Episode 101: Integrated Pest Management - Spring 2020

The sun is shining, it’s warming up nicely and I’m thinking further on our Integrated Pest Management controls. Stay tuned for more suggestions on how to keep your bees healthy this year.

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I’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of them this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website www.mesi.fi

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One of the main focuses this week has been getting wax into frames, as you know we’ve been cleaning and washing frames and boxes for a while over the Winter period and that all comes to it’s grand finale with the final step of putting the wax foundation into the frames and loading up the brood boxes with prepared frames ready to go on to the hives.

My intention this Spring is to get as many of the nucleus colonies into full-sized hives as soon as we can to allow them to build up for the main flow in the Summer.

We may get a box of honey of them from the Spring flow but as I’ve said many times before to make honey you need lots of bees and lots of nectar.

Finally, a further mention about the Apipasta Plus Pollen Substitute, I popped out to check up on a few colonies yesterday prior to delivering three colonies to a fellow beekeeper and I have to say it was pretty much as I suspected. I lifted the roofs on about a dozen colonies and the Apipasta plus, which comes in those flat, plastic trays is easy to see and check without having to disturb the bees. A couple of colonies hadn’t touched it at all to the point that I couldn’t see any activity, about four had eaten enough to make a small visible clean spot on the plastic tray and the rest were gorging themselves on it and had eaten about two-thirds of it.
I knew the bees would take to it well because I had put it on the colonies between the flowering of the Snowdrops and Hazel finishing and the first Willows becoming available.

I would expect that over the next week or so more Willow to flower and the bees will have greater opportunities to get out and forage on naturally available pollen, the Apipasta has, however, been a very valuable source of protein for them and I’m sure they will have benefitted from having it as opposed to me not feeding it to them. I’m going to post a video next week showing some of these hives so do look out for that on YouTube.

Well that’s it for this week if you are going to any gatherings or meetings please do take care, remember to wash your hands and stay safe.

Have a great beekeeping week and Please do remember to check out my Patreon page where you can access lots more content, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolk honey.

I’m Stewart Spinks and that was Beekeeping Short and Sweet.