Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera)

The weather is wonderful, and for the first time in about eight years it is coinciding with an abundance of blossom from which ours bees can get ample supplies of nectar and pollen. So far it has been a great year for bees, acres of dandelions which yields nectar at low temperatures and plenty of pollen from Pussy Willow etc gave them a great chance to build up numbers over the last month or so and now the hives are bursting with bees and they are taking full advantage of the opportunity, and so am I!

The Horse Chestnuts and Sycamores are both in flower...

 ..as is this tree in the orchard, an ideas as to what it is?

It's a Quince and sorry to go all flowery again but they really are spectacular.

Our native apples are also in flower.....

...and indeed this Ecklinville Seedling is only just about to start.

The only real way to tell what blossom the bees are working if you don't actually see them on it, is by the colour of the pollen, and in this case it looks like Sycamore. There is also brick red pollen going in which  means they are also working Chestnut.

As you can see there are lots of bees in this hive, and these are probably only the house bees since the photo was taken on a warm sunny day (yesterday) and all the flying bees are out foraging.
You may notice a drawing pin on a frame on the LHS of the photo. There is also one that you can't see on the RHS, these mark the extent of the brood nest at the last inspection and in this hive there are 15 sides of brood which means that the colony is building up really well and could do with more room. It's time for a 'super' and we'll hopefully get some honey.

'Supers' on and fingers crossed for some honey. The whitethorn is about to flower so if the weather holds we should get a good crop.
The tall hive on the left is the strongest, and has already supplied 2 frames of capped brood to the colony on the right which was wintered as a 'Nuc', thereby allowing it to build up more quickly. Not only that but it has a second brood box on because I wanted to get some frames drawn, and they have drawn 5 frames in 4 days. Busy Bees!


We are members of the Midland Beekeepers Association  whose help and training has been invaluable. If you are interested in beekeeping it's important to find a local association for help and advice particular to your area.