Getting ready for winter

Today I finally took off the feeders from Beatrice and Adele hives.  They still had some sugar syrup in them but the bees had completely stopped taking the syrup.

I took away the reduced entrance blocks and replaced them with mouseguards except for Connie hive.  I need Charles to make some holes so I can attach the new mouseguard with drawing pins.  I am not fitting any plastic this year because although I have green woodpeckers locally I had no trouble with them last year so I am just going to monitor carefully.

I checked on Connie hive and bees are busy but the fondant I have put on is still there so they may be taking some of it.  I will heft the hives soon and perhaps put some fondant on Adele and Beatrice. There was alot less activity today but it was alot colder.

Hazel Oak School and bees

Today I went to talk to the Headmistress of Hazel Oak school about keeping bees.  This is a special school in Shirley and I know that one of the teachers is very keen.  Hazel Oak have a fab garden where they grow vegetables and keep chickens and bees would be a great addition.

They were several health and safety concerns and we talked about where to keep them and various strategies to keep bees and pupils separate.  I suggested a netting enclosure at the far end of the field with possibly a perimeter fence if more security were required.

It was a really interesting meeting with Mrs Jenkins asking me what would be the benefit to the school of having bees on site and I was busy thinking up all the ways that bees could become part of the school curriculum.  Cooking, environmental studies, history, science, carpentary, politics.  The list could go on and on......

So hopefully by next summer there might be bees at Hazel Oak.

sugar fondant

Apparently some of the beekeepers have started feeding fondant instead of syrup now. There is some concern over winter stores, because the weather is so mild the bees are still foraging, pollen is still going into the hive which probably means that there is brood.  So the bees will be using up their winter stores more quickly and over wintering bees may not last the winter because they have been working too hard.  Taking all this into consideration I have found some fondant in the back of the cupboard and I have put a wodge of it onto Connie hive in case their supplies are down.

All three beehives have had the best part of 4 gallons of sugar syrup each but you can't be too careful.

Varroa gard, Feeding - Still!

After the meeting on Monday night I decided to double check the feeders, Roger had warned me that the covers over the weir get stuck and the syrup doesn't flow well.  One cover had got stuck and I gave it a bit of a clean and replaced it.  I noticed that the syrup level is going down so the bees are still taking it and I decided to leave both feeders on Beatrice and Adele since the weather is still so mild.

I had put varroa gard on Beatrice since they had a huge varroa count.  I decided to put some more in but hadn't really thought through how you would get the polystyrene trays out of the hive once they were empty!  I tried poking them out with a stick but only succeeded in getting the bees really annoyed.  So I just pushed another tray in with 75g of varroa gard in it and on the way back down the garden retreating from the irritated bees it occurred to me that I should attach a wire of piece of string to the tray so that I can remove it with out poking things into the hive and upsetting my bees, one of which accompanied all the way down the garden giving me an almight telling off.

The bees are bring a very pale yellow/cream coloured pollen into the hive, so there is still brood being produced which explains in part the varroa levels.  Must check what has pale yellow pollen at this time of the year - probably ivy.

Class of 2011 meeting

Tonight I went to Stoneleigh BBKA headquarters for the class of 2011 meeting.   Basically it was to discuss how we had all got on so far, what we thought of the introduction to beekeeping course and to set up classes for the Basic Assessment.  

It was really interesting to hear how everyone had got on and what problems people had over the year.
There had been quite a lot of Drone laying queens this year and people were worried about feeding their bees and varroa.

Some interesting discussions about honey processing too.  How to pasteurise honey to make it set with smaller crystals by heating it and then chilling it to make a smoother softer consistency.   Have to try that with some of the jars of Oil Seed Rape honey (OSR) which has set so rock solid in the jars that you can only get it out with a very sharp knife.

From what Roger was saying my feeder may be gunged up which may explain why the bees aren't feeding or some of Roger's bees are prefering sugar fondant to syrup.   I might try that instead and take all the syrup off now.  Need to phone Roger for some fondant.

Beeswax

So yesterday I finished cleaning and filtering the beeswax I have collected from the honey harvest.
Mostly cappings and some frames had to be melted because the honey had crystallised in the cells and melting is the only way to harvest the honey.

I have now several cakes of clean wax to exchange for new sheets of foundation at the wax exchange next spring convention.

varroa again

So I have been doing a varroa count on the hives for the last few days and Beatrice has a high varroa count even after the four week apiguard treatment back in August/September.  Today I decided to treat them with a new product called Varroagard a powder put on a plastic tray just inside the entrance of the hive.  The idea is that the bees walk through the powder and it encourages cleaning.  The powder has oxalic acid in it so it must have some effect on the mites too.  I took a tray of 75g of varroagard upto Beatrice hive took off the reduced entrance block so that I could push the tray in.  A huge erruption of bees poured out of the hive as I pushed the tray in so I was unable to replace the entrance block.
I'll have to go back at dusk and have another go because the wasps are still around and showing alot of interest in the hives.

This is also the hive that feels significantly lighter than the other two even though they have all had 4 gallons of sugar syrup.  So we will have to see how this goes.

Not the Honey show

I decided this year I would be brave and enter the club honey show.  I got my entry in on time and decided on entering three pots of honey,  one in the standard competition, one in the novice class and one in the cottager class (for those with only 2 or 3 hives).  I also decided to enter a photograph and a cake.

Now comes the rub - this week is the one the boys break up for half term and yesterday and tonight we have had parents evenings.  Tonight was Sam's and he also has to go to Stratford to a tutor on Thursday night so we divided our responsiblities and mine was parents evening.

I had not realised that tonight was the night of the honey show!  So my top of the class pretensions will have to wait to be dashed next year.  Just need to check whether I still need to pay my jar of honey entrance fee!

Sugar syrup disaster

I went down to give the bees  some more sugar syrup.  The feeder on Adele Hive is a green plastic masiemore feeder that I bought at the convention it was empty but for a layer of sugar crystals and sugar crystals all over the covers on the weirs.  I needed to remove it and clean it but it was getting dark and I decided to do it today.  The bees were not happy and there were lots of them still in the feeder and up inside the plastic cone things that make the weirs I ended up brushing and banging unceremonsiously and the bees were not impressed - I got stung twice.  eventually I got the bees of and the feeder in the kitchen with only one bee attached which I managed to rescue later.   So now I've cleaned it up I will wait for nightfall and because of the amount of brace comb they have been attaching to the underneath of the feeder I think that I will put it on the crown board this time.

Beatrice hive have cleaned up the super beautifully but now I have to persuade them out before they start to put honey in the frames.  The moment I started putting the porter bee escapes into the crown board they got really angry - I just put the hive back together and ran - scarey bees!!

Will wait till it's dark tonight before I go down there again!

Autumn jobs

We have just finished treating the bees with Apiguard and we have started feeding.  They have already had one gallon of sugar syrup in the last four days. 

I extracted the honey on Friday afternoon we have about 40 lbs so really good.  Tonight I put the wax and one of the wet supers (honeycomb from which the honey has been extracted) back on the so they can clean it up before I give them some more syrup.  Connie hive is on her second gallon and Adele will get a second gallon tomorrow. 

I have to say that I am loving our new Maisemore feeders - you really don't have to bother the bees at all to add more syrup. 

Next job is to do a varroa count.

Bees and Hives

 Bees in the garden foraging on marjoram

This is the entrance to Connie hive with a reduced entrance block to prevent robbing from wasps and other bees.

Here you can see all three hives Adele on the far
left, Beatrice on the right and Connie at the back.

The other photos show activity at the entrance to Adele hive.

Crazy chinese bee men

Check this out - http://uk.news.yahoo.com/photos/china-s-bee-cloaking-competition-1310998950-slideshow/beekeeper-lv-waves-stands-bees-partially-covering-body-photo-074348094.html

Colours of pollen

I have been watching the bees going in the hive today - lots of bright yellow pollen (probably Himalayan Balsam)  but also white or very pale grey pollen - quite small amounts.  I was not sure what plant this pollen was from and it did not figure on my pollen colour chart.  I have found a great page on Wikipedia all about pollen colours http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollen_source it's really helpful.

We looked into Connie hive on Sunday and saw eggs so all is well in there and the strange collection of bees on the front of Adele hive have now gone - I was beginning to have all sorts of fantasies about losing the queen and the queen being stuck on the entrance to the hive but all seems well.

More news - my next door neighbours have been away and their brother and sister in law have been staying.  Apparently the brother got pursued by bees while trying to mow at the end of the garden and said he thought there was a swarm in one of the trees!  But they never said anything to us and if there was a swarm in their garden it has gone now - shame!

Routine inspection

So this morning Sue (my mentee) and I looked through Adele and Beatrice hives.  The plan was to
a/ Do a routine inspection - eggs, larvae, brood, stores, health and space etc.
b/ clean up all the drone brood brace comb at the bottoms of brood frames
c/ Dust with icing sugar (a varroa preventative measure)
Also to put a reduced entrance block on Adele hive.  I have already put them on Beatrice and Connie hives.

Adele Hive - Bees were very agitated, clouds of them and pinging off our veils plus the smoker took a long time to get going so we didn't have much smoke.  Just got on and did what we needed to do.  Not many eggs, some larvae and lots of capped over brood but the hive is very full and the super is very heavy and it can be usual for the queen to reduce laying at this time of year, so hopefully that is alright.

Cleaned off the drone brood and uncapped some didn't see any varroa on the brood but did see a mite actually on a drone.  Another oops moment as I was removing brace comb the frame slipped and I shook a load of bees onto the ground.  I think I need to join Bill Turnbull's bad beekeepers club.  So by the time we had shut the hive up and I wanted to put on the entrance block the front of the hive was covered with bees trying to get back in.  Just really hope the Queen wasn't one of them!

Dusted with icing sugar before shutting up the hive.

Beatrice - Much calmer, super feels quite heavy.  Bees covering up to 10 frames now.  Shuffled some of the frames to encourage bees to draw out the wax. 

Saw loads of eggs, larvae and capped over brood.  All looking really healthy.  Dusted with icing sugar.

So on Sunday we are hosting a members apiary visit.  We are saving looking in the Connie hive until then - hope some people turn up.

A brilliant idea - oops a big mistake!

I was sorting out some beekeeping stuff and looked into the nuc box we had bought - there was a frame of old wax in there, some pollen and now some wax moth.   I took it out to deal with it and stop the wax moth from spreading. 

Some bees arrived to check the frame out - apparently I hadn't realised there were some stores (honey) on this frame.  Then I had my brilliant idea - I put the frame in the greenhouse then bees would be attracted into the greenhouse and pollinate my tomato plants.  A couple of hours later I saw loads of bees around the back door a couple in the house and loads of bees in the greenhouse.  They sounded like a small swarm!  Apparently there was considerably more honey on this frame than I had realised and it was not very pleasant going out of the back door or being in the garden.  Oops this was my big mistake.

So I put on my bee suit and took the frame up the garden and put it near the hives where I would collect it later after the bees bedtime.  However the bees took alot of convincing and started turning there attention to the plastic chest where the nuc box was.  I still had bees in the green house too and it took them the rest of the day and the next morning to convince themselves that the food source had gone.

Note to self - don't do that again!!

Bad beekeeping!

It's been two weeks since our last inspection and so Connie hive has swarmed for the fourth time this season!  New resolution that we ensure we do weekly inspections from now on!!!!!!!!   So we chose the best closed queen cell and an open queen cell and now wait for three weeks fingers crossed. 

Beatrice hive is looking good,  bees over 8 - 10 frames lots of bees busy in the super but not many stores in the brood box so we put a frame of honey I had saved from the spring into the hive.   Did a treatment of hive clean because we missed them last treatment.   Saw eggs larvae, capped over brood.

Adele looking good lots of eggs, larvae and capped over brood.  A few play cups which we squeezed out.  Didn't see any queens but not concerned.

All bees pretty grumpy - do varroa check next time.

Gardener's World Live at the NEC

So Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning I was helping on the BBKA stand.  Wednesday doing
candle rolling which was quite good fun but no chatting about bees and on Thursday morning doing the meeting and greeting.

Mostly people wanted to ask about bumblebees.  Most asked question do bumblebees make honey?  Yes!

Honey!

We extracted the oil seed rape honey crop on Sunday and put it into jars today.  According to
Suzanne's reckoning 35lbs.  Not bad at all.

Bee update

So time do check the hives again.  Suzanne and I set off down the garden in the rain. 

Beatrice first looking healthy but bees were quite irritable - we saw eggs but didn't see the
queen.  We had meant to do a treatment with hive clean since varroa numbers are on the increase but we forgot so must do that next time.

Adele next super was feeling nice and heavy - a good amount of brood and eggs all well but grumpy.
remembered to do the hive clean with this hive.

Connie last - very grumpy girls pinging off our veils but all that honey had been moved to make way for eggs and all looks well - no sign of the queen though.  Did give this hive a dose of hive clean as well. 

Extracting Oil Seed Rape honey on Sunday and helping out at the BBKA stand at Gardeners World Live next week.

Eggs hurrah!

Suzanne and I went through the hives last friday and in Connie hive we found the queen on the crown board but the brood box full of honey stores.  Action -to make up a super and put it on this hive as soon as possible.

In Beatrice hive we found eggs although this is a very small nucleus sized colony.

In Adele hive we found bees and honey but no eggs and no queen.  Action we took a frame of eggs from Beatrice and placed it in Adele.  Felt terrible though since Beatrice is now such a small colony.

Next day put a super and queen excluder on Connie hive.

Yesterday I quickly looked in Adele hive - I wanted to check if a queen cell had been made on the frame of eggs we had put in there.  It hadnt although bees had made a few queen cups.  But there were eggs on more than one frame so there must have been a queen in there after all.  Action to take a frame of brood to put in Beatrice hive to replace eggs that were removed.  More than one if it can be spared.

More Honey!

Another 7 frames of honey off Adele hive today. I left them two frames which hadn't ripened yet and there was plenty of stores in the brood box last time we looked.  Now we just have to extract it.

Honey!

Today I decided to check on the Supers to see how much honey was there.   The oilseed rape has been in flower a good week - 10 days and this honey has to be harvested early since is crystallises very quickly and is hard to extract. 

The bees find it hard to eat in the winter since it sets very hard and they struggle to liquidise it in the cold.

So took off 8 frames of honey off Beatrice hive and one frame of Adele hive before I ran out of replacement frames - so came back in the house and made up more frames and another super so I can collect more tomorrow.

Swarm pictures

First Swarm

Giles in action

Smaller Swarm found by Giles

Left over night and by next day both add joined together under the plastic box.

Not so ungrateful after all.

Apparently the bees in Lichfield didn't leave but are going about their business as usual in their new home.

This is not good.

L sent me this on Monday the day before they left for good.

Ungrateful girls

So one swarm (a caste I think) went to a lady in Fen End. The second caste swarm (Swarm with a virgin queen)went home to Lichfield but they didn't like the accommodation. On Monday that were on the outside of the hive but some honey and syrup persuaded them back in but not for long. On Tuesday L text me

"Bees have left me with a cold and lonely hive :( Went out at 7pm last night, all
well, this morning, all gone.

And again!!

Suzanne turned up at 1.30pm to go through the swarmed hive just before she arrived i was out hanging up the washing and heard the bees - went down the end of the garden and there was another swarm the air was full of bees and there were loads of bees around the hive that we made up on Friday.

At first I thought the swarm had moved but when we got behind the hedge the swarms we collected yesterday were still there. There was another in the scrub.

So we called L to see if she wanted a swarm and she did so we got a box and a sheet and when back next door to collect another swarm.

Then we went through the garden hive and destroyed all the queen cells bar two - an heir and a spare to try and revent more cast swarms.

Now I am writing this I think it is likely we missed some of the queen cells in the new hive and I am tempted to go back and double check as I am sure the swarm came from there. They must have more than two queen cells.

They swarmed again!

Yesterday we went to our next door neighbours for a Royal wedding party and as we arrived at about 2pm and went into the garden I could hear bees. Giles and I walked down to the hedge at the end and the sky was full of bees so the Garden hive had swarmed.

I eventually found that I could scramble through a gap in the hedge and fight my way through the brambles and nettles behind our gardens and I could see the girls clustered in some old brambles and scrub.

Suzanne came round and suited up. We became the party entertainment, trogging up and down the garden in our beesuits.

Armed with smoker and sheets secateurs and cardboard boxes we fought our way to the swarm and snipped away at bits of nettle and branches until we could catch them in the box, put it down on the sheet and propped it up with a branch. Giles found another cluster of bees a few feet away and we did the same again. I don't think there was a queen in this group so they had probably got separated from the others.

Later I went and covered the box with a black plastic bag to keep out the rain since I had no home for them that evening. They were all snug in there so hopefully they would stay put until I would be able to collect them tomorrow.

They have swarmed!

We looked through the hive on 15th April and the girls were very busy with lots of drone brood and not as many eggs I expected (I didn't realise what that meant at the time). We saw the Queen and I expected them to be planning to swarm but 13 days later they have gone.

We didn't realise at first because there seemed to be lots of bees and even when we found frame after frame with sealed queen cells we didn't twig straight away. So we started to do an artificial swarm but we couldn't find the queen and we looked through twice. So we followed the procedure for artificial swarm when you can't find the queen and shook the bees into the replaced brood box and put the original brood box on the top so that the bees could sort themselves out. But then it started to dawn on me that we hadn't found the queen and we hadn't seen any eggs and all the queen cells were already sealed that they had swarmed.

So we put a frame with two queen cells in the bottom box and left the frames with sealed queen cells in the top box and I will separate them tomorrow.

Goodness knows what will be going on in the garden hive when we open that on Saturday.

Temple hive

I went to beekeeping meeting last night and talked to a few people about our troublesome girls. Someone told me they also have a hive like that and they also put a wet super (super that has had honey extracted from it) on the hive for extra food.

The general consensus was that if the bees haven't eaten all the fondant they are not hungry and that if they are busy bringing pollen into the hive then all is well and not to worry.

So I'm going to try not worrying and pour the sugar syrup down the sink!

Garden Hive treatment

So I finished the Garden Hive's intensive hive clean treatment on Friday and started doing a daily mite drop count yesterday. So far no varroa - hurray!

I think I may need to feed the Temple hive - hive is feeling very light but bees are out and about regularly now.

Busy bees

Temple hive - daily mite drop

Besides shutting the bees in this morning - I calculated the daily mite drop for the Temple hive.  The sheet had been in the hive for a week and I counted 16 mite divided by 7 days of the week equals 2.2 mites a day.  This is a much better ratio than the Garden hive and better for this time of year. 

After the workmen had finished the fence I took the gaffer tape off the entrances.  I decided to put the wet super on the Temple hive since it is feeling a bit light and since I took the crown board off to put on a queen excluder I decided to give this hive one treatment of hive clean just to keep those Varroa levels down. 

Bees and the builders

I've had to gaffer tape the hive entrances up this morning - thank goodness that it is a cold and frosty one.
The next door neighbours are replacing the garden fence and the bees took against the workmen yesterday.  Poor workmen just got stung and couldn't finish the job.  Hopefully they will have finished the fence by the time it is warm enough for the bees to want to go out.

Hive Clean

Ok so the hive clean arrived and we met up on Sunday afternoon to treate the Garden hive.  Hive clean has to be at body temperature so I had one sachet tucked under my bee suit and off we went, Greg, Suzanne, Sam and me.  Unfortunately it is very difficult to get the hive clean sticks open with your marigolds on we eventually managed it using a hive tool but the stuff then squirted out in all directions and not exactly on the bees. So we sent Sam back for another stick with slightly better success.  Note to self - bring a pair of scissors next time.

Second job was to have another attempt at putting the Temple hive on a mesh floor which is better for controlling Varroa.  We have taken delivery of a milk crate to use as a hive stand.  So the boys lifted the hive while Suzanne and I moved the wheel hub which was the old hive stand and replaced it with a milk crate and mesh floor.  Now I can monitor the Varroa in this hive and we will find out if I need to treat this hive as well.

 Here we are substituting the solid floor for a mesh one on the Temple hive.

From this picture you can see the state of my garden in the
winter.  At least the water drains away from the bees.  You can just see the Temple hive behind my right shoulder.

The all important varroa sticks - next treatment is in 6 days.

Varroa problem

 It is hard to make out from this photo but the large blobs on the board are Varroa mites.  By placing this corrugated plastic board under the hive open mesh floor, I have been able to count the dead mites dropping off the bees using a magnifying lamp.  I have been monitoring the Garden hive and we have a substantial Varroa problem.  We have a varroa mite drop of 17 a day - this is extremely high for this time of the year and our bees will be at risk of viruses and ill health if we do not act quickly.

Since we have already treated them with Oxalic acid before Christmas we do not have many options at the moment because the weather is still too cold for some varroa treatments.  We have decided to use a product called Hive clean.
 Hive Clean is supposed to be very effective against Varroa as it encourages the bees to groom themselves and each other and apparently the varroa also fall off the bees and die.

A week ago we (Suzanne, Greg and Sam and I) cleaned off the hive floors and checked that the bees had enough food by hefting the hives and we gave them some sugar fondant for good measure, see picture.

Unfortunately we weren't able to change the floor of the Temple hive from solid to mesh because we are using an old wheel hub from Charles's racing car as a hive stand and the mesh floor is too wide to fit on.  So we have been unable to monitor this hive for varroa so far. 

I also have to remember to fit the mouseguards back on the hives.

Calculating daily mite drop.

I've been reading about how some bees are learning to get rid of Varroa mites by cleaning them off one another.  I realised I have done very little about varroa until I treated with Oxalic acid back before Christmas.  I have decided to check on how infested the bees are by calculating the daily mite drop.

Mite fall onto the floor of the hive all the time so I have put an inspection board under the mesh floor and take it out regularly and count the varroa mites that are present divided by the number of days you left the board in the hive = the daily mite drop.  Too many and you must treat the hive again in the spring.
There were six mites this morning, so we'll see how we go.

Bees are flying

this afternoon, it was lovely and sunny and the bees were out in force.  They must be desperate
for some fresh air and exercise and were making the most of the sunshine.  A lot were landing on the
trampoline maybe because it is blue they were attracted to the colour.  I haven't got any flowers out in
my garden yet so there was no forage for them.

Starvation

This morning I went and checked on the bees.  I hefted the hives - this means getting hold of one end and slightly lifting the hive to feel how heavy it is.  Heavy is good it means food.  They both felt heavy the
Garden hive was heavier than the Temple hive.  I took the roof off the Garden hive and all the sugar fondant I gave them before Christmas had gone.  The insulation I put in the roof had fallen out on top of the crown board so I removed all of it, I'm not sure insulation is really necessary.   I gave the Garden hive another piece of fondant and closed it up.  The Temple hive hadn't really touched their fondant and the insulation I put in that hive had also fallen out so I removed it completely and checked the fondant.  It still felt soft on the underside where the bees were feeding so I left it with them.  I will check on the bees every two weeks now to see if they need more fondant.  Starvation is a real risk from now on as the weather gets warmer and the queen may start laying eggs.  Since there are no flowers yet for the bees to forage they are completely dependent on their winter stores until March.

Lecture by the seasonal bee inspector

Last night the warleambees had a lecture by the seasonal bee inspector Julian Routh. His lecture was very useful. Telling us about notifiable diseases like Americam foul brood and how to recognise them. He also was encouraging us to register our apiaries with Beebase which is a database of beekeepers run by FERA (part of DEFERA). It was a really interesting meeting.

Enough of your beeswax: Beekeeping Basic Assessment

http://www.britishbee.org.uk/examinations_and_assessments.php

Beekeeping Basic Assessment

This winter some of us fledgling beekeepers are getting together to work through the syllabus for the basic assessment (equivalent of a driving test for beekeepers).  You can take the test once you have kept bees for a whole year.  It is an oral test with some practical elements for instance you may have to demonstrate that you know how to light a smoker or make a frame for a beehive.

It has been fun getting together and trying to remind ourselves of all we learnt last year.  We are led by Tim who tries to keep us on schedule but often we digress and start chatting and telling anecdotes about how we got on this year.

The thing that really puts me off doing the basic assessment is that you have to do the test infront of an audience.  I'm not very good with audiences, I can be quite good at doing things if no one is watching!

Treating for Varroa

Beehives in the snow and Giles with all the stuff.  This was
just before Christmas and we needed to treat the bees for the
Varroa mite by sprinkling them with a solution of Oxalic acid.
Oxalic acid burns the mouthparts of the mites so that they cannot cling on to the bees.  The first hive we treated was the one on the right hand side - we have named this the garden hive.  These bees were very quiet and didn't make much fuss.  We put some icing sugar fondant on the crown board as an extra feed and shut them up again. 

The hive on the left we have named the Temple hive - this is the hive that swarmed a second time in June and then went to the heather and made 10lbs of heather honey.  when we opened up this hive they started to come up out of the frames and fly around some of them landed in the snow and couldn't get up again.  I tried to hurry up but just knocked over my oxalic acid bottles in the snow and only just had enough to treat the hive.  I shut them up as quickly as I could but alot of them had got out and landed in the snow.  They also got some fondant for extra winter feed.   I didn't realise at the time that if I had picked up the bees and warmed them in my hand I could have thrown them back into the air and perhaps saved a few but at the time I didn't realise this.   I'm not sure whether I'll be treating with Oxalic acid next year.