Bee happy to send you some of our heat 36.6 C in exchange for your rain! Boiled dry here in Pennsylvania USA. Early Spring was so very promising and then the weather and conditions were just awful especially at peak flow and have continued to worsen with a different set of weather related conditions. Honey harvest is looking abysmal (little if any flow to cap off the supers) and if temps don't come down and moisture doesn't arrive feeding will be a necessity here even before our normal death period even arrives!
Just found this channel and love it already, Same thing happened in my region, may was a fine start but in june things start to slow down like in a scary way cz of a crazy hot weather, i waited 3 weeks but storage is gettin worse, i saved my bees with little food source, but thanks god the spring dearth gap is over and bees back to activity cz new blooming in my area and cool weather ! 👍🏻
I am crossing everything! After posting this video yesterday I actually went back to another Apiary and found about 22 colonies all with good Honey in the super so it’s extremely positive. All I’m hoping as we just get a couple of weeks and at least we get some honey in stock and the bottom colonies, replenished with good young bees that are fed well. The forecast isn’t brilliant, but we shall see wishing you the same.
Crazy weather here in the Ohio Valley. I am 2 hours from NAHBE. Great April the we had 18 days of rain in May which is our primary spring flow. Hune has been extremely hot and dry. Nothing hit the supers since May 2nd for my area. What is coming in is consumed immediately. I'm raising Queens and making splits and feeding now.
It’s been a hard year here in West Cork but I’m still hopeful for the next three or four weeks. Keep up the good work Richard I really appreciate and enjoy your videos. Regards Jerh
Same for me here in Irish midlands. At most of my apiary sites there was very poor spring flow, long dearth leading to rubbish start to summer flow. Bramble has been in flower this past fortnight, but it's only in the last two days that I have seen the bees bring in nectar. That being said, in one of my sites it's been inexplicably good....I only wish I had more colonies there!
One of my colonies died of starvation. An other colony nearly died. That colony survived because of an experiment with a round opening in the box. The floor was filled with dead bees, but the living ones still could get out to forage. And finally the nectar flow started.
Interesting to see your experience this year is identical to mine. I fed all spring and part of summer. Ended up with 40kg from 12 hives when I finally put boxes on. Hope your colonies build enough now to capture some of the flow.
I moved from Buckfasts to Northumberland blacks. For me they seem a lot less less greedy over winter. Currently mine are bringing in plenty of nectar - for some reason they've found it since March. My problem has been supers filled with unripened nectar / honey. Frames full of it - but it's been so cold and damp here - edge of Ashdown Forest in Sussex. I dont really have enough supers, so this weekend is yet again SN4 making to swap in new frames as they (hopefully) cap what they have.
I think it's fine feeding with a super on as they needed the space due to them being a big colonie and they have been consuming the feed instead of storing it into the supers.
That’s why I love watching you. Totally honest just don’t beat yourself up. You got most of them through. I think with this rain it’s Gona be a big harvest once the flowers open. I have carniolans and they are a good bee for up here in the mountains. Thanks for showing at what stages your flower’s are at we are about the same but 300m down the lime is open and chestnut just starting. Very late
Talking about bees being poisoned I had three weeks ago I lost a complete yard from poison. The state inspector came over an she said there was another Bee keeper around a mile an a half from me had lost five colonies there also . What a season. Thanks
So sorry to hear that Kathy. It’s devastating. One thing with starvation, at least they can come back strong afterwards whereas with poisoning it’s often endgame right from the start. I hope you can recover quickly for next year best of luck.
You just need to come here as tourists and collect the seeds from my dry, yellow grasses covering the landscape making a fire hazard. Plant it in that lush green environment and there will be flow all summer long.. after you spread it around ofcourse. It's so strange to me watching a beekeeper complaining about dearth when two days ago he had to trim .. and here l can't make 20m without having my socks and my pants full of seeds attached to them. I could light a fire with two rocks.. lighting a smoker would be stupidity at its best
@@ChristopherHindle maybe l made a mistake and should've written weeds. Is oregano and mint grass or weed ? But if you want to spread seeds you surely don't take them from green fresh grasses or weeds. You whayt for it to get dry and yellow.. than most of the honey producing stuff seeds finds you, attaching them self to your clouting or whatever the name of your socks is. In this place we used to joke that canola and sunflower are false honeys. If l had that green lush environment Richard has we would have to extract honey all summer. Now l'm crying for a little bit of rain...
No nectar during spring, but huge colony’s. Nectar now coming in but it’s like someone turned a tap on, a few colony’s back plugged and gone into swarm mode but in general very hopeful of a good summer crop. Cornwall uk …. Lost one nuc to starvation but I’m probably to blame, using local black bees that seem to be very frugal.
We are in the same situation here in Ireland. Emergency feeding both on local strain and buckfast anatolia. Its the buckfast that have managed to get there spring honey to last while keeping fairly decent broodnest. Alot of colonies have receded over the last month. Fingers crossed.
I'm having similar issues here in central WI Richard. Cool temps long periods of cloud cover and frequent storms. Out of the last five weeks, we've had 8 days of sunshine. I've never had to feed this much for so long in spring.😢
David, here in Minnesota we have seen much the same. Cloudy and rainy. The days without rain were so windy the bees couldn't forage. I've lost my early honey crop but there is hope for the summer flow. My bees have almost shut down on brood production. Guess I should of put some pollen patties on.
That's the common opinion held by many with regards to Carniolan. I run 120 Carniolan colonies and have had 1 swarm this season, IMHO it's about space and timing the brood development relative to the start of flow. They can really catch you out if your attention is diverted, and who in spring hasn't had that happen lol.
Yea I’ve heard the same! Do you know the expression? “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” or maybe the recipe I’ve got isn’t too broken so maybe I just stick with losing a few in the extreme weather and also put into play new scenarios for this exact type of pattern..
Lets hope for some warmer weather Richard. I am at Greece at the moment and even on the islands it is 35c+ on the coldest day. Similar to last year where south of Europe was bakoling where in the UK we has 8 weeks of rain 😂
Whilst talking about feeding dont neglect protein. I think Bob binnie mentioned 120lb a year of pollen at some point. If they can't get out and get it, they need some help if you want them to gather nectar when the weather is fine.
Sorry to hear about the unfavorable weather. Not what you want with a new building. Record breaking heat in N.J. and very dry in June. Thankfully, May rains were good.
Rich, 10 min? Way too short! Missing your wise words of advise and experience on YT. I appreciate if there’s nothing to say, but still…😊 Regards and best wishes, Paul.
Whinging about the weather heck you are sounding more and more like a farmer every day lol keep smiling. I know how you feel feeding when you should be adding supers, I apologize for telling you about my lousy past four seasons, without spring flows, it does not matter how many blooms you see because if there is little full sun then there is little nectar and very poor pollen.
Bee happy to send you some of our heat 36.6 C in exchange for your rain! Boiled dry here in Pennsylvania USA. Early Spring was so very promising and then the weather and conditions were just awful especially at peak flow and have continued to worsen with a different set of weather related conditions. Honey harvest is looking abysmal (little if any flow to cap off the supers) and if temps don't come down and moisture doesn't arrive feeding will be a necessity here even before our normal death period even arrives!
Just found this channel and love it already, Same thing happened in my region, may was a fine start but in june things start to slow down like in a scary way cz of a crazy hot weather, i waited 3 weeks but storage is gettin worse, i saved my bees with little food source, but thanks god the spring dearth gap is over and bees back to activity cz new blooming in my area and cool weather ! 👍🏻
It's worse in Cumbria! I have been giving them lots of syrup.
So far season is rubbish!!! No spring honey. But I’ve made some big splits so that’s a plus.
Really need weather now though!!
I am crossing everything! After posting this video yesterday I actually went back to another Apiary and found about 22 colonies all with good Honey in the super so it’s extremely positive. All I’m hoping as we just get a couple of weeks and at least we get some honey in stock and the bottom colonies, replenished with good young bees that are fed well. The forecast isn’t brilliant, but we shall see wishing you the same.
It's been very bad up here in the NE Scotland, the supers were half full three weeks ago, now there empty to many bee's not enough nectar.
Crazy weather here in the Ohio Valley. I am 2 hours from NAHBE. Great April the we had 18 days of rain in May which is our primary spring flow. Hune has been extremely hot and dry. Nothing hit the supers since May 2nd for my area. What is coming in is consumed immediately. I'm raising Queens and making splits and feeding now.
Well done! Soldiering on!!
It’s been a hard year here in West Cork but I’m still hopeful for the next three or four weeks. Keep up the good work Richard I really appreciate and enjoy your videos. Regards Jerh
Same for me here in Irish midlands. At most of my apiary sites there was very poor spring flow, long dearth leading to rubbish start to summer flow. Bramble has been in flower this past fortnight, but it's only in the last two days that I have seen the bees bring in nectar. That being said, in one of my sites it's been inexplicably good....I only wish I had more colonies there!
One of my colonies died of starvation. An other colony nearly died. That colony survived because of an experiment with a round opening in the box. The floor was filled with dead bees, but the living ones still could get out to forage. And finally the nectar flow started.
Thanks!
Interesting to see your experience this year is identical to mine. I fed all spring and part of summer.
Ended up with 40kg from 12 hives when I finally put boxes on.
Hope your colonies build enough now to capture some of the flow.
Sorry to hear about the terrible weather. Thats amazing its been so cold. I hope things turn around for you soon! Flow is fully open here in New York
I moved from Buckfasts to Northumberland blacks. For me they seem a lot less less greedy over winter. Currently mine are bringing in plenty of nectar - for some reason they've found it since March. My problem has been supers filled with unripened nectar / honey. Frames full of it - but it's been so cold and damp here - edge of Ashdown Forest in Sussex. I dont really have enough supers, so this weekend is yet again SN4 making to swap in new frames as they (hopefully) cap what they have.
I think it's fine feeding with a super on as they needed the space due to them being a big colonie and they have been consuming the feed instead of storing it into the supers.
That’s why I love watching you. Totally honest just don’t beat yourself up. You got most of them through. I think with this rain it’s Gona be a big harvest once the flowers open. I have carniolans and they are a good bee for up here in the mountains. Thanks for showing at what stages your flower’s are at we are about the same but 300m down the lime is open and chestnut just starting. Very late
Talking about bees being poisoned I had three weeks ago I lost a complete yard from poison. The state inspector came over an she said there was another Bee keeper around a mile an a half from me had lost five colonies there also . What a season. Thanks
So sorry to hear that Kathy. It’s devastating. One thing with starvation, at least they can come back strong afterwards whereas with poisoning it’s often endgame right from the start. I hope you can recover quickly for next year best of luck.
Thanks 😢
@@richardnoel3141 Thanks that one sure put a hurt on things but we are working on things . Thanks
Hard times for us beekeepers and our bees... 😢
You just need to come here as tourists and collect the seeds from my dry, yellow grasses covering the landscape making a fire hazard. Plant it in that lush green environment and there will be flow all summer long.. after you spread it around ofcourse.
It's so strange to me watching a beekeeper complaining about dearth when two days ago he had to trim .. and here l can't make 20m without having my socks and my pants full of seeds attached to them. I could light a fire with two rocks.. lighting a smoker would be stupidity at its best
@@researcherAmateur Yellow grasses, or grasses in general, have little or no value as forage for bees.
@@ChristopherHindle maybe l made a mistake and should've written weeds. Is oregano and mint grass or weed ? But if you want to spread seeds you surely don't take them from green fresh grasses or weeds. You whayt for it to get dry and yellow.. than most of the honey producing stuff seeds finds you, attaching them self to your clouting or whatever the name of your socks is. In this place we used to joke that canola and sunflower are false honeys. If l had that green lush environment Richard has we would have to extract honey all summer. Now l'm crying for a little bit of rain...
@@ChristopherHindle is dandelion a grass ?
Yes, the jet stream has been a nightmare but now its to the north pulling up the warmer air, thank god. Good luck little bees
I fed a few autumn frames myself. We're a bit behind you in Ireland. The bramble is just starting to show signs of flowering.
Hope it will change. We have melezitoze honey in Czechia.
No nectar during spring, but huge colony’s. Nectar now coming in but it’s like someone turned a tap on, a few colony’s back plugged and gone into swarm mode but in general very hopeful of a good summer crop. Cornwall uk …. Lost one nuc to starvation but I’m probably to blame, using local black bees that seem to be very frugal.
Great to hear!! Similar to here! Someone just flipped a switch
We are in the same situation here in Ireland. Emergency feeding both on local strain and buckfast anatolia. Its the buckfast that have managed to get there spring honey to last while keeping fairly decent broodnest. Alot of colonies have receded over the last month. Fingers crossed.
Brilliant Richard thank you im in hemel hempstead it's same here we just had a few warm days today overcast and shower s stressful
Hello Richard, sorry to hear about your situation, wishing you the best
Some nice weather on your way coming in off the Atlantic pick up very soon.we had good weather in Ireland 🇮🇪 on you too you
I'm having similar issues here in central WI Richard. Cool temps long periods of cloud cover and frequent storms. Out of the last five weeks, we've had 8 days of sunshine. I've never had to feed this much for so long in spring.😢
David, here in Minnesota we have seen much the same. Cloudy and rainy. The days without rain were so windy the bees couldn't forage. I've lost my early honey crop but there is hope for the summer flow. My bees have almost shut down on brood production. Guess I should of put some pollen patties on.
I tried carnolian bees in the past. They are the worse I’ve seen for swarming!
That's the common opinion held by many with regards to Carniolan. I run 120 Carniolan colonies and have had 1 swarm this season, IMHO it's about space and timing the brood development relative to the start of flow. They can really catch you out if your attention is diverted, and who in spring hasn't had that happen lol.
Yea I’ve heard the same! Do you know the expression? “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” or maybe the recipe I’ve got isn’t too broken so maybe I just stick with losing a few in the extreme weather and also put into play new scenarios for this exact type of pattern..
Lets hope for some warmer weather Richard. I am at Greece at the moment and even on the islands it is 35c+ on the coldest day. Similar to last year where south of Europe was bakoling where in the UK we has 8 weeks of rain 😂
👍
Whilst talking about feeding dont neglect protein. I think Bob binnie mentioned 120lb a year of pollen at some point. If they can't get out and get it, they need some help if you want them to gather nectar when the weather is fine.
You can also put pollen patties anywhere and they won't store them.
Sorry to hear about the unfavorable weather. Not what you want with a new building. Record breaking heat in N.J. and very dry in June. Thankfully, May rains were good.
Well, you have a magnificent wisteria to cheer you up
How do u store frames honey Richard?
Don't worry the air down here is brown. I can barely take a breath. As They say it's the "Saharan dust sand" so the jet stream should come over you
Rich,
10 min? Way too short! Missing your wise words of advise and experience on YT. I appreciate if there’s nothing to say, but still…😊
Regards and best wishes,
Paul.
Other videos coming later in the week. It’s all been a bit busy to say the least!!
its called climate engineering or weather modification , its to buy time they say to reduce carbon , research it
Whinging about the weather heck you are sounding more and more like a farmer every day lol keep smiling.
I know how you feel feeding when you should be adding supers, I apologize for telling you about my lousy past four seasons, without spring flows, it does not matter how many blooms you see because if there is little full sun then there is little nectar and very poor pollen.