Spring Bees

Are we through the worst of the winter.

When I looked at the bees the other day the warmer weather had drawn them out to forage and, thanks to the incredibly mild year, there seems to be a lot of blossom on the trees and spring flowers are opening earlier than you might expect.

I rang Karina to tell her the hive had survived the summer and she warned me that the same happened to her last year but come Good Friday they found the hive had died. I cannot begin to imagine the sorrow she must have felt. You become extremely attached to what is essentially a box full of insects. Somehow there has been a synergy between bees and humans for millenia and we remain connected.

It seems that, however much they take in in the autumn (and if you remember our bees had about 21 kilos of sugar syrup over September and October) if the queen lays early then it becomes a race to find sufficient nectar to make into honey. The bees were rushing in with their pollen covered yellow trousers and evidently this is a sign of new brood. Although they store a great deal of pollen in the capped wax cells, they still prefer to feed new brood on fresh food. A commendable approach. One I wish i'd been able to use for my new family.

The winter isn't over yet for the bees.

Yours pensively
Katherine