An early start

Temperature: 10C
Weather: Cool, light rain, light wind
Stings: None

My worries about my bees compelled me to visit them much earlier than I ever have. Usually I leave it to February or March before I make a visit. I went earlier because this is a tricky time of year if the weather is mild. It might encourage the queen to start laying and if there is another cold snap then there'll be lots of new mouths to feed and nothing to give them as the stores will be used up and there'll be no forage.

So, I went along today to try and remedy that. On the recommendation of a much wiser beekeeper than me I lightly soaked some sugar and left it in the top of the hive. That was the intention when I set out. Everything changed when I got there as the mild day - about 10 degrees - had encouraged lots of bees to fly. About 50 - 60 of them were hovering in front of the hive. It looked like they were scouts orienting themselves and they were making a loud buzz. It was spitting so I guess they were annoyed at being caught out in the rain plus the woodpecker guard (see below) was making it tricky for them to approach.

As I had no gloves with me I didn't want to open them up and risk annoying them even more and getting stung a lot for trying to do them a favour. I went away again, got some gloves and went back. I opened them up and was pleased to see bees on four or five frames. I didn't look long though as they boiled up as soon as the light hit them. I put down the sugar and closed up but still had four angry bees trying to sting me through my jumper sleeves. I did get the sugar down though so they do have something to get them going. I'll keep an eye on the weather and have a look again when it warms up.

Reports that the snow around Christmas had blocked hive entrances led me to take a visit in late December. It's a good job I did. Two of the three hives in the allotment had been attacked by woodpeckers. On one hive there was a small hole and on the other a much bigger one. There were a few bees around that one wondering why there was a hole in the side of their hive. I rushed away, got some chicken wire, then went back and wrapped two of them up.

When I visited today it didn't look like they woodpeckers had done any more damage on the one that was worst attacked. The damage was no worse on the other one too and, thankfully, my hive escaped completely. Woodpecker damage is usually attributed to green woodpeckers and I've not seen any of those hereabouts - just the black and white ones.