Welcome to the fourth edition of Worcestershire beekeeper, Jas Payne’s monthly column. Take a fascinating glimpse into the beautiful, industrious and vital role of bees in nature and experience life as an apiarist.
We’re almost into May, and while the nights are still cold, daytime temperatures are gradually rising (have you noticed that beekeepers are obsessed with the weather?!)
I find it incredible that, whether the outside temperature is -5°C or +40°C, bees will keep the temperature of the brood (developing bees) at about 35°C, either by huddling together and vibrating their flight muscles to generate warmth, or fanning their wings to create a cooling effect,
My hives are spread across three apiaries, and there are marked differences between them in terms of their progression this spring.
The hives in one apiary are already bringing in excess nectar – probably from the nearby rapeseed fields – so this week I’ve added ‘supers’.
Supers are hive boxes that provide additional space for the bees to store nectar, which they then turn into honey.
I place a ‘queen excluder’ between the brood box and the supers. It’s a selective barrier that allows worker bees to come and go freely, but restricts the queen to the lowest box so that she can’t lay eggs in amongst the honey.
‘Super’ is a Latin term, and means ‘above’, but I like to think we actually call the boxes that because when we look inside them and see honey we say ‘ooh, super!’
The hives in my other two apiaries are also progressing well, but are probably two weeks behind.
With temperatures forecast to climb to 16°C and above over the next couple of weeks, I’ll soon be adding supers to all my hives so that the bees can store the abundance of nectar that will hopefully be produced through May from garden flowers, fruit tree blossom and flowering hedgerows.
It’s a balancing act. Add too much space and the bees can’t regulate the hive temperature easily. Don’t add enough space, and the hive may swarm.
This week I took my first swarm call of the season, and I expect to get many more over the next few weeks.
Look out for my column next month; I’ll give you an insight into why honeybees swarm, why you shouldn’t be scared of swarming bees, and what you should do if you come across a swarm.
Written by Jas Payne
You can read Jas’ beekeeping column in the Bromsgrove Standard on the last Friday of every month.
It will also be released here online.
