[cloddopper]

The person who I'm mentoring has reported that the 5 pints of 1:1 that were fed to the bees 21 Jan had been taken down very fast . a quick peek  in the store super   shows it was capped and also being used .
On the floor board /entrance  plenty of bees coming in with lots of bright orange and light yellow pollen    I managed five seconds of it before having to urgently press the escape button .

The hives are fair humming with the new seasons nurse bees , the queen is now laying her own weight of eggs each day so  you'll need to feed the yet again a similar amount  if this foul weather continues . Or better still feed them anyway to get the season off to a great start .

 Due to the queen laying so many eggs the hive will be filling with eggs , open & sealed brood ready for a more even long term rise in temperature. As the Queen takes a rest  towards the end of March she may cause the hive to create new queen cells and present the hive for swarming .

So do try and get a few checks done before the hive swarms  lest you lose half the bees & honey to nature.

 When in East Anglia  with 50 plus hives that had come through the winter  11 April was the earliest time I had a call from the police to remove a swarm in Wisbech town centre .   
More often than not a few days either side of the 21 April was the mad time for massive levels of prime swarms issuing from hives or feral nests.

 Don't forget if you collect swarms it's always best to treat them for Varroa the day you put them in a hive and feed them . Many an apairy gets zapped by folk introducing heavily Varroa infected untreated collected swarms .
.

 Over the years I realised that a good indication of the time drawing close for bees to swarm is when you first see crows sitting on their eggs in their nests .. usually you only see a head & neck poking out the twigs .

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Very interesting info cloddopper thanks for that i myself used to help my dad with the bee hives, many a decade ago that was though. We got wiped out by varroa sadly snf havent kept any since; however i  managed to get hold of some hives from someone and I would really like to get some once my herb snd flower patches are established. Cant wait

[cloddopper]

WBF,
 I found that using cinder blocks laid on their side and putting two 4x4 treated square posts across then adding old stainless steel double drainer sinks on them then putting the hives on the draining boards was a great way to have a work platform at just over knee height , I always knew where my tools were ( In the sink ).

The hive at the opposite end to the one being worked on was a fantastic right height platform to put the roof, crown feeder & supers over on to whilst manipulating the hive .

 I also used to push a 2 inch length of carefully cut sink waste pipe in the plug holes so that if it rained the bees had a source of water close to them ie in the sink .

 I ended up with  a hundred plus hive sat in pairs on sinks like that at my six apiaries. many times with a neuc box of 6 frames sat across the actual sink if I was increasing the bees .


 Lupins are a good long term source od pollen & nectar but be aware that they are harmful to a lot of animals . Letting various brassicas run to seed gives a fair period of pollen & nectar as well .
 The old ox eye & dog  daisy   is brilliant  for pollen & nectar if you have it in new turned ground .

 Another bee love after the June gap is Rose-bay Willow Herb in boggy ground where there is no stagnant water , it also makes for good honey  . Unfortunately  rosebay seeds are super light & tend to  invade your garden if there is a lot close by .

[waterbuffalofarmer]

Thanks for that cloddopper I will bear it in mind for the future I did notice that bees like rocket and also comfrey and gorse and I do have plenty of those; are they any good for honey production? I know clover is very good and its rampant hrre in the spring.

[cloddopper]

If your bees are thriving on the local flora then anything that there is good . Some plants such as ragwort and ivy  produce a honey that tends to give you the runs if you have it in heavy volumes in the honey .

 Comfrey left to flower  rather than using it for regular compost material  or animal feed gives a very long nectar season that even produces a little nectar  at 50 oF ( 10 oC ). Your stock animals will also eat it with glee.

At the end of the season you can cut it and compost what's left  . If you have the space you can easily set up a massive area of comfrey just by tanking finger nail size root cuttings and pot growing them into plants , planting the six inch tall transplants out at 3 feet between plants

Clover.
Second cut clover produces the best nectar flows Red seem to out do white in some keepers minds .. I'm not sure.
I indeed all clovers do make for a premium honey as does a field of peas adjacent to the hives .

[BKeeper]

Could I just urge a little caution about opening hives too early in the season?

As has been said, the bee colonies are expanding nicely and all mine appear to have come through the winter.  As a result I may have a couple spare in nuclei. The danger of being too anxious to look in hives is that the weather is not warm enough and you could end up with chilled brood.  You can tell all you need to know about what is going on in a colony by simply standing and looking at the hive entrance.

A rule of thumb for adequate temperature for bee examination is can you stand outside in your shirt sleeves? (or the female equivalent)

I do not plan to carry out my first inspection of the hives until mid April.

[cloddopper]

The bees fly at 10 oC ( 50 oF )  so 13 oC is good for looking deep in a hive so long as it's not chucking down with rain or blowing a hooley
 
 On mainland UK If this dry sunny weather carries on you may find that the bees swarm  early
 Is the IOM  bee weather much different ?

Yes , I know the southern end of the island is almost subtropical for a lot of the year but up on Snaefel it can  be quite bleak even in mid summer , spent three or four weeks in 1976 around the TT circuit , based near Peel .

[BKeeper]

I am on the northern plain.  We are probably about a week or ten days behind you.  We also have a very dark native bee that I have found is not quick to swarm.  I have never had a swarm in April and usual start to expect swarming preparation in practice week or TT week.  However I do carry out 7 day inspections from mid April (weather permitting!)

[cloddopper]

Dark native bees all over the Uk tend to be the best long term producers , temperament and able adapters to the locality .

All these fancy New Zealand or Italian yellow re queened ones are often a bit too much of a pedigree strain and suffer a lot when stressed .

 Are you up by the old Jerby army camp area ?