BeeLines - January '26

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda. Best wishes for the New Year to you and for your new bee season.

What a surprise! Snow - and a lot of it. On the morning of January 5th we measured five inches of snow (130mm) by our house. Over half had fallen the day before and a second accumulation overnight. As with keeping bees the weather always has the capacity to bring a surprise. And what a blanket of pristine white snow - enough to close local schools and cause traffic problems. Having a young grandson was a sufficient excuse to make a snowman, and we even had a snowplough along our road. Aren’t ‘irony’ and ‘coincidences’ interesting ideas? These both came to mind because of a Christmas card that we made this Christmas. The card had a photograph that we took fifteen years ago in December 2010, showing ‘our road’ completely covered by snow. We have had no snow like that since - until today. And guess what our caption for the photograph was, “Those were the days!”. As said, like bees our weather can surprise us.

We went to check our snow covered hives and, in particular, to try and find out why our temperature monitored hive https://beemonitor.org/ had stopped posting data. The small solar panel on the hive roof, that charges the 12v battery, was completely covered with snow. Removing this solved the problem. It also informed us that it was not just a thick layer of soft snow; the layer had a hard frozen base which took some careful removal from the glass panel. It seems that the short thaw of the previous afternoon had melted some snow which had then refrozen. Scraping the panel caused two bees to emerge and, unfortunately, land on the snow in front of the hive. We were not suited to handle bees and we thought doing so would only cause more disturbance. As we walked away we noticed a bird (not sure what species; possibly a great tit) flit towards the hive front. We went to look and, sure enough, there was a delicate ‘landing mark’ in the snow and one bee had gone. If you have hives that are near to the ground, say on slabs, or have a ‘landing board’ in front of your hive entrances, these should be checked after snow falls to make sure entrances are clear - the bees may need them for ventilation and/or to remove hive debris, ie bees that have died.

A few days earlier on the 1st January we weighed our hives, All eight had lost weight; ranging from 0.2kg to 2.89kg. The larger losses tended to correspond with the bigger colonies with supers. None of our hives have had supplementary feeding, ie no autumn feeding. We will give each colony a small amount of candy in February.

As it is the beginning of a new year it is a good time to consider plans for your beekeeping season ahead. For beekeepers in their first few years of learning the craft the main questions generally focus on and around swarm control. Associated with swarm control is hive inspection, ‘splitting’ (ie dividing) a colony, and the related making increase (ie making a colony from one hive into two, three or even more colonies). To be able and confident to split a colony to minimise swarming, and raise a new queen, is the basic skill of a beekeeper. It is a remarkable procedure and when successful provides a lot of satisfaction. In the coming BeeLines we hope to consider swarm control, and associated manoeuvres in more detail. For the moment can we suggest three ideas.

Firstly, all swarm control methods will require a minimum of a second hive (with frames, foundation, floor, crown board, and roof). Some advice may recommend a nuc box; however a small colony raised in a nuc box will soon need a full size brood box. However, we would highly recommend always having a nuc box (or two!) ready and able - with spare frames - to be used - in addition to a spare hive. Good quality hives are a pleasure to use; conversely poorly constructed hives will be a pain every time you use them. If in doubt, buy locally and have good advice at C. Wynne Jones, near Ruthin https://www.cwynnejones.com/ Or maybe join the LLEBKA group going to the Welsh Beekeepers’ Spring Convention, 28th March and examine before buying possible bargains on the day.

Secondly, can we suggest reading ‘around’ the swarming subject and becoming familiar with the terms and ideas and theory behind swarm control. Two ideas; The first from the ‘The Apiarist’ - has lots of useful photographs: https://theapiarist.org/principles-of-swarm-control/. Second from the WBKA, Wally Shaw’s Guide to swarm control - interesting and useful although rather heavy on the detail of the theory behind swarming. From the reading we would recommend becoming familiar with the basic split for swarm control, ie the Pagden Method. https://wbka.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/An-Apiary-Guide-to-Swarm-Control-2nd-edition-updatedJan21.pdf

Lastly, what about making a ‘bait hive’? - or two (or three?). A previously used hive, with ‘bee odour’ is ideal - baited with one or more used frames (we would avoid frames that have had brood reared in them - because of theoretical disease spreading potential). This is the swarm bait hive recommended by Tom Seeley from his book, Honeybee Democracy (great read and available in LLEBKA library).

Here’s to a good season!

If you have comments, information, a bee story or tips you would like to share with members please let us know and we will include them in BeeLines.