In this solo beekeeping update, the speaker reviews Zane's first nuc as the 2026 season draws to a close. He notes that the late‑season nectar flow has ended, leaving the colony with little motivation and only a few empty frames. The expected honey harvest is modest—about six to seven frames—far below the potential of a good year. He reflects on how early, strong colonies are essential in the UK to capture the early spring and summer flows, and how repeated queen problems this season caused the nuc to miss the spring crop. Despite setbacks, the queen is now settled, brood pattern is healthy, and the bees appear robust. The speaker outlines the winter‑preparation plan: harvest the honey, apply Apivar strips, conduct final inspections, ensure the queen and brood are healthy, and feed/treat the colony for winter survival. He emphasizes the broader lesson of recognizing when to stop chasing honey and prioritize bee health, hoping the experience will inform better management for next season and keep Zane engaged in beekeeping.
Chapters
Episode 16, Zane's first nuc. The season is done. So I know I said last week that I was going to give this colony another chance and we'll see what happens this week, but just looking around the apiary, seeing what I've seen already this week, the flow is gone. It's dead. It doesn't matter how many bees emerge from Zane's brood box, the flow has finished here. So I'm getting these bees ready for winter now. So as suspected, top box is just foundation. That is one super that is not going to get filled in 2026, which is Bit of shame. So bees not in the best mood either, which is what happens when the flow dies. Like these middling frames here are just still completely empty and dry. So I'm not going to do any more than that. I'm going to wait until Zane comes back next week. We're going to take this honey off. We're going to go and do something with it. We'll see how many jars we get out. We'll get our Apivar strips in. We'll do our final winter checks. We'll make sure the queen is happy. The brood pattern is good. We'll do everything to make sure that this colony gets through winter well. But in terms of honey harvest, we're looking at Maybe 6 or 7 frames max. I am a little bit gutted about that, I'm not going to lie, because some of the colonies over there have done really, really well. 2026, I think, was the year where if you managed your colonies well and you got the timing right, you could have got yourself a very nice honey crop. What I'm finding more and more in the UK is that you need a big strong colony early on to try and catch the early flows. That's when the weather's there, that's when the moisture is there, that's when the flow is there. And it's these late summer crops where the colonies are kind of dwindling through or something goes wrong and it gets a little bit delayed, and then you're asking the plants at the back end of the season, the real drought-ridden plants that have not had enough water, to try and create a bumper honey crop. Now I'm not blaming the season on that at all. Like, I've got colonies over there that are managed well and they've taken a respectable summer crop, nothing special, but the spring crop this year was where it was at, and this one here sadly missed it. It just didn't get close to it because of the repeated queen issues that we've had. But let's focus on the positives. The queen is now there, the brood is now there, the bees look healthy. We can focus on treatments, we can focus on getting them through to winter. And then Zane will be in a different position next year. Instead of going in and starting a nuc kind of 3 or 4 weeks later in the season and hopefully not having any issues next year, but he'll be starting with a full-size colony early on in the year. And then hopefully we get a nice early season flow next year and Zane can catch one of those waves and get a decent honey crop next year. This is well below average. Hopefully it's not going to put Zane off beekeeping forever. But I do think there's lots of lessons that you can take from this colony here. How to fix things when they go wrong, when to call it quits, when to stop chasing that honey crop, and when to start focusing on the bees' health. Now these bees are buzzing me, they don't like it being open. I'm not even going in the brood box today because there's no need to. All I would be doing is satisfying my own curiosity. I don't think the bees are going to swarm this late on in the season. I think they're settled. Next week we'll get into a final inspection, get them well fed, get them treated, and say goodbye for winter.
