Spring is in full swing, the blossom is out, and the bees should be flying by now. Sadly, mine are not. I opened the hives last month, and found piles of dead bees, and some nasty mould:
I don't know exactly what killed them - probably some kind of virus, such as chronic bee paralysis virus. Almost certainly spread within and across the hives by Varroa mites. But it means - currently - the end of all my bees. It's a shame, as they were all from the same family tree, right from my first colony that I got back in 2012, headed up by queen Rosalind.
Anyway, before I can get new bees, I needed to clean things up. The first task was to burn all the frames. They could still be harbouring the infection that killed my bees, so I can't take the risk of using them again. The best way to dispose of old frames is to burn them. They do burn well:
The next task was to scrape off any remaining propolis on the brood and super boxes, and sterilise the remaining hive parts. This is done with a blowtorch. The idea is to work fairly quickly, so as to scorch the wood but not burn it.
Then, I put new frames in. Acting on a tip from fellow Widcombe beekeeper Jessica, I put in 10 new frames of wax foundation, and also a frame of drawn wax from one of my spare super frames:
The idea is that any passing swarm might smell the wax, take a look inside, and find an empty - but fully furnished - beehive all ready for them to move into. New bee landlord Joel assures me that he usually gets a swarm in either his, or his neighbour's garden, every spring. So, if I'm lucky, I might find a passing swarm setting up home in one of my hives. That, at least, is the theory - we'll see how it works out over the next few weeks.
This will be my last blog entry as Beechen Bees. But - assuming I do get some bees, one way or another, this season - it won't be the last you'll hear of me. Stay tuned for some news from The Southdown Apiary!
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