To Fondant or Not To Fondant ?

In the winter beekeepers are advised to heft their hives to gauge the level of stores. If the hive is light then the advice is to feed the bees with fondant- a boiled icing that the bees can access readily instead of having to process like the syrup that is fed in autumn or spring. Here I have followed a recipe that boils together sugar,water and glucose syrup, once 240F is reached the fondant is kneaded until malleable. This can then be packed in to trays and put directly over the hole in the crown board .
The question now is when is the optimum time to put the fondant on - but I at least have a couple of blocks ready if the time seems to have come!

Lasting Legacy

This weekend we visited Clumber Park- a National Trust property about 20 miles from home. Last week we had driven up but the park was closed because of the heavy snowfall. We have regularly visited the park over the last year, being especially interested in the walled garden which has been renovated and has a great range of fruit and vegetables. It also is one of the properties which has introduced bees to it's gardens.
As we drove through the park it was upsetting to see the extent of the damage - not just branches but whole trees had been broken down by the weight of the snow and ice.
The Cedar Walk has about 20 ancient cedar trees leading to the walled kitchen garden- they are amazing trees- or they were! The trees were completely devastated ,the crowns and branches split and cracked. Some clearing had already been started, but it looked as if some of the trees would not survive and have to be felled.

It occurred to me what would happen to the wood from the trees- the best beehives are made from cedar and I would hope that the National Trust may use the wood usefully-perhaps a sustainable lasting legacy. Hopefully the walk will be replanted but it will be many years before such a fine display will be seen again. So many trees destroyed may not be such an obvious consequence of the disruption caused by the present spell of bad weather but it is certainly one from which it will take along time to recover.

Bring Out Your Dead!!!

Today the temperature reached nearly 10 degrees up the garden today. It was a relief after seeing dead bees round the entrance of the hive in the snow to find bees flying. They were very busy -and seemed to be enjoying the chance to get out after nearly 2 weeks of temperatures below zero. Bees will not defaecate in side the hive, so in winter they need days like this to take cleansing flights and clear out any dead bees. Obviously over this period of cold, lots of the older bees that had manged to keep going because of the milder temperatures in November, couldn't keep going any longer. During the day the pile of dead bees grew and grew- eventually reaching maybe a thousand or more. It was fascinating watching as the bees brought out the dead bees and went about their housekeeping- keeping going until quite late in the day. 

Winter Wonderland

It seems that the whole country has been gripped by an early winter,with amazingly low temperatures, snow and ice. The country looks beautiful but has bought an added worry about the effect of the snow on the bees.
The temperature by the hive at around 10 am was -1C, the hive covered with snow, but the entrance was clear and astonishingly a bee flew out while we were there. I'm not sure whether to worry about that or not!!