The oxalic acid eventually turned up after the traditional seasonal chaos of the Royal Mail, so it was time to go and treat the bees.
I decided to put on ‘emergency’ sugar bags again this year (see the previous post for the instructions) just in case we have a long winter or a poor start to spring.
On inspection, all the hives at the apiary had bees, and all seemed fit and healthy, with good sized clusters!
Of my hives, Rebecca seemed the strongest - a black-looking colony in a tight bundle, active, but calm, with no flying when we took the lid off. Next was Tess, which was in good condition, quite yellow bees, and a lot more activity and flying when disturbed. Finally came Sarah, which seemed quieter and very ‘spread out’, though still with a good number of bees. There’s a chance this means Sarah has lost her queen, but its also just as likely that they were spread out as they were hungry, as this hive had the fewest stores in it, and they responded most actively to the oxalic acid/sugar solution.
Hopefully there’ll still be 3 hives come the start of spring, in which case there will be room for either expansion or passing on of colonies to beekeepers who have had less luck than us over the last couple of years.
