Off We Go Again!

Winter is almost behind us, the Spring equinox approaches, and the extra hours of daylight quicken our pulses as we look forward to warmer days. March is a nervous month for beekeepers as we are close to being able to carry out gentle hive inspections and discovering quite how our bees have fared since we last saw them in autumn. If we are lucky we’ll have some balmy weather with ambient temperatures in the early teens, just enough to allow the bees to take cleansing flights and begin foraging for early pollen and nectar.

Observations and Optimism

So, 2024, what a year, eh?! How to describe it? I don’t think I’m alone in thinking of it as ‘wet’, and figures released by the UK Met Office, and Météo France, would agree. September was the wettest calendar month in Bedfordshire and Oxfordshire since 1836 (1), and in Paris it was the wettest year since 1886 (2). Beekeepers were presented with a set of problems – and blessings – caused by the excessive amount of rain in the first half of the year, and will take this experience into consideration for the future.

The intemperate weather caused issues with colony increase: swarming behaviour was curtailed, queen matings were compromised, and foraging was limited due to a dearth of nectar. All of these facts have meant that in some areas across the country there has been a poor honey harvest and colonies have not achieved the optimum sizes required for successful over-wintering. However, what has been tough on the bees has had a similar effect on their nemesis, the Asian hornet, and so (with a sigh of relief) beekeepers have not had to deal with the usual heavy predation from these invaders. Trapping mated Asian hornet queens in the autumn before they hibernated was therefore of utmost importance, and we now need to be ready to trap any survivors emerging from hibernation as soon as Spring arrives.

When is honey too wet?

This year has been unusually wet and as a result has caused lots of problems for beekeepers and especially for commercial honey producers. The problem was one of timing – the flowers blossomed but the rain also fell, meaning that by the time the bees could fly out, all the nectar had been washed out or the flowers had died off. The extra humidity has meant too that honey this year is proving to be too ‘wet’. The rule of thumb is that the moisture content of honey must not exceed 18%. 

Busy Buzzies!

Without a doubt, September is our busiest beekeeping month – there is so much to do! Don’t get me wrong, Spring wasn’t particularly idle; we had our work cut out managing swarm behaviour and ensuring our colonies were healthy and thriving, but late summer presents other challenges.

A Dadant hive ready to harvest

The bees are very aware of the equinox and reduced hours of daylight, so the race is on to ensure they have foraged for enough nectar to turn into honey for their winter stores. Of course, this is when we turn up, smacking our lips, ready to pinch this honey.

Changing Seasons

We are all aware that our climate is changing, and you only have to think about weather patterns over

the past few years to understand the uncertainty this causes. Whatever you do, whether it’s working with crops or livestock, renovating a house, or planting your garden/veggie patch, you need to know what to expect from the weather. Current scientific thinking states that more ‘extreme weather events’ are likely to occur in the near future, along with dramatic rises in air and sea temperatures. All of this will have, and is already having, an effect on life on earth, and as everything is interconnected, the challenges are complex.

Calm down, calm down! Or, please don’t be stroppy with me…

At last the warmer weather is with us, plants and flowers are flourishing, and the beekeeping season has well and truly started. All of our bee colonies came through the Spring successfully and have grown exponentially in the past few weeks due to the abundance of forage, higher temperatures and relative lack of predators compared to previous years. (To be honest, the Asian hornets don’t usually become a problem until later in the summer but for now we are enjoying their absence around our hives). There are more insects appearing in our gardens, which we see as a positive, but we are often told by people that they don’t like bees as they are frightened of being stung.

Don't Panic!

 ‘Melissaphobia’ is an intense fear of bees, which can be overwhelming and cause great anxiety. One
way to combat this panic is to learn more about these insects and hopefully come to manage feelings of stress when encountering them. We often meet people who have attended our afternoon taster sessions because they’re not sure how they will react when surrounded by thousands of bees. Maybe they have always liked the idea of keeping bees but before they commit to the expense of buying the equipment and taking on the care of living creatures, they want to experience being near a hive. In turn, we don’t want our bees to be disturbed by scared students, so we take good care to explain what is going to take place and what to expect. The students get a similar briefing…! It’s much easier to be brave when wearing protective clothing and often people will say “Oh, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, it was so fascinating I forgot to be scared”, a win-win by our reckoning.