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Month: March 2021

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This is the first March In the Apiary since 2017. This is the month when little happens apart from anticipation and making sure all the tools are ready.Two Asian Hornet traps have been cleaned up, recharged with home-pressed apple juice and hung, one beside the bee-shed and one in the apiary. These are the two pieces of equipment I hope will not get used.

Prunus in flower

The bee-shed hornet trap is hanging in the beautiful prunus domestica in full bloom. When the sun shines it positively hums all over with pollen foragers.

Asian Hornet Trap

The bullace, prunus insititia, is also giving a lovely display this year but does not get as many visitors as the flight-path to this tree passes right over the p. domestica.

White Bullace tree 2021

I have cleaned out my tool-box and checked that all the necessary equipment is there and is in good shape.

Three lovely days right at the end of the month was a real bonus. All the colonies were moved into nice clean hives. Clean floors and entrance blocks, scraped and scorched brood boxes with sanitised crown boards. The first time I’ve got all the spring cleaning done in March.

Hive 6 needed so many new frames that I have decided to do a Bailey Frame Change. This will take place tomorrow and you can see this In the Apiary April 2021.

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A really mixed bag of weather this year. Some glorious spring weather early on and at the end of the month had me thinking that hive spring cleaning could start early again this year. It wasn’t quite warm enough to pass the ‘gardening in your shirt-sleeves’ test so they have been left undisturbed. All the hives are active on the warmer days as witnessed by the activity on flowers around the garden.

  • Aconite
  • Crocus
  • Snowdrop
  • sarcococca

Although no varroa treatment is actively being pursued at this time, the drop tray gives a good indication of the size of the cluster and its position in the hive. Instead of looking for varroa one can inspect the spread of discarded cell cappings; where are they in the box? Are they moving around to find food?

Not having seen the green woodpecker for several months I decided to gamble on the netting and left it off. I kept a constant presence in the apiary however, inspecting for any signs of hive damage.

In the workshop, some equipment has been repaired or replacements made. I now have another design of clearer-board, two new crown boards and several new entrance blocks. The old entrance blocks were a good indication of what forty years of bee foot-fall wear can do to a piece of wood.

Probably one of the most useful jobs done this winter was to totally clean and recondition the smoker. Apart from the hive tool, the most used item in the tool box so it takes quite a hammering throughout the year.

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