A Strange Year, This 2016.
Almost four weeks after the summer solstice, it is time to draw a first cautious balance:
After a largely rainy fruit blossom, the early harvest was at best mediocre, after which there was no honey yield at all for several weeks, so that the colonies were on the verge of starvation.
Then the bees finally brought in some lime blossom nectar from mid-June onwards. No leaf honey this year because of the heavy rain. In the meantime the main collection period has come to an end
and the honey reserves of the colonies are already decreasing again - it is high time to harvest.
Four colonies have developed well "according to circumstances". One of them didn't come out of the crease in spring, but got a chance and grew up to considerable strength after all. A swarm was
captured, whose development gives reason for joy.
Two offshoots were created, which were unfortunately plundered, because they were placed too close to the productive colonies (beekeeper's mistake), and neither of them was able to produce a
copulated queen for the first time. Moved to another corner of the garden, one of them is now on a good way with laying queen in the second attempt. With the second one the princess must still
hatch.
The oldest of the colonies still has a 2013 queen, which is slowly getting on in years, which is why the bees of this colony urgently want to recreate. This queen has been locked up by the garden
beekeeper in the honey room above the barrier, where she gets her mercy bread, while a new princess is growing up in the brood room.
On May 10th, the queen bee's birthday, the garden beekeeper alias the king bee received a visit from a school class, made a complete colony survey together with a particularly interested student,
and was allowed to give a potential new beekeeper from the neighbourhood an insight into the work with the bees and the honey harvest for a few afternoons.
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