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Tomorrow Sunday we are off to the Apiary at Stinsford for the last of the beginners sessions. It may be the last but I am sure by now that they are in full agreement with the trainers - there is still lots to learn.

Just to give you two examples which I have found out in the past month from apiary visits:

First - We had a hive which was queenless. It was going nowhere. There was no brood, no eggs and not many workers. However I watched the entrance as workers were bringing back pollen. How often have we told beginners "Pollen being brought in therefore the queen is laying." Clearly this is not the case.

Secondly - We were examining a hive and spotted the queen. We got a cage for her but I dropped her. I proudly announced to the beginners - "Not to worry I was working over the hive so she will have gone straight back in." How wrong I was. A week later there is no sign of her but there are loads of queen cells. Well we live and learn - and in beekeeping we are always learning.

And as to learning more - there is an on-line lecture at the Colliton Club this Tuesday the 15th at 6:30. The talk is on swarming and with the recent hot weather this seems to have started very early this year. The talk will be followed by a general chat - as happens at most of our socials.

Hope to see you on the 15th.

It has been a busy week. Last Saturday we moved a hive from Wyke to the apiary. It could not have gone better. I closed the hive up with sticky tape the night before the move and made certain that it was all secure using two ratchet traps.

On the Saturday morning there was a frost on top of the hive - no risk the bees would want to fly. We put two lengths of timber under the ratchet straps and carried the hive to the van in the same way as they used to carry sedan chairs.

Once we go to the Apiary we took the straps off then opened the entrance and the sun was shining on the hive and within minutes they were flying.

On Wednesday a group of us went to the apiary to do a big clean up. It was a misty day but I kept warm as I scorched all the empty hive boxes. I was careful to scorch all the corners and joins where there may be eggs of the wax moth.

As the mornbing went on the sun burnt through the mist and fog and by the afternoon we were able to do a full inspection of the hives.

One hive was in a WBC and that is not the easiest for beginners to manipulate so we moved that to a National Hive. There was brood present so we can assume it is queen right.

One hive was not very full and there was no sign of a queen or brood in any stages. It is likely that this colony is doomed. Without a queen there is no hope - unless there is very young brood. The bees were foraging and were taking back pollen. Had we missed a queen or are workers with pollen not necessarily a sign of a laying Queen. Time will tell.

The final hive we looked into was the one we had moved in from Wyke. That was very busy and had a lot of brood. We did a complete box change. The brood box at the bottom had the brood in. Above that was a super and that had no brood in it so we can assume the queen was in the bottom brood box. We put a queen excluder between the brood box and the super.

Above that was a brood box which only contained stores. We put that above a crown board so the bees will probably empty the stores and carry them down to below the crown board. That assumes the bees have read the same manual as we have!

There was one frame of drone comb. We removed that. If there is varroa in the hive then they are most likely to be in the capped drone cells. They prefer drone cells as there is more space in the bigger cells. The removal of the drone comb will kill the drones but it may well remove the varroa from the hive.

And if all that has made you think of keeping bees then do not forget the beginners course starting on the 11th March

And if you are already a beekeeper then do not forget our For Sale page where I have added a poly hive.

It has not been a good time for the bees recently. We have had warm spells with plenty of sunshine and the bees were quite active. After that it got very wet and windy. Now we are in a period of anticyclonic gloom. I am not certain whether the gloom refers to the light level or the feeling you get when you see this weather.

The effect on the bees is probably much the same as it is on us. In this weather they will not be keen to go out and forage - far too cold. Instead they are remaining in the hive consuming stores. This can lead to hunger and starvation if there are insufficient stores.

Now is the time to put on the bees suit and check them. It is the one time of the year when putting on a bee suit is not a chore since it adds an extra layer of warmth.

On a more upbeat note - this is the time of year when learning more about bees is a good idea. I have been doing the Bee Behaviour Course run by DWBKA and I must say I have learned a lot - and that is from someone who has been keeping bees for many years. If you get an opportunity to do a course like this then grab it. You can learn a lot from the course and you learn a lot just from chatting to other beekeepers on the course.

Talking of chatting to other beekeepers how about attending the next social. The social will be at the Colliton Club in Dorchester. For a change we are going to host a Zoom talk from the BBKA entitled "An Inspector Calls" with Keith Bartlem. The talk starts at 7pm so if you want to get a drink from the bar I suggest arriving a bit earlier. We are meeting upstairs in the big room (I can never remember its name.) Hope to see you there.

Coming up next month is the Dorset BKA AGM. This is to be held at 2pm on the 22nd March at the Dorford Centre in Dorchester. For those who have not been there before it is almost opposite the zebra crossing across the Bridport Road if you have parked in the Top of Town carpark.

The business section of the meeting will be preceded by a talk on "Bee Keeping in Poor Weather - How to Survive" by Geoff Blay. There will also be tea and cake provided by North Dorset Beekeepers.