Greetings Members,
Well we are nearly through the most trying time for some and perhaps the best paid holidays for others.
Hope you got much done over the prison period with your bees, even down to a lick of paint after the maintenance required for wintering down!
The weather of course has been quite balmy and we are all so fortunate to have had this lockdown during such an forgiving weather pattern, the temperatures have kept the bees active and flying and there appears to be a surprising amount of nectar still being generated by flowers!
However, do NOT stop feeding, in fact, keep that liquid sugar up and make sure you do not take too much honey off. The weather is bound to turn nasty sooner rather than later!
Bees are still breeding and they will need food for the newbees as well as themselves, likewise if the weather turns hellish much food will be consumed keeping the hive warm
Remember: bees to NOT hibernate. They cluster together in the brood box, mainly, creating heat, and they will rotate from the outside cluster perimeter to the comb face as the outer bee gets colder. So much energy is used: Energy= Heat!
Now at this stage there will be NO committee meeting tomorrow night (Monday) .
Our next field day, our last for the season, will probably be mid-May.
We will post immediately as soon as a safe period can be determined.
Regards to all
Paul O’Donnell
President.