MAY

After what was a very shaky April, it was something of a relief to have a fair amount of sunshine during the first week of May. Up until now it has still been a month of contrasts, weather wise, seemingly switching from hot to cold at the drop of a hat. According to the weather man, we’ve had a couple of the hottest May days on record so I suppose we should be grateful for that. It has certainly prompted the bees to swarm, if the reports which I’ve received are anything to go by. We collected a very nice swarm from a neighbouring village last week. They were most well behaved and began setting up home almost as soon they were hived. They are in hive three at the meadow and I have been pleased to see the amount of activity at the hive entrance with most of the bees returning with copious amounts of pollen.

The end of the month now, a month that has ended pretty much the same way that it began, the weather going from one extreme to another, seemingly at the drop of a hat. The bees have seemingly come to terms with all of this and have been working from morning to night on all but the wettest of days. As a result, all of the hives, with the exception of 2, the swarm, now have supers on. The queen in 2 disappeared after about ten days and they have since been re-queened. This didn’t present a problem as we always re-queen, as soon as possible, any swarms that we decide to keep, and they appear now well settled with their new queen.