From: "J J Harrier" <JJ@ejog-ent.demon.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2001 13:23:20 -0700
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: Re: Getting ready for winter

2 replies in one, here -

> > Our 4 colonies in Hertfordshire, UK, have all stopped laying
> > already, much earlier than we'd have expected from previous years
>
> When do they normally stop laying J.J.? Will you look at them anymore
> before spring? Do you leave them with enough honey or do you feed
> for going into winter?

We've had small brood nests into November, even December with our old NZ
crosses, but we lost them all a couple of years ago. These are Carnica
[crosses, now!], we were told - we bought them from an aging keeper [and
boy, are we now *certain* we don't like WBC's!]. They are just tucking the
last of their syrup away into the corners now, and soon they'll be sprayed
for [or rather *against*] varroa and shut up for the winter. We never liked
the idea of using nasty chemicals, so we are using 'alternative' anti-varroa
treatments, which seem so far to be working.

> Do they have the same queens as before, and if not, have you raised
> the new ones?

No, I think [IIRC without looking at the records] that they have all
superceded themselves, several times in a couple of cases, with maybe a bit
of help from us. One colony got really ratty but has improved lot with the
change of queen - another has been both prolific and gentle so we've used
that as a source of queen cells.

> I've noticed the same thing in one of my colonies, and I suspect
> it's due to the new queen;

We'd have come to a similar conclusion if it hadn't been the same in all
4 colonies. Our main concern is whether they come through the winter with
the aging bees.

However, it has been a strange beekeeping year for us all round. We've
had a 'Marie Celeste' hive where an apparently happy colony suddenly
disappeared, after cleaning the cupboards, making the beds and sweeping the
floors; we've had a knocked-over hive [deer?] which someone, we never found out who, had
obviously tried to make good by propping the cover board where the floor
should have been, before [presumeably] being prevailed upon to leave, [but
thanks to their efforts, the colony was OK]; and we've had a hive, which was
empty on a Friday, with a *very* large and proprietarily-behaving colony in
it on the Sunday when we only went to the apiary again to hive a tiny swarm
we'd captured ["'Ere - surely that was an empty box? They're not robbing -
they think they live there! Oo-er! Dunno where they've come from, but
there's a heck of a lot of them! Shut them up quickly and hope they decide
to stay!]

J. J.