Happy new Year.
Other than clearing away empty micros and the the Kielers etc no interventions were made during the intervening period. No further queens hatched
Winter only really started after christmas, with some freezing weather and a little snow. Below zero for a couple of days maybe.
Jan 11th: we'd had a big storm come through, (the turbine in Denmark had 35m/sec), the only casualty was the yellow queen; whose mini super hive with two lifts had been blown off the stand, the hive was very light, and although there were a lot of bees and food back in august, i think they starved.
Nb the Sloe tree, which had lost a main branch back in the summer under the weight of the fruit, has been blown down in the storm.
With this in mind i fed the 8 big hives yesterday, 17th january, i kg of Nectapol Forte each. I drilled a hole in the clear plastic tops and put a pack with a hole in it over the hole in the cover.
1 & 2 had 3 frames of bees
3 had died back in the autumn.
4 had been the strongest in August, but now is rather weak with only two frames of bees down in the first lift, near the food, so i removed the top lift and reduced it to only one.
5 had died in the autumn.
6,7 and 8 were remarkably strong with 3 to 4 frames of bees.
9 was strong too and 10 in the corner was apparently empty at the top but when i started drilling the hole it was suddenly full of bees come to see and defend.
There was little or no wind, only 2° in the shade, but quite ok in the sun.
The drainage channel need a little attention down the back of the bees, but the overflow for the pond was working fine. I meet the neighbour from the house on the other side of zeuningen, filip i think; his father in law lives in the last house in the bend, on the track at the back, with the tractor. He came to see if the concrete channel was free; it was - i'd cleaned out both sides of the main drain, back in the holiday.
