This has been a season of highs and lows. With a cold and wet start, several people reported higher than normal colony losses over the winter, often through queen failure. As the previous summer and autumn (2024) were comparatively poor, perhaps some losses could be attributed to poorly mated queens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, as winter gave way to spring, a mini-heatwave hit in May and swarms burst from our hives. The colonies that survived winter and early spring had not been idle while we were waiting for weather to improve enough to allow inspection! Summer continued to be hotter than average, often too hot to open hives in the afternoon. Drought followed and, although that ought to have had a detrimental effect on nectar production, the bees found plenty to satisfy their needs and – for many of us – produce a good surplus of honey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the downside, what’s good for bees is also good for other insects. Wasps became a nuisance earlier than usual and predated hives in vast numbers. While they are effective pest controllers in the first part of the season, once the wasp queens fail the workers seek sugars outside their nest, finding a hive full of honey irresistible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our bees had a good summer all in all, and have gone into winter as strong colonies. All we can do now is keep the mice out and the woodpeckers off, and keep checking that the bees have enough stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you interested in learning to keep bees in 2026? We run a beginners’ course each year – please CLICK HERE<\/a> to read about our flexible format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This has been a season of highs and lows. With a cold and wet start, several people reported higher than normal colony losses over the winter, often through queen failure. As the previous summer and autumn (2024) were comparatively poor, perhaps some losses could be attributed to poorly mated queens. Anyway, as winter gave way… Read More »The end of the season, 2025<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":864,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"[\"content\",\"tags\"]","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-romsey-beekeepers"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t