April - and another beekeeping season begins! Bees are already busy, with pollen and nectar being brought into our hives, and uniform frames of brood bringing reinforcements to the forage. Spring inspections are a priority now, an opportunity to check for any signs of winter distress and disease. Our inspections focus on the three criteria - queenright, stores, disease - and the latter is so vitally important at this time of year to make sure that bees are in perfect condition for the months ahead. It’s an opportunity to plan any comb changes, change out hive components for cleaning and sterilisation and to provide a spring boost of feed if needed.

Our ‘Beginners’ course is approaching completion, with five sessions having been delivered by Zoom - the wonders of technology! Congratulations to our prospective beekeepers for ‘going the distance’. We hope that you have found it to be an enjoyable and informative experience. We can look forward to the next phase - practical demonstrations at the apiary and work, at last, with the bees.

While further training opportunities are likely to be affected by Covid restrictions for some time to come, we are hopeful that we can offer BBKA ‘Basic’ preparatory sessions again this year. See the home page for details of our plans.

More news from the apiary soon….

Think like a bee!