So on Friday I took what probably will be the final visit to the apiary- in terms of opening up the hive anyway. The weather has finally taken a turn and also the shorter days are well recognised by the bees as they use the sun to navigate. There were considerably less foragers but they were finding pollen still, likely to be ivy pollen and the guard bees were out in force making sure those entering were not trespassing. This final autumn visit was to do a second varroa treatment and to feed them.
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| Guard Bees sniffing out those landing |
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| Ivy pollen still going in the hive |
Varroa are little buggers of mites that live on the backs of bees ans suck their blood. They weaken a colony to collapse and are thought to be may be one of the causes of colony collapse disorder. This mite was introduced to the UK around two decades ago and it's down to beekeepers to keep the pests at bay to make sure hives are strong and healthy. We use Apilife Var which is charcoal like wafers of thymol. We place it in the corners of hive and if I'm honest I have no idea how it works but the varroa magically drop off and die.
We also gave them some fondant, they have strong supplies but I don't think you can be too safe! We feed our girls bee fondant (its basically bakers fondant) this way we know they will make it over winter. The next time we'll feed them may not be until January but it will depend on the weather.
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| Bee fondant, you can see the bees inside the bag licking it clean! The fondant sits on the top of the crown board meaning should they need more we just whip the roof off and put in another bag ensuring heat loss is kept to a minimum |
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