One of my last visits to the hive this year. Cellotex bonnets on, food stores check by hefting. Entrances are clear.
00:03
Welcome back to a beekeepers diary podcast. It's been a few weeks since my last message from the fields, mainly because I've not been doing any beekeeping really. Just dealing with normal life stuff and had a little week out of the UK and I am back to try and both my hives.
00:33
completely ready for winter as I'm standing here there's two nosy horses in the neighbouring field have come over and they're just staring at me which is fun let me see if I can get a picture of them I'll put it on my Instagram beekeepers diary podcast hello
00:53
to see what I'm up to. So yeah today I've come down to heft the hives so my hand is calibrated to the weight of the hives now when you tip it up from the back with a couple of fingers I can feel generally how much stores the hives have got and they are super heavy they've had a good feed.
01:20
and on the ivy nectar and some supplemental sugar syrup that I fed them so they've definitely got enough stores for winter normally I end up having to take frames out in the spring because they've still got food left in these poly hives that don't seem to use up too many stores keeping them warm
01:47
even though I rarely ever put the solid floor in unless it gets very cold I leave the open mesh open all year I've not put it in once this year so I've got my poly hives and I've put put Corex bonnets on the top which is basically a cube with one side missing that I just slide over the top of the hive leaving the entrance open obviously
02:16
and it just adds that extra layer of insulation so there's even less for the bees to expend energy-wise over the winter. And you can generally take the Corix box off and lift the foam that I have on the top. I have solid perspex lids on the hive so I can just lift the foam and I can see straight into the hive and see whereabouts.
02:44
the frames the bees are without ever having to open or crack any seals so I can see what they're up to. I don't get any condensation on the correts because I put foam on top and then I have my bonnet on top of that so it all stays warm on top and condensation doesn't gather if it does gather it's on the sides which the bees can use. Yes hello Mr. Horse I can hear you.
03:14
Yes, I've got my bonnets on, I've got a metal cover that I put on top of the roof in case woodpeckers decide to land on top and have a hammer at it, they won't get through that. So all that's left for me to do is to put four stakes in around the hive and slide some fencing over the top. I'm just looking ahead of me, I can see a winter migrant bird.
03:42
Red wing has just flown over, that distinctive wing beat. All the way from Scandinavia, I saw my first of the year yesterday on a walk I went locally. I could hear them trilling as they went by and on some holly berries. Yes, that's nice to see here. The winter migrants are in, the summer migrants have gone, the winter migrants are in. Yes, I need to put up my anti-woodpecker defences because when the ground gets solid...
04:11
green woodpeckers can have out your hives and have a free meal so I put some wide mesh plastic fencing around it.
04:23
to the birds around me to stop the woodpeckers. So I've got that to do but I'm not going to do that today. I've put the bonnets on, I've poked. The bees aren't flying really so I've taken a little bit of wood and poked it through the entrance block and moved it from side to side just in case.
04:42
there was dead bees blocking the entrance and it was too cold for the bees to remove them and they were stuck. So that's something I generally do through the winter. Have a little wiggle through the hole, see how many angry bees come out. Moving on now and then, and yeah, we're in good shape. I hope all you're doing okay and your bees are set up for winter. I'm not convinced about these two as that summer drought really knocked.
05:08
the production of the queen back so I don't know if the hive will, either colony will be big enough to make through winter but we will see. Both hives were on the smaller side going into winter than I've had before so I'm not overly confident we're going to make it. We shall see. There's a jay kicking off to the right of me. And crows.
05:37
White tails.
05:42
flying by. It's all kicking off. Right, I'll stop off-link. I'll probably be back in a few weeks once I've come back to see what's going on. Have a good one.