Oh, What a May

Blimey, what a month May has been so far, it’s literally been two steps forward and one step back. The month started off cold so both the starter and finisher colonies balled and we had the same again a week or two later just as everything started getting back into it’s stride. Result, Starters reduced the number of grafts taken. While the finisher colonies, in their protests against the weather, pulled down some if not all of their uncapped queen cells, while others, just allowed their capped queen cells to chill. Sometimes the argument for a massive great, queen cell incubator is strong. Then to add to this, the mainstay of the early mated queens were knocked back because of the chill reducing or temporarily ceasing laying rates.

Yet despite all this two steps forward, one step back on the queen rearing side of the business. Nuc production has been on fire, coupled this with a nice spring honey crop currently coming in and 2025 could actually be a good year for beekeepers at this rate. Could! The weather forecast for next week is rain every day.