Deep calm at the apiaries

winter hibernation

Dear friends and supporters of the foundation,

Dear bee lovers,

First of all, to all of you whom we have not yet contacted in person or by telephone, we wish you a happy New Year and a good bee year. May peace be with us all.

In our last blog post in mid-November, we shared our concerns about the unusually high temperatures for this time of year. Perhaps sharing our concerns helped. Just one week later, winter arrived here too. Initially, temperatures were in the low single digits, and for the past two weeks we have had heavy frost and lots of snow, which is staying on the ground. That's good, it reassures us greatly.

Winter hibernation has now begun and the only visitors to our station are many birds that we are happy to feed in these conditions. We observe great tits, blue tits, coal tits, nuthatches, great spotted woodpeckers, blackbirds, redstarts, chaffinches, magpies and goldfinches. And, of course, lots of sparrows. It's a colourful scene. It's a great fun to watch.

The most important thing for the bees now is undisturbed winter rest, which is fully guaranteed here. They form what is known as a winter cluster in the hives. Despite the icy outside temperature, the thermometer shows around 25° Celsius inside the hives. It is even warmer inside the cluster. We do not carry out any checks that require the lid to be opened. At the end of the month, we will carry out an initial weight check to see how the food supply is developing. We do this by carefully placing the hives on a hive scale with two people.

When there is snow on the ground, it is now important to keep the flight holes clear to ensure air circulation. It is important to use wire mesh to prevent mice from entering.

our meeting point in the summertime

Otherwise, there is little to do. We are in the process of compiling our results from last year and will then publish them. It is already clear that it was a year with a difficult start, an extensive nectar flow and a very hot summer. We will report in more detail shortly.

In the workshop at the research site, we are currently repairing defective magazines and carefully cleaning used frames of wax residues so that wax moths cannot find a home there.

We are currently preparing a series of lectures for the coming months for an institute in a nearby small town. Of course, the focus will once again be on bee health.

Together with a biologist friend, we are preparing a series of tests in which we will determine the effectiveness of various varroa control methods with as few side effects as possible, outside of our test colonies. ApiLife, oxalic acid, formic acid, lactic acid and bicarbonate of soda will be used in the comparative test. We are eager to see the results and will report back.

I wish you all a good, restful winter break with wonderful moments in nature. And, of course, we hope you are looking forward to the coming bee year.

Warm regards and be(e) good,

Yours,