Hotham Family Apiary

Hello again, sad news to start the 2019 season: I lost three of my six colonies. I think there were two factors contributing to the losses. First, and foremost, the varroa mites. I did my best to treat the bees as always, but obviously I was not successful. Having six colonies at least gave me a chance to have some colonies survive the winter, but it is still sad to lose the bees. I will create 1 or 2 nucs after the first harvest, but I do not plan to ramp up to six colonies again. Second, the weather in late January and early February was a rollercoaster ride. We had days above 8°C followed by heavy frosts at night. The bees were leaving the winter ball and were dispersing too much in the hive. I lost a lot of bees due to this. The lack of bees leads to less warmth and ultimately the colonies dies. So that's the situation. The three colonies that survived the winter are booming right now. The beginning of April is similiar to that of last year, warm and dry. I will probably gi...

Having six colonies is a lot of work BUT it is paying off in a big way. We harvested our first honey on June 3rd from three colonies and we had a yield of 50kg. I was blown away with how much honey we got from a pretty dry spring. Then, we harvested a second and final time on June 30th from all six colonies and had a yield of 80kg. A very good honey year. I am sure I could harvest more but there are a few reasons why I will not. First, I want to leave honey in the colonies that was stored in the brood chambers under the queen excluder. It wasn't the case in all the hives but in two colonies the bees stored a ton of honey in the second brood chamber. Maybe I gave them the brood chamber too late or the honey chamber too early or both, I don't know. In any case, I estimate around 25kgs of honey was "lost" because of it. The upside, I may not have to feed those bees winter food and also, what will I do with an extra 25kgs of honey?! Second, I want to start hive hygien...

We haven't had enough rain yet this spring which is having some serious affects on nature. The bees are bringing in nectar, but I honestly don't know where they are finding it! Since the beginning of April, the weather has been warm and dry, which is uncommon for central Europe in the spring. Water is scarce, so the bees are trying to get it wherever possible. We even observed some bees trying to get moisture from my mother-in-law's freshly watered vegetable garden. My in-laws have a water container about 150 meters north of the bee house, and that is where the bees have been collecting water. My father-in-law placed a few pieces of old board in the water for the bees to float on, but now it seems there are too many bees congregating there.  I suggested that they place a water container to the south of the bee house and to also empty the water container where the bees have been collecting water. Once the bees have found a constant and stable source of water, they w...

The weather the last two weeks has caused the flora to explode. With that, there is an over abundance of nectar, and the bees are working hard to collect as much as possible. I gave all of the colonies a honey super and am now waiting and observing their development. One colony is overflowing with bees and they probably will need a second brood chamber by the weekend. The same colony as mentioned above also displayed some aggressive behaviour which I will need to keep an eye on. I was stung three times by the same colony and I certainly do not want to have bees that like to sting. On the other hand, I will observe them, as they are by far the strongest colony and have already made great progress drawing out comb. Replacing the queen would be a possibility to mitigate the aggressive behaviour, but I'll only do that if absolutely necessary. The weather this week is cooler, but still favourable for the honey flow and for bee reproduction and flight. Things are pointing in the right ...

My last post was July 2017. Oops! I am still in the beekeeping business and it looks like we have a good start to the 2018 season. It is sometimes hard to find the motivation to update the blog especially during the offseason. All six of our colonies survived the winter and were left relatively unscathedfrom varroa destructor. I was diligent enough to be sure to treat the colonies against the mites. In winter the bees received two oxalcilic treatments that rendered them nearly mite free. I have also begun to give each colony a drone frame to jump start the culling of infected drone brood. My plan is to make 1 or 2 nucs sometime after the first honey harvest. I will write about that when the time comes. Hopefully I will stay on top of the blog this season.

It's been a while since I have had time to write blog entries. We have a huge construction site behind our house and it is taking up all my free time. Anyway, today, I took the time to check in on my colonies and my nucs. Things are looking good all around. I will need to harvest the last round of honey next week and soon thereafter begin with formic acid treatments on the full colonies, but I'll save that for a future entry. The nucs have all been placed in their own hive bodies. As you may recall, I started on May 21st by placing three frames from colonies one, two, and three into a single hive body separated by two separation boards. The separation boards are just pieces of wood cut out to fit exactly in the hive body without letting bees pass into the space behind it. The boards are often times used to shrink the amount of space the bees have in the hive, in case a colony is weak in numbers and needs time to develop. The nucs were then placed in my neighbors backyard, due...