The Buzzing Atmosphere

As spring unfolds, we initiate our annual hive checks, a busy period for both beekeepers and bees alike. As the season progresses, bees naturally engage in foraging and reproductive activities, necessitating colony growth and resource accumulation for success.

With the suns arrival in April, we seize our first opportunity to peek into the hives, assessing their winter survival and our winter preparations' efficacy. We're delighted to discover that all wintered hives have thrived, boasting healthy populations.

As warmer temperatures allow thorough into May inspections of every hive and frame, we notice the presence of practice swarm cells, indicating the bees' preparation for queen reproduction. These cells are delicately removed with minimal harm to the brood or bees.

However, just a week later, we find new queen cells, devoid of practice, containing royal jelly—a substance nurtured by nursing bees to foster queen development. The fate of the reigning queen rests on her egg-laying prowess; failure may result in her expulsion or demise by the colony.

Allowing swarm cells to mature leads to the emergence of new queens and eventual swarming, a phenomenon detailed in a previous blog post. Upon hatching, newly emerged queens engage in a survival battle, eliminating rival queens generally after 24hrs of hatching.

Concurrently, when they swarm the old queen, along with numerous workers, departs the hive, often carrying honey reserves. To prevent bee and honey loss, we remove swarm cells, striving to maintain a balance between colony needs and productivity.

As brood chambers fill with young bees and pollen stores increase, additional brood boxes and honey supers are added accordingly.

Spilts when required are carried out to further extend our own increase of nucs a smaller sized colony to then be moved to a hive to expand our number of hives in the apiary.

During inspections, we closely monitor the queen's performance, ensuring consistent egg-laying and brood production, vital for colony sustainability. Moreover, we contemplate factors such as the queen's age and sperm viability. Concurrently, we embark on a queen rearing program, a topic we'll delve into further soon.

Satisfied with our inspections, we confirm the bees' pest and disease-free status, observing some honey production. We also said goodbye, half of our hives embark on a journey to Scotland, leaving behind three hives and a recently relocated nuc box, now integrated into a hive making it now four hives.

As the season progresses into the summer months, we anticipate providing more comprehensive updates on each hive, offering detailed insights into their progress and experiences.