, too. I've never seen Ash in leaf before Oak, Ash is one of the last in leaf and first to lose them.

2015 - Ash came into full leaf before the oak in my locality. Have seen it a few times over the years.

 

[tonyofarr]

The ash was incredibly late here this year, and last year it was out before the oak. I'm clutching at straws, all I need is 6 weeks of half-decent weather between now and August, I don't think that is too much to ask, is it ?

 

[Zante]

If it rains on St Swithins day it will rain for forty days and forty nights or so the old wives tale says.

Funny how the 40 days is so recurring.
In Italy (at least round my parts) the saying is "terzo aprilante, quaranta giorni durante" meaning that the weather on the third of april will set the tone for the next 40 days.

 

[Frenchie]

I was just about to post the same question when I saw this thread. Two strong colonies,lots of bees,lots of brood,lots of activity, but hardly any stores. Bees are out everyday working hard.Do bees still go out and forage even if they return empty handed? Ash here was the latest I've ever known