Laurence Edwards inspects every colony at his Orchard Apiary in October 2021 while removing Apivar strips. He finds strong colonies well-fed from an abundant ivy nectar flow and expects excellent overwintering, though he notes some weaker hives and admits a mistake in how he placed the strips.
In this video, I'm going to give you a snapshot of late October of every single colony down at the Orchard Apiary. Hi, I'm Laurence Edwards from Black Mountain Honey. Welcome to another episode of No Nonsense Beekeeping. I say it all the time, don't I? You don't need to go into your colonies late October, early November. There's no reason for you to be going in apart from one, the really important reason, I'm here today taking out my Apivar strips. Gives me the opportunity to get inside these colonies, take the roof off, and to give you a snapshot of what that colony is like going into winter. I find this a really, really useful tool come spring when I work out how many colonies have died, how many colonies have failed over winter, or they're dwindling down. And I can go back and look at the colonies that maybe are a little bit suspect at this time of year, probably got issues with them now, but I'm not going to go in and take any chances lifting things out because there's no benefit to me doing that. Anywhere that I've found an issue in terms of a poorly mated queen, drone-laying queen, any disease, I've dealt with that in August and September. So everything here should be full, everything here should be healthy. I'm going to give you a snapshot of that cluster last week of October. So I'll get my bee suit on. Let's go and take a look at the Orchard Apiary snapshot.
Right here is my colony of bees, and they're looking pretty decent. So I just wanted to kind of run over and show you how difficult it is to see those apivar strips. Right, next up, colony number 2. Again, big strong colony, completely cleared out the feeder, this one. They are looking really nice, big and strong, loads of brood in here as well. Can't get much better than this. This colony here, I've done this one before, I've taken the apivar strips out because look how chilled out they are. I've made a big mistake this year putting those Apivar strips in like that, because this is what I want my colonies to be looking like. I don't want to have to go in here now and take these strips out. The only way I can do it is by taking the frames out, hunting for those strips. Well, look at those bees, they are ready for winter. The last thing they want me doing is going and doing this. So again, hold my hands up here, I've made a real big error. I'm not putting Apivar strips in like this again. It's too slow, too disruptive for those Right, definitely got a problem with this one. This one is nowhere near as strong, not covering anywhere near as many frames, a little bit more tetchy when I open it up. Still got some syrup down in the feeder as well. Not happy with this one. I'm not going to go hunting, not going to try and do anything because there's nothing I can do at this stage of the year. I'm going to get in there, I'll have a peek though, and I'll take the Apivar strips out, see what I can see.
I'm gonna go in there, I'm gonna have But a peek though, and I'll take the these Apivar strips out, see what I can see.
ones definitely raising a little trigger to say might not get these ones through the winter. Just taking the strip off this one. Brood actually isn't looking too bad. I think this is just a much smaller colony. No signs, no immediate signs that there's anything wrong. No disease, no drone laying queen, no signs of supersedure. So we'll see how we go with this one. Right, next colony, super strong. You get the kind of message, don't you, at this apiary? They have done Very well. They're big, they're strong. These frames are brood. They're well fed. The apivar strips are coming out. Really, really happy with what I'm seeing. Right, next colony. This is just a single national, not a 14 by 12, but really big and strong again. Lovely looking bees. Really, really happy with what I'm seeing in this apiary. Right, back to the nice big strong colonies. Not the happiest again, these ones, for me to be opening them up. I've got the Apivar strips out though. They're on a single national deep covering 10 frames. Really, really good looking colony. And finally, the darkest bees that I own. How interesting. They are clustered up, they're ready for winter. Probably not as much brood in there. Do find this with dark bees, they get ready earlier for winter. They probably get through winter a little bit better as well, don't tend to starve out as much. These ones are a little bit grumpy as well. Can't see it on camera because they're getting ready for winter, but they're looking really good. Really happy with these. Get the Apivar strips out, and that is the last colony in this apiary.
So there we go, that is every single colony I've got in this apiary here. A few of the nucs as well, looking really, really nice. The autumn here has just been the best autumn I can remember. It's been so warm, it's been so sunny, and for us in North Wales, we don't tend to get that much of an ivy flow normally because the ivy flowers when the weather is poor. Up here this year, the weather has been so good, they've packed away so much ivy. I'm gonna say, and go out on a bit of a gamble here and say, I think we're gonna get the best overwintering performance going into 2022 that we've ever experienced. Of course, I will be sure to update this video later on, tell you how many colonies I've lost over the winter. We'll do a little autopsy on them as well to see if we can work out why they failed.
I hope you enjoyed that video though.
I hope you found it useful. Good habit to get into, taking snapshots of your colonies going into winter. One final look in there, and then when you get into the new season, you can see how they've performed. As always, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the bell so you're notified of every video, and I'll see you next time.
