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Climate, weather, flow, bee activity in South Germany

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blackforest beekeeper:
problem with poop is only if it?s inside the hive...

SiWolKe:
Thank you BfB,
I had this only with one hive and once so far and the frames were spotted too, but it did not matter to the bees then.
I took out the frames and cleaned the top bars, scraped away some traces on comb and gave it back.
The moment season started they were healthy.

Hopefully this time it?s not a big thing too.

SiWolKe:
Update: 10?C sunny

Check today: ALL colonies are still alive, I do not know about the Ferals, they did not fly, but in the shade it is quite cool. It will not open until I know for sure they are dead..

Elgons:
5 colonies strong, 4 hives weak, one very weak, possibly queenless. Food stores good, easy to reach. 4 hours of sun a day when the sun is there.
No pollen yet, I just saw one bee with pollen. Very frosty there. No new poop traces, dead bees are pulled out . With the strong hives, 2-3 handfuls of dead, no crippled bees.
Brood nest I did not look at.  Just looked sideways and from top if they have stores.

Buckfast:
they are standing on the dry southern slope and flew heavily. Pollen entry, looks like hazel. The hazelnuts and alders are already blooming there. One hive seems to be without a queen, it did not bring pollen and did not release much of their dead. It was the strongest in the fall.
I'll wait. All colonies are strong, on 4 frames, not much food. Have the feeders filled with moist sugar-honey mixture.

blackforest beekeeper:
the last few days it was sunny and mild during the day, freezing at night. the bees - even in the blackforest - took achance on a cleansing flight (we still have a foot of hard frozen snow around the house, but the bees are standing sunny).
In the commercially orientated apiary-part in milder parts with no snow I checked on them. I was very concerned about them for there is a lot of pine-honey in the stores and due to a very consistent winter this year they werent able to fly out and poop for more than two months.
Two succumbed to the pine honey. poop all over the place inside. but the other 69 were going strong. up to an early breeding with up to two hands of capped brood on single frames.
i did some OAV and dribbling on some nevertheless.
lots of pollen coming in. they have used up a lot of feed already, though I had been feeding well in fall. Gotta stir up some sugar in 3 or 4 weeks, depending on weather.
if winter doesn`t hit back hard, as it may, everything seems to be leading to early splits and early-flow-ready hives.

SiWolKe:
Hello folks!
Thanks to those who texted me privately the last months. Thanks for caring about my well-being.

I?m fine, moving to Sweden right now.

I had given my German bees to a friend in Bavaria. He wanted to mate the new queens in the bee yard of a known tf beekeeper so he invited the bee inspector to examine them to get the permission.
This guy was very awed about their strength and health, which made me very happy, having invested so much time and love in the project.

In Sweden my number of colonies went up to 5, all three colonies I started with surviving winter and giving two splits out of the strongest.
No mite problem so far. They all have winter strength right now and a lot of honey. Since the fall honey, dew and heather honey, is not good on the digestion, I plan to take this and surround the cluster with the spring and summer honey combs this September.

Life in Sweden is very peaceful, no covid hysterics like in Germany and the regulations of distance keeping and hygienic behaviors easy to keep.
We have nice neighbors, the working on the farm buildings is going well and my permaculture garden covered with bee flow plants right now.
Plus we have jobs as shareholders of a company.

So Ihm blessed and grateful to have this great future.
Best to you all!
Sibylle

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