It has often been said, that the older one gets the quicker the years go, I sincerely hope this is not the case.
At 49(ish) it seems as though it was just yesterday that I took over from Nikki as apiary manager, in fact, 2021 will be my 5th year, though I’m not sure that 2020 counts.
The 2020 beekeeping season began early, in some cases, beekeepers were beginning to think that they may need to order extra supers.
Indeed, some of the more productive colonies at the apiary had Two good supers fitted.
The combination of good early weather and forage provided ideal conditions for colonies to expand quickly, this followed by a prolonged very dry period, resulted in a nectar dearth at the peak of the foraging period meaning that the strong colonies were getting through their hard gotten stores at an alarming rate and by late June/early July, the same colonies needed feeding.
This situation was, however, not peculiar to our apiary or indeed the area.
Wally Shaw(technical advisor to the WBKA) said “it is the worse year for honey production” he has known in 30years of beekeeping on Anglesey.
Although it was not the best season we’ve had, we managed to harvest 86kg of unfiltered honey, which would normally be sufficient for our sales at the shows we attend.
The 2020 queen breeding program didn’t exactly go to plan either, however, 8 colonies were successfully raised.
Under normal circumstances, 8 nucs would have left us wanting for starter colonies for the seasons’ beginners, but in these far from “normal” times we ended up with a surplus, which worked out quite well when they were used to re-queen and bolster the colonies which were not performing as expected,
and in preparation for winter.
This may be something worth expanding on in the future.
Although circumstances restricted the usual attendance and activities at the apiary, a small group of regulars were able to attend (observing the required guidelines, of-course) where, having completed the apiary tasks we occasionally, sat out in the field with a cup of tea; and set the world to rights.
On boxing day 2020. I spent a few hours at the apiary returning supers, feeders etc to the shed, now there’s not enough room to swing a kettle in there, but all the equipment is ready for use in the forthcoming season.
Today, 14th Feb. Being Valentines, I called up to see the girls, checking the varroa trays reviled that 8 of the 10 colonies seem to be quite active.
Colony 17 shows no cappings on the board, I will be surprised if this colony has failed, because it was one of the strongest with lots of stores, maybe too strong??
Colony 11, has house guests, and having the tray at the front of the hive and covered in grass and leaves made it difficult to spot any cappings.
It has certainly been a unique beekeeping season, as it has been a unique year in everyone’s life.
Let’s hope that the oncoming season, and indeed, year, is a better one for us all.
Looking forward to seeing you all later in the year.
Keith.
