Week 5 was the beekeepers year, about now if I had bees I would be checking for signs of swarming as the hives begins to get more active. A useful and easy way to know if Queen is active is to look for pollen laden bees returning to the hive.
Watched a programme a few days ago on More 4 about American commercial beekeepers chasing the pollen crops across the states, very depressing, imagine starting out in South Carolina with 2000 hives on an huge lorry and then driving all the way to California to pollinate the Almond trees and the wondering why hundreds of hives are dead when you get there! Some serious problems looming there I think.
Week 6 strangley was all about bee diseases and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Icing sugar is a key treatment to get the bees to groom and knock off the Varroa, double bubble they then convert the icing sugar into honey!
There is no cure for varroa, so if anybody can come up with a natural preditor of this mite they will be quids in, surely something must like nibbling on varroa?
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