Praying for a bountiful season for 2022
I would not consider myself a religious person, but I am praying for a better season this year. Whilst 2020 was a tough year with lockdowns and below average yields, 2021 turned out to be even more difficult, probably the worst beekeeping season that I have yet experienced.
In Cornwall, we can usually expect a reasonable Spring season with reliable availability of nectar and pollen allowing colonies to build up nicely. It would usually be the norm, to arrive at a site on a warm sunny day and hear the buzz of busy bees and see the sky resembling spaghetti junction. Frames would be dazzling with their mosaics of pollen filled cells and the kaleidoscope-like patterns of brood in every stage… sadly, things were not the norm this season.
The cold, dry April followed by a very wet May meant that sites were eerily quiet, and the hive entrances were almost lifeless. Inside the hives, subdued colonies were found on small patches of brood. There was little or no pollen surrounding the nests and very little nectar. The extremely dry Spring conditions meant that the flora was unable to produce the nectar needed by the bees for energy. In turn, the bees were less able to forage for pollen and so could not provide the proteins needed to feed their young. The inclement Spring weather left colonies undersized and malnourished.
In some hives, bees were beginning to abandon their brood and move to the outer frames. It was clear that they did not have enough pollen to provide their young with the necessary protein for growth. In other colonies, where brood had not been abandoned, the bees themselves were beginning to starve. The starvation in some colonies resulted in piles of lifeless bees on the floor of their hives, sometimes even while more eggs were being laid. This was most noticeable in colonies on our outermost sites where we have more non-native colonies. Our innermost sites are populated with native colonies, as these are where we mate our queens. These sites fared a little better by curtailing their brood production to suit what the bees were actually able to bring in. The native strain, Apis mellifera mellifera, benefits from this characteristic of thriftiness in times of dearth, a trait rarely seen in foreign subspecies which have evolved in regions with more reliable weather patterns and a steady supply of nectar and pollen in the season.
Because the bees on some sites were coping with conditions fairly well, we did not recognise the crisis occurring on other sites and several colonies were lost to starvation. This was a bit of a blow but, fortunately, we did get through this period with most of our colonies intact. What was probably worse was the fact that most colonies were not in a good enough condition to take advantage of the flow, if and when it did come. We were now approaching the summer season with weak colonies and very little spare food. As a result of this, it seemed that almost none of our colonies were attempting to swarm and even those which did make queen cells, destroyed them just before they were due to hatch. The colonies were not strong enough in numbers to be able to split (swarm) successfully.
Our queen rearing and nuc-making was also affected, mainly due to the delay in getting colonies up to strength. It was a struggle to build strong enough colonies to rear the grafts and for them not to destroy them before harvesting. Nuc-making was much delayed due to the time taken to get colonies up to strength. Nucs made from non-native bees are fine for over-wintering, as by the spring the bees have been replaced by native offspring from the new queens and we can then assess the matings of the queens. For more immediate sale, though, the use of native bees is more appropriate and this became a difficult task.
Overall, although honey production was low, queen-rearing went well, and nuc-production got there eventually. On a positive note, the bees ended the season well and looked good going into winter. We found little sign of varroa damage in the colonies this year, partly due to the lack of brood production in the hives, particularly drone brood. Although we could see some varroa mites within the hives, signs of deformed wing virus (DWV) were not common. We have experimented with no varroa treatment in some apiaries over the last couple of years and results have, so far, been quite positive. We intend to extend this trial to more apiaries by withdrawing treatment from them. If successful it will help in the development of varroa tolerance in our bees.
Honey bees all over the world have very little chance of developing any sort of resilience to Varroa as long as we continue to treat them religiously. To withdraw treatment can be a risky strategy and, in the past, failure to treat has, on occasions, resulted in heavy losses. We have now had varroa, in this country, for 30 years, and quite a lot of beekeepers are reporting survival despite lack of treatment. Untreated colonies which appear healthiest in the Spring, can be monitored for varroa and hopefully used for breeding purposes.
It is important to us that we do not allow naturally occurring disadvantages and/or failures to make us despondent, but to see that it contributes to our chosen method of bee farming. Only by embracing some poor outcomes are we really allowing our honey bees to prove to us their strengths and abilities which make them the strongest and fittest. Natural selection can only occur when the bees are subject to poor conditions, disease or other problems. Although failures and losses can be disappointing, those that survive or thrive can be seen as potential breeding quality colonies and may contribute to our efforts to create better and more resilient strains.
We are praying that our efforts to rebuild after this season and our decisions to treat fewer colonies are not in vain and that we can make up for the past two seasons during the next season of 2022. Wishing everyone the best of luck for the new year and new season ahead, third time lucky, right?
by Shelley Glasspool
