Having just discovered my first overwintered queen less colony I wanted to discuss Winter losses and how to bounce back this Spring.

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Well, It’s been another week for record breaking temperatures here in the UK, we’ve hit temperatures in excess of 20 degrees centigrade where the seasonal average should be more like 6 or 7 degrees.

A lot has been made of the fact that last year we were in the grips of a very Icy blast from continental Europe which was named “The beast from the East” with overnight temperatures down in the negative double figures and snow and ice covering the hives, what an incredible change. It has given beekeepers a fantastic opportunity to get out and check colonies way earlier than anyone would normally suggest and this is where a dose of common sense is required. Temperatures are once again falling and the forecast is that there may even be snow next week in some parts of the UK.

I grabbed for one of the beekeeping books from my shelf that has a month by month guide for beginner beekeepers, each month has jobs to do and what to look out for. In the section for February it suggests hefting to gauge the weight and making sure the entrance is not blocked by dead bees and snow.

Sensibly, there is no mention of inspecting bee hives as you might expect.

If you’re a beginner beekeeper and have such a book or you’re looking online at what to do each month, remember it’s just a guide, you must take in to account the local conditions that you face and not just plow on with instructions without giving it some thought.

I’ve had probably the best Winter I can remember in a very long time, just one colony that appears queen less and without brood, all the rest are alive and well. Some of those colonies are a little on the small side and would possibly have succumbed in a harsher Winter but this year with the very mild weather and the addition of some fondant to help them along they have seen out February and now head into March.

They are a long way from being safe, March can be such a fickle month, one day warm and inviting, the next cold and harsh, so we have to be wary and not relax our guard but for the most part they should cope. Last year I wasn’t so lucky and suffered the lose of far more colonies, and it occurred to me that this can be such a very difficult time for beekeepers regardless of the number of colonies.

I’m always devastated when I lose a colony of honeybees even though I have nearly 70 and I’m sure it feels  as bad if not worse if you are a beekeeper with just one or two colonies and suffer the lose of one or both.

Very often it’s not the beekeepers fault, colonies die out for a number of reasons and I’ve talked about these previously. Sometimes it is the beekeepers fault, maybe through lack of experience or bad timing but as long as it is learning experience and you’re able to take steps to try to prevent it happening again it can be viewed as a positive learning experience.

So having suffered this loss what do you do. Firstly, the hive or hives need to be blocked up and moved to a position ready for cleaning, whether it be one hive or ten hives, get them away from the apiary ready fro cleaning but first remember to block up the entrance, you really don’t want other bees robbing out a dead hive, again, I’ve discussed the reasons for this in previous podcasts but disease in honeybees spreads very quickly so don’t give it a helping hand by leaving the lid off the cookie jar.

Once you have the hive in a location for cleaning out the first step is to check out what was going on inside, it’s time to turn detective and try to work out what happened and why the colony failed to get