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.
No comments:
Post a Comment