After long days of grey skies the last few days saw much sunshine. It helps to brighten up my garden putting a little bit of colour back. Even though the air is still cold, even wintery on some days, I can feel that Spring is finally returning after what was an unusually harsh winter.
Welcome back to my blog if you followed it last year and the good news so far is that in spite of the harsh winter the colony is alive. I had been restraining myself from taking a peep. The last time I open the top briefly was to put a piece of fondant sugar in. That was in January and the bees were alive then.
Throughout the winter I have noticed there were many little bees' corpses outside the hive. One day, in the depth of winter, I actually saw a worker dragging a dead bee out of the hive. I suppose this is the inevitable casualties of winter. With the improved weather my mind is turning to my second season. I expect that I shall be busier as I really have to keep an eye out for swarming and other problems. One thing I am looking forward to is the likelihood of having some honey. First there is still the long wait for the air temperature to warm up sufficiently before I can open up for my first inspection. "Oh what a glorious thing to be. A healthy grown up busy, busy bee."
Hi Chi,
ReplyDeleteLike you this will be my second year keeping bees. I agree, the urge to take a peek in the hive is sometimes difficult to resist. Similarly, I noticed far more bee corpses outside of the hive during the winter that I would have expected but so far all seems to be OK. Best of luck in 2010 :)
Hi Chi - Good to see you back and that the hive is alive. Look forward to seeing you harvest that first golden honey. Dead bees are a casualty of winter, but with spring on the way, the colony will start to build up in a hurry.
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