It is often said that "bees do nothing invariably" which is one way of saying prepare for surprises.
And the first visit to the bees after winter is often the time when they spring one of those surprises. You can take every precaution to set them up well but there are no guarantees that the colony will have made it through the dark days of winter.
I'm glad to report that my bees did make it and look fairly healthy. There were quite a few flying, there were bees on about four or five frames and new brood had been laid. What they did need though was lots of food, they had pretty much used up all their stores. So I started the job of moving them to fresh comb and gave them some stores I'd laid down for them. I hope that'll be enough to keep them going while the weather improves.
Except that the weather has not improved. If anything it has got worse. The year started cold and it has continued. We had snow at Easter, albeit an early Easter, and very low temperatures for days before and afterwards. So on the next visit I gave them some sugar syrup - my stores of honey-filled comb being depleted. If I do nothing this year I need to get more stores ready so they can get going well early next year.
To be honest I'm a bit worried about my bees, I have a horrid feeling that they are on the verge of collapsing and that the bad weather will push them over the edge. They should be out foraging for nectar by now, dining well on all the blossom that is out but high wind, heavy rain and low temperatures will conspire to keep them cooped up. I only hope they have enough to survive this and to feed the colony as its numbers build up. Poor creatures.
I'll feed them again by topping up the syrup feeder and try to have a closer look at them if there is time. At the moment I do not have them on a full spread of combs - I'm missing a couple which is probably no bad thing as I don't want them to spread themselves too thinly as they build up. I'll order the bits I need this week so they are ready for when they start to prosper (fingers crossed).
Other things to do: fumigate the old comb that are left from last year though some of it is so dark that it might be worth burning it and getting them to start again.
I've fed them again. The weather has been lousy- very cold, wet and windy so they have had no chance to get going. I visited today (15 April) and there is a ring of wax around the mesh on the feeder and that is a good sign. I was worried that all the bees were so young that they would not have the ability to produce wax yet.
If the weather is better this weekend I'll do a much more in-depth inspection to see how they are faring. I'm worried that they are not very healthy and labouring to build up their numbers. A friend has lost one colony this year which seemed to be winning its battle to survive and then just died out in a couple of days. Admittedly that was a nuc rather than a full colony but the danger remains.
The start of 2008 stands in sharp contrast to 2007. The early months of last year were warm, dry and not very windy. This year has been the complete opposite.
