Mad March And Not A Hare In Sight

Blimey what a start to March it has been. The weather has been simply superb so far this month, although it is only the 10th.

A look through all the apiaries last week and all the queens have started laying again quite nicely, so that will be a good few thousand bees hatching in a week or two in each of the colonies. However, the 10 day weather look ahead doesn’t bode too well with daytime temperatures reaching 6/7 degrees Celsius. No significant bee flying time, means little to no eggs being laid dependent upon the individual queen. Let’s just hope they’ve stocked up on enough pollen and nectar to see them through the forthcoming cold spell.

Incidentally, around here (not sure about the rest of the country), the wonderful spring life line to pollinators, field beans, are no longer being grown. Reason, cheaper soya bean imports from South America and Asia are making them simply unaffordable to produce. Bumblebees and other pollinators thrive off the stuff, some years it can be their life line. How mad is that? A product with a massive carbon footprint, that causes monocultures, mass soil degradation, water pollution because of the mass use of fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides, deforestation including the destruction of Rainforests, land conflicts, displacement of indigenous peoples, labour exploitation, together with a good few human health concerns, has wiped out our field bean crop and potentially knocked our pollinator species and their populations for six. Work the logic of that one out.