I am just back from checking my hives after the gales last night and two were in urgent need of help, one having tipped and nudged the other askew on the floor. As the temperature with the wind chill was pretty low, around 4 degrees the bees stayed clustered whilst I put them to rights.
I also took the chance to lift some lids and check on stores and as I suspected they will gratefully accept a lump of candy in a day or so. When I say lump I am not talking an ounce or two which some seem to think is more than enough I am talking a couple of kilos or more. Anything left over in Spring can be melted down and used as liquid feed.
One consolation if you need it is that some bees are just determined not to go through the Winter and so mother nature culls them out to minimise their genes. I have two nucs which are toddling along happily and 2 dead colonies with plenty of stores, and no bees left. Whilst I am not that amused about it on the other hand I’d rather lose them now than spend time in Spring trying various tricks to support them by taking material from thriving hives and so not doing them any favours.
Talking of nucs there is also new to the site an article on the how to’s and tricks with nucs which is to be published later in the year.
Merry Christmas
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