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News from Members...
Ramblings of a beekeeper:.....
We managed to visit our apiaries on January 9th, with the aid of our son and his 4 wheel drive truck! Its amazing what a couple of feet of snow does to the fields.
Five of them had eaten all their fondant and were seen licking the jars clean.
All appeared well except the McD colony. This was a small swarm removed late in the season, from a door next to McDonalds in the town centre. There was a laying queen but we never found her, must be very small. Once we had hived them up we realised they were not nice bees. Beekeepers often use the word 'tetchy' but these were just horrible, every time we went near them they attacked.
We planned to unite them with another colony but as we could not find the queen we decided to leave them to get on with it. If they survive the winter we will re - queen in the spring.
When we arrived to collect this swarm in town we found Kirklees council had one of their men trying to keep the public away from the swarm and he was doing an excellent job. Whilst I was lighting the smoker a lady walked past and was wearing a loose fitting halter necked dress, as the man from Kirklees pointed out the bees to her she shreiked, ducked and twisted, causing her top to go one way, while she went the other! The man from Kirklees appeared as if his eyes would pop out! Whilst all this excitement was going on a lovely traffic warden was writing out a parking ticket for us - we persuaded her that we were on official business!
By now we would normally have treat our hives with oxalic acid while they are broodless, but swine flu struck and it has delayed everything, we are now aiming for the first week in february.
Happy Beekeeping, more soon.
Jim Rooney