Bee Blog
Feeding the bees for winter
Another lovely sunny afternoon in the Broomfield Apiary, the thermometer read 20C and bees were flying out from the hives and bringing back yellow and white pollen. There are crocuses and pulmonaria in flower locally which are good early spring pollen sources for honey bees. With this warm weather the bees are already producing brood to start building up the colony numbers and need a plentiful supply of food. To make sure they don't starve we check the level of honey stores in the hives and give further pollen and sugar fondant supplements, when the weather is reliably warm we will start to feed with a sugar solution until we are happy that there are plentiful nectar supplies available in the locality.
The temperature allowed a quick peek in the brood box to see that the queen has started laying and that the early brood is looking healthy and disease free - all looking good today, time to start planning and preparations for the busy season ahead.
