Just an update on our bee hives at Aberthaw as now is the time they’re busier than ever!
The weather during the Winter months has been fairly harsh – with wind, rain and snow experienced. We have visited the hives twice during this time, mainly to make sure they were still secure. Our hives are mounted on concrete blocks to make sure they’re well clear of any water on the ground and we found they were dry externally. We also checked following the snow to make sure the small entrance left open on each hive was clear so that the bees had sufficient ventilation – luckily everything was as it should be and we could see the bees were thriving.
During the winter the size of each hive was reduced to just a brood box so that the bees were able to maintain sufficient warmth to survive the drop in temperature. Under the lids we placed a layer of lamb’s wool insulation but left ventilation through a restricted entrance and an open mesh floor.
With the warmer weather arriving we had a thorough check of each hive and found that all of the hives had survived. We also found a snail, which had decided that a warm hive was the best place to spend winter!
Activity of each hive has increased and to give the bees more space we have just added a super – another large size hive box – on top of the brood box. This will allow the bees to move honey from the brood up into the super and clear the brood box to give more space for the queen to lay eggs and increase the size of the colony.
The queen is unable to access the super, as a queen exclude grid is fitted between the brood and the super, and the larger queen is unable to pass through the narrow openings.
We’re really excited to see what happens over the course of the next few months and are eagerly awaiting another bumper honey crop!