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Higgins & Rose
The Bee-ginning
Higgins & Rose all kicked off as a result of our interest in Insect Natural History and the resulting question of, “Where’ve all the insects gone?” With a fair bit of head scratching on how to help the environment on an exceedingly limited budget, the great idea (at the time) of keeping honeybees came about. For not only do these little blighters happily ping you for no valid reason should the mood take them, but they help pollinations that otherwise would never occur, as well as providing valuable food sources to a multitude of bird species, while at the same time reducing predation upon the less prolific bumble and solitary bee species.
Hence the inception of Higgins & Rose, and our subsequent, “Apiaries of Distinction”.
The Apiarist's Year
Jan - March
Now the gloom of winter solstice has passed.
The days are getting longer, the dampness of November and December has abated, the slowly the bees awake from their slumbers.
As photoperiod begins to increase, so does the Queen’s egg laying and the subsequent hatching of baby bees to bring the colony back to it’s pre-winter strengths.
Living on this fair Isle, our weather naturally fluctuates from year to the year, and season to season. Therefore, it always remains prudent to keep an eye on the honeybees’ food stores, should stores be running low, and flying times are forebode by the weather.
As photoperiod begins to increase, so does the Queen’s egg laying and the subsequent hatching of baby bees to bring the colony back to it’s pre-winter strengths.
Living on this fair Isle, our weather naturally fluctuates from year to the year, and season to season. Therefore, it always remains prudent to keep an eye on the honeybees’ food stores, should stores be running low, and flying times are forebode by the weather.
April - May
Come April, bee season is generally starting off in earnest.
Flying time is increasing by the longer days and warmer temperatures. Some of the stronger colonies coming through winter with the increases of pollen and nectar coming in will be getting ready to swarm.
Now is the time when the beekeeper has to up their game, check their hives and stop their bees swarming.
For the bee breeders, this is when the fun begins, the Drones are maturing from the stronger colonies and the weather is warm enough for them to fly!
Now is the time when the beekeeper has to up their game, check their hives and stop their bees swarming.
For the bee breeders, this is when the fun begins, the Drones are maturing from the stronger colonies and the weather is warm enough for them to fly!
June - July
These are great months for the beekeeper.
The days are warm and long, and it’s just a sheer pleasure to be outside.
To the bees, June can be a tough time with the infamous June Gap, where there can be limitations to the pollens and nectars available and as mad as it may sound, colonies can be lost to starvation. However come July, the honey flow is back on in earnest, and a Beefarmer’s fortunes can be made or invariably lost.
To the bees, June can be a tough time with the infamous June Gap, where there can be limitations to the pollens and nectars available and as mad as it may sound, colonies can be lost to starvation. However come July, the honey flow is back on in earnest, and a Beefarmer’s fortunes can be made or invariably lost.
August - September
August, the end of the Bees’ summer.
A new type of bee is being produced in the hive, the winter bee. A tougher, rounder bee than the summer bee, one that carries larger protein stores, which can live out the frugal autumn and winter months, opposed to the relatively short life span of just a few weeks of a summer worker bee.
August is both a good and a bad month for beekeepers. For those that can get onto the heather heaths and/ or moors, these guys have an extra month of bee season to enjoy. But, as the wily wasps begin to shut down their own breeder colonies for the year and the new queens go off to set up their own solitary nests to sit out the winter months, the worker wasps suddenly become orphans, while hunger and certain death looms,, hence robbing season commences. It’s a brutal time for both wasps and bees, a honeybee colony can be destroyed on a matter of days by a queenless colony of wasps.
Fortunately, with the wasps predating upon the easy to find honeybee, robbing the larvae and pillaging their honey their stores, both the bumble bee and solitary bee species benefit as less predation pressure is put on themselves, so improving their chances of making it through to the following year and increasing their populations.And then, just to add to the honeybee’s problems, neighbouring honeybee colonies can start robbing them of stores also to bolster their own winter supplies. It’s dog, eat dog out there, erase the notion of bees living in harmony, bees can be horrible.A random note, in 2023 wasps were found still to be predating upon honey bee colonies well into December, yet in 2024, wasps weren’t noted to be significant predators upon honey bee colonies across the year.
August is both a good and a bad month for beekeepers. For those that can get onto the heather heaths and/ or moors, these guys have an extra month of bee season to enjoy. But, as the wily wasps begin to shut down their own breeder colonies for the year and the new queens go off to set up their own solitary nests to sit out the winter months, the worker wasps suddenly become orphans, while hunger and certain death looms,, hence robbing season commences. It’s a brutal time for both wasps and bees, a honeybee colony can be destroyed on a matter of days by a queenless colony of wasps.
Fortunately, with the wasps predating upon the easy to find honeybee, robbing the larvae and pillaging their honey their stores, both the bumble bee and solitary bee species benefit as less predation pressure is put on themselves, so improving their chances of making it through to the following year and increasing their populations.And then, just to add to the honeybee’s problems, neighbouring honeybee colonies can start robbing them of stores also to bolster their own winter supplies. It’s dog, eat dog out there, erase the notion of bees living in harmony, bees can be horrible.A random note, in 2023 wasps were found still to be predating upon honey bee colonies well into December, yet in 2024, wasps weren’t noted to be significant predators upon honey bee colonies across the year.
October - December
October the bees are enjoying the last of the year’s sunshine.
Of those colonies that have survived robbing season, they are now readying themselves to huddle down for winter. The first frosts tend to start to see an end to the remaining wasps.(Indecently and out of sync and as mentioned previously, in 2023, wasps were seen in apiaries as late as December, even after several days of consistent freezing temperatures and snow.) Then, November and December and that’s it, the bees are in their hives, sitting it out ready for the new year, munching on their winter honey and pollen stores. Alas, now the sun stays low on the horizon, everywhere is damp and it is rare that the bees will venture out until the new year.