The Bees and the Birds

As you may have noticed from my profile we have been preparing to welcome some hens into our lives. Today this finally happened. I must state at this point that my husband has strictly forbidden me from taking in any further animals. Caz, who I mentioned before, tells me that becoming known as the mad cat, bee and chicken lady is inevitable I think Bob rather hopes that I can put of the days of wandering round town with a tartan trolley full of cats and cat food till he has made other arrangements.

The bees have been less busy again. The last litre of thyme and sugar syrup took 3 days to be taken. We put some more in yesterday evening and while there were still bees in the feeder the level has only gone down about half a centimeter (5/8 inch). All the books say one should stop feeding in early October. We're nearly two weeks in so we expect to be left with syrup soon. Karina, from who we got the bees, says this is a really strong hive. We hope so because we've been told that the augers are strong for a very hard winter. 

Last year the temperatures went down to minus 12, the year before they went down as low as minus 16. This is incredibly low for the United Kingdom. Many hives in West Bridgford didn't survive the winter but this one did. The Queen is strong and she is well supported by a brood box virtually full of  honey. The've taken a minimum of 19 kilos of sugar and that will have fed bees but also contributed to their carbohydrate stores. They continue to forage any day when the sun comes up and the temperature is over 10 degrees. Though because it's been so wet it's been a lot more difficult.

The other bee fact we've noticed is that there are many more dead bees outside the hive. I guess this is because they're flying out less frequently so more bees are dying in the hive than when out foraging. It's still sad however much it may be the natural order of things. I suppose this is where the lesson that sentimentality has no place in small holding begins to be learned.

Good night

Katherine