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  • Bad Spring.

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #10798  by AdamD
 08 May 2021, 17:23
I found my records for last year and compared the number of supers in early May to what I have today. Many colonies had brood boxes which were full or had moved on to double brood boxes by this time.
May 2020 : Number of supers: 4 - 6
May 2021: Number of supers: 0

The difference is rather stark! Is it bad for others or is it just me?
 #10801  by MickBBKA
 08 May 2021, 17:36
I have quite a few very big colonies but they are all dressed up with no where to go. We had a blizzard yesterday. There is only 3 weeks of forage left here then thats it for the year. I have only ever had a crop after june once in 9 years, we just don't have the weather or flowers after that in my area. I have 2 colonies that had 3/4 full supers last time I was able to look. I am sure they will have had to eat that by now.
 #10803  by NigelP
 08 May 2021, 18:15
Before the latest "freeze" I had several half filled supers, most of which have remained half filled (phew!). Just need a spot of decent warmth...coming next week. But definitely behind last season when I had supers ready to harvest in mid May.
Today we had torrential rain with real feel factor of 3C....this evening we are basking in a balmy (or barmy) 15C!
It's bonkers weather.
 #10806  by Steve 1972
 08 May 2021, 18:32
For the first time in keeping bees this is the worst weather I have seen at this time of the year..all but one colony have supers on as they needed the space but none of them have anything in them..I was extracting at the 23rd of may last year but I fear my Spring crop will be ruined this year..my only hope is that the bees have got a little honey stored in the brood box along with pollen so they can build up for the late Spring and Summer forage..
 #10807  by Patrick
 08 May 2021, 20:00
Colonies are a mix of stalled and bigger but precious little nectar in supers and on the downward slope of the orchard blossom. Little OSR locally and everything arable is going into maize / potatoes / whole crop wheat straight to local biodigester so useless for forage

Unfortunately around me the “Covid effect” has meant everywhere has been mechanically tidied within an inch of its life - or beyond it. Like Mick, I reckon give or take a week of good weather and the tail of blossom we will be straight into a flow dearth until July when we normally pick up a decent bramble flow but with every boundary flailed back to the wire, I am not sure from where..

I am for the first time in twenty years having to move bees to find local forage, as I have been given a call to help pollinate a large block of field beans. I not entirely enthusiastic as Somerset seems to in the middle of an EFB outbreak again and I do not want unwittingly move bees into an existing outbreak area.
 #10808  by Caroline
 08 May 2021, 21:11
I'm in the heart of the South Downs National Park and in the 13 years I've been keeping bees I have had an abundance of OSR, this year not seen a single field. I have yet to learn of any fields within reach of my hives being planted with anything resembling bee forage. Luckily the hedgerows have had plenty of blackthorn. But the weather has not been great, sightly warmer than some of you further up country have had, but most days it's been blowing a gale, and now the 'spring showers' have come at the wrong time, we could have done with them at the beginning of April.

Unfortunately I had to relocate my hives and now don't have much shelter from the wind. Yesterday I thought I might get in a quick inspection. Arrived at the field and the foragers were active. Within minutes the clouds appeared, the sun disappeared, the wind started to gust and the temperature dropped. I lit the smoker (on the third attempt, as the wind kept blowing it out). Looked at the hive entrances , not a bee in view; a few stragglers battling to make it back across the field. The bees weren't going to thank me for opening the hives; and I like to enjoy my beekeeping. I gave up and returned home!

One hive was doing really well and has supers on, not sure now how full they will be. The other two struggled out of winter and I have now put some feed on as a safeguard because of the poor weather (nice tempered bees so I don't want to lose them).

The forecast is for a rise in temperature, but the Met Office is showing winds gusting at up to 40mph in my location again on Monday. The weather patterns have definitely changed to when I was a gal.