Dear Members,

April is often the month we see our hives building up strongly after March has got them off to a good start, but this March’s wet and cool temperatures have been a bit of a set-back so it has not been warm enough to do a first inspection.

Remember, don’t open the hive unless temperatures are above 15 degrees C and do have a purpose for disturbing the bees. If you can see bees flying and bringing in pollen and can see from the inspection board that they are actively uncapping stores and brood, what more do you need to know at this stage? The only other thing you need to know is - are the bees healthy, but more of that later.

Having said that, if we suddenly get a lovely warm April you will see an explosion in the hives as the bees go all-out to catch up, so, have your supers ready and put them on as soon as the brood box seems full of bees. Be alert to signs of swarm preparations - are there drone cells being capped? Is there space for the queen to lay?

When you do your first inspection, be sure to check the health of the colony. At the next branch meeting we are doing a Nosema clinic. Do bring along a sample of bees to check for Nosema. Nosema can be one of the causes of colony losses over winter or for a colony being weak at the start of the season. While the only treatment for nosema currently is to get the bees onto fresh comb, do come along and discuss with others and have a look down microscopes to see some of the amazing things that you can learn about bees.

I have now stepped down from the committee so this will be my last Newsletter. I hope you have found it useful. I don’t know who, if anyone will take over the Newsletter.

There are vacancies on the Management committee of RBKA so if you have a little spare time and energy, do think about offering to join the committee. If you are interested use our contact form to let us know.

Regards, and stay safe and well. Margaret Holdsworth