Yesterday, Saturday 2nd March 2013, I went to check on my two bee hives. They were fine and healthy with plenty feed stock when I checked them recently. Yesterday, nothing! Every single bee was dead. There was plenty food, so it seems that the recent damp, foggy, nasty, cold weather must have either killed or severely weakened them. I have no bees. :-( This is all that remains, two dead hives.

I took this photo in Scotland, along the Crinan Canal, back in March 2009. Anyone know what it is? Click the image for a full screen version. (Warning - it’s 4000px by 3000px and 5.6 Mb file-size. The original file-size is even larger - it’s almost 12Mb!) Update: it’s a Southern Hawker. Thanks Howard! Scottish Dragonfly. Crinan Canal, March 2009.:

We have foxes in our garden in the mornings and evenings. We seem to have a dog and vixen and three cubs. This morning they were cavorting around in the sun and I managed to get a few pictures taken before they headed off to wherever they lie up during the day. This is my favourite shot: Next up, we have one of the vixen and one cub: Then one of the cubs playing together.

Check this link (sorry, it’s no longer available, but this link is the product being described - the Philips Urban Beehive.) for details. I’m saying nothing! Except, maybe, I really can’t see it taking off. Well, ok then. How do you stop the queen laying in the honey comb? There doesn’t appear to be a queen excluder - so your honey will have all sorts of stuff in it! Larvae, eggs, etc.

On Sunday past, I took 11 full & capped super frames of lovely honey from the original hive, and checked the new hive. They are a bit behind and have not yet capped anything off. Hmmm, what are they up to I wonder? The original hive got another full set of super frames to draw out and fill up. Seeing as how it’s getting late on in the year, I’m not sure we’ll get much more, if anything off of them - but you never know.

One of Alison’s ex work colleagues, Andy, keeps bees. So far this year he has had 4 swarms! We took advantage of his generosity and restocked our recently dead hive with one of his swarms, and then, a couple of days later we obtained another of his swarms in a (borrowed - thanks Peter) nucleus box. We now have two and a half hives. Our own hive, looks to have requeened itself - my last inspection showed no red queen, and what appeared to be an unmarked queen laying.

I’ve been checking the girls today - the weather is lovely and warm and they are flying around all over the place, returning with lots of pollen and, hopefully, nectar. We’ve been away for a couple of weeks and before we went, I fed them on about 5 pounds of honey and put a super on with last years frames - fresh (!) from extraction - in case the girls needed something to do while we were away.

I’ve taken far too long to write this up, but I’ve been rather pissed off to be honest! We’ve lost one hive of bees since February. They were alive when I checked and I’ve been feeding them but I noticed that the feed wasn’t going down. Due to the weather, I couldn’t “go in” and see what was what in case I did them some harm with the cold and damp.

Domino, our California Kingsnake was put to sleep tonight at 19:10. She’s been in the family for about 13 or 14 years with never a problem, well, except for what you can see below - she got me one night and had my finger down her throat before we could do anything about it. Alison decided to take a picture rather than get her off me! It eventually took over an hour and a half, and judicious use of January ice cold water (as advised by the RSPCA) to get her off, safely.

Yesterday, 24th February 2011, was about the first reasonably warm day of the year. The pond and paths around our house are now filled with frogs. It must be spring!

On Sunday 6th February I hefted the hives as usual. The new hive felt a bit on the light side so I whipped the lid off (just the lid) to take a peek - it was quite mild or I wouldn’t have disturbed them. Lifting the card I use to block the ventilation from passing through the cluster, I saw lots of live bees! Yippee! Things are looking good for a second successful winter, and this year was a cold one!

I was out this Sunday hefting the hive. It’s feeling a little lighter than I remember, so I suspect the girls are tucking in to the stores now. I heard from Peter, about a fortnight ago, that his girls have started laying already so it’s looking good for Spring. As I was hefting, one solitary bee flew out from the mouse guard and buzzed around me to have a look, then vanished back into the hive.

Today, Alison and I took our lives in our hands and extracted the honey from 20 full frames. In all, we have now got a kitchen full of about 70 lbs of fresh garden honey courtesy of our hard working lady friends. The day started with the de-capping of the combs, four of, and then putting those into the centrifuge - a giant salad spinner of sorts. After 60 turns of the handle, we open up and turn the combs around and give the other side 60 turns as well.