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House Bee
Joined
Jul 29, 2011
Messages
288
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Location
Wareham. Dorset
Hive Type
National
Number of Hives
1
Went and had a look at the hives today.........There were a few dead bees on the landing stage of one of the hives and a few on the ground, (for the pedantic amongs you that amounted to 23 bees). :) The second hive had no sign of anything, not even a huge roar when I knocked it. Just a little roar and none came to do battle. I guess i will still do nothing till end of the month. The weather here is very cold this morning with a right old nearly freezing mist and an air temp at the hives of 7.3c. As I was watching, a bee came back to the hive but stumbled and stuttered as it tried to land and go into the hive? Maybe the wire/wood was too cold to land on?

John
 
I opened this pm to put in frame feeders in all 6 TBHs. About 12C - bees flying.

Closed up and job done in about 50 secs, then filled through hole in topbar and closed filler cover.

Minimal bee disruption.

No full inspections till 15-17C for me.. ie. April.
 
I had a quick assess and re-arrangement of some hives yesterday.

Any hives that were small enough, I condensed into a nuc.

Any overwintered hives with a super(s) I took off and condensed into a single brood chamber.

Changed some floors and assessed stores.

All manipulations which will helps the bees move forward this Spring.

Condensing down is not a step backwards.
 
My grandfather never inspected before the clocks went forward in spring and never after the clocks were put back in Autumn

so that's no inspections outside the dates 30th march to 30 September

i have heard of other bee law tales relate inspections to the spring and autumn equinox ( 22 March- 22nd September), though i suppose BST is simper
 
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Aberdeen and District Assoc used to recommend to start inspections when the flowering currant flowered... mid April to late April.

PH
 
No chance of inspecting here. No plans to just yet.
Cloudy and cold again today.
Similar for next few days (unless it rains).

Anecdotally local beeks usually leave alone until end of this month.
 
I had a look Sunday pm...as it was 18+ here - I then spent the rest of the afternoon dozing on the garden hammock....bliss! Now I don't need to look until mid-April!
 
Queens I'm jealous.
All those nice lunches at Otter too.:)
 
Flowering currant in full bloom here in the welsh marches! I would have a look at the quiter hive as soon as possible. Sounds like they may be short of food. A quiet buzz indicates weakness if you give it a good hard tap. If nothing else whack some fondant on that hive. Can't do any harm and may save them!
E
 
... The second hive had no sign of anything, not even a huge roar when I knocked it. Just a little roar and none came to do battle. I guess i will still do nothing till end of the month. ...

My guess would be that the risks of doing nothing would be worse than the risk of looking to see that they have enough, accessible, non-crystallised stores.
Bees don't go by calender months.
And they respond to the climate, as it is rather than was.
If you are checking the stores, you can also keep an eye open for anything else you can notice. (Mice, moth, mould ...) Which would give you a chance of taking some remedial action.

Especially if there's anything odd/different/strange, I think the balance of risks favours a very quick early reconnaissance, (especially now that its no longer winter), before that proper "first inspection". Am I wrong on that?

Dorset? Even though (as I know personally) the Channel coast is cooler than just inland, we southerners ought to be a few weeks ahead of the national average. You surely could pick a decent-ish day soon? Thursday afternoon looks like the best chance this week, according to the current BBC forecast.
 

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