Starvation Risk?

[Mabee]

We have had several decades of kind climate so it's no surprise that many beekeeping practices have acclimatised to those favourable conditions. I dare say quite a few beekeepers have been caught out by the cold especially because wherever one turns one is constantly bombarded with messages of incessant global warming.

People misunderstand global warming thinking it means the whole world is just getting warmer, when it is the results of global warming which are creating climate change including more adverse weather. This is an interesting article on the current cold snap and whether it could be linked to climate change or not
https://www.euronews.com/amp/2021/0...ter-weather-extremes-linked-to-global-warming

 

[frankenstine]

Was shocked how littel stores were left in ours at weekend was in to minds if to inspect or not but there were that meany queen cups last time I though I better had.

They are now on syrup

 

[Antipodes]

People misunderstand global warming thinking it means the whole world is just getting warmer, when it is the results of global warming which are creating climate change including more adverse weather. This is an interesting article on the current cold snap and whether it could be linked to climate change or not
https://www.euronews.com/amp/2021/0...ter-weather-extremes-linked-to-global-warming

Our April, in my locality, was 1.1 degrees warmer than average with our warmest April day ever recorded.

I heard from a recent study that the survival of colonies through winter depends on the weather of the summer before, which I was a little surprised at but intriguing of course.

It sounds like you guys in parts of the UK are having a poor spring...for beekeeping at least.

 

[frankenstine]

Weather is a complex thing

My personal take on uk climate is we are loosing the the really cold bits of winter. It’s now just that horrible damp cold with the odd splash or really wet. Summer is getting hotter and dryer. And that’s taken from working ether out in it or in a barn for last 20 yrs

 

[Erichalfbee]

Was shocked how littel stores were left in ours at weekend was in to minds if to inspect or not but there were that meany queen cups last time I though I better had.

They are now on syrup

Yep. I put syrup in one colony replacing its queen. The others have supers

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Weather is a complex thing

My personal take on uk climate is we are loosing the the really cold bits of winter. It’s now just that horrible damp cold with the odd splash or really wet. Summer is getting hotter and dryer. And that’s taken from working ether out in it or in a barn for last 20 yrs

That's a fascinating take but with respect, 20 years is a very small sample size. 2000 was a very warm year at the peak of a strong warming minicycle and is already more than 20 years ago. In living memory we have 1975/6 (summers) and 1962/3 (Winter) that set records that still stand. There was an extreme cold patch in the mid-Victorian era right at the end of the (European) "Little Ice Age", then the Medieval Warm Period. etc. You have to be centuries old to pronounce, really. But the Gulf Stream slowing (@Finman above) does worry me, so times like this resonate: I know it's sort of back to a 60s norm, but it might be different, if you see what I mean...

 

[gmonag]

I do not think this cold spring in UK is an example of climate change per se. More it is a result of freak weather conditions; specifically the jetstream is positioned unusually south. Normally it would be north of UK at this time of year. It is the jetstream that drives the weather patterns here. The position of the jetstream has led to anti-cyclones sitting over UK, bringing arctic air down from the north. Hence cold/dry/sunny, the coldest, driest, sunniest April on record!

 

[madasafish]

2020 was the end of a 10 year solar cycle. We are due 2-3 coldish years then by mid decade it will be warm.

Tryingtoletthembe wrote" In living memory we have 1975/6 (summers) and 1962/3 (Winter) which set records " which shows the cycle perfectly : cold early part of decade: warm middle of decade.. (See 2010-20 .. really cold winters 2010-2012 ,hot summer 2015-18)

 

[Gilberdyke John]

2020 was the end of a 10 year solar cycle. We are due 2-3 coldish years then by mid decade it will be warm.

Tryingtoletthembe wrote" In living memory we have 1975/6 (summers) and 1962/3 (Winter) which set records " which shows the cycle perfectly : cold early part of decade: warm middle of decade.. (See 2010-20 .. really cold winters 2010-2012 ,hot summer 2015-18)

We've a way to go to equal the mediaeval warm period

 

[Karol]

People misunderstand global warming thinking it means the whole world is just getting warmer, when it is the results of global warming which are creating climate change including more adverse weather. This is an interesting article on the current cold snap and whether it could be linked to climate change or not
https://www.euronews.com/amp/2021/0...ter-weather-extremes-linked-to-global-warming

I have no wish to rehearse climate change arguments in this thread. Happy to debate it in the political/pesticides section under the stairs. Beekeeping is affected by weather so weather predictions may be of some help to beekeepers. Back in the summer of last year I alerted the forum of predictions of colder longer winters and the risk of starvation as a consequence of the sun going into a quiet period. This is not freak weather. This is part of the natural cycling of the sun as its magnetic dynamo realigns.

 

[Boston Bees]

I have no wish to rehearse climate change arguments in this thread.

Excellent!

Back in the summer of last year I alerted the forum of predictions of colder longer winters and the risk of starvation as a consequence of the sun going into a quiet period. This is not freak weather. This is part of the natural cycling of the sun as its magnetic dynamo realigns.

That wish didn't last long!

 

[Karol]

Excellent!



That wish didn't last long!

Slight difference.

 

[Finman]

I have believed that weather forecasts are right 3 days.
.