Good morning Dear Reader,
Blink and you'd miss it. January has come and gone in a flash. After a cold start, it then turned wet in these parts with a lot of flooding locally, and now cold but largely dry days on the horizon for the next two weeks or so. Temperatures around average for the time of year. Yet within the next 6-8 weeks the beekeeping season will have started a-fresh.
The bees have had their winter fondant top-up and largely looking good from what once can discern from a brief glance on the top of the frames. The bees have been flying on and off but the clusters are still pretty tight and that is good news for it's easy for clusters to break and then the heat gets lost in the colony on milder days before the temperature drops overnight. This month we've had some amazing frosts to wake up to and its refreshing to go out for a walk in a countryside that seems to be sleeping and resting before the spring begins.
Annoyingly, an apiary I have has to be moved in the next month due to one of the power companies needing to set up a compound and expand an existing transformer station. The farmer was very apologetic (who owns the land) but their risk assessor didn't relish working so close to beehives. Luckily 'I have a plan' and they will be moved in the next few weeks.
The month has been one for wax rendering, planning for the season, frame making and planning markets and events to attend in the first half of the year. It'll be a busy one for sure.
KR
Somerford
Blink and you'd miss it. January has come and gone in a flash. After a cold start, it then turned wet in these parts with a lot of flooding locally, and now cold but largely dry days on the horizon for the next two weeks or so. Temperatures around average for the time of year. Yet within the next 6-8 weeks the beekeeping season will have started a-fresh.
The bees have had their winter fondant top-up and largely looking good from what once can discern from a brief glance on the top of the frames. The bees have been flying on and off but the clusters are still pretty tight and that is good news for it's easy for clusters to break and then the heat gets lost in the colony on milder days before the temperature drops overnight. This month we've had some amazing frosts to wake up to and its refreshing to go out for a walk in a countryside that seems to be sleeping and resting before the spring begins.
Annoyingly, an apiary I have has to be moved in the next month due to one of the power companies needing to set up a compound and expand an existing transformer station. The farmer was very apologetic (who owns the land) but their risk assessor didn't relish working so close to beehives. Luckily 'I have a plan' and they will be moved in the next few weeks.
The month has been one for wax rendering, planning for the season, frame making and planning markets and events to attend in the first half of the year. It'll be a busy one for sure.
KR
Somerford
