Last week‘s good weather saw a frenzy of work by beekeepers in County Fermanagh and the surrounding area. Bees have been flying at every opportunity as the temperature rose above 8°C, collecting pollen and the odd load of nectar from spring flowers and shrubs.

Once the temperature reached 15°C, it was warm enough to open up the brood boxes so that the ravages of the colder than usual weather in March could be assessed. Bee suits were shaken out, smokers lit and the long-unused hive tools were put to good use in breaking the propolis seals which the bees had used to ensure that their hives were snug. Propolis is a ’bee glue’ which they collect from trees and sticky buds during spring and summer. Some strains of bee collect more than others and they can also use it to fix the frames together. This makes the first examination of brood boxes, especially nucleus boxes which have no runners, more time consuming than we would wish at this time of year. The aim is to assess the bees, the amount of brood and whether or not the queen is laying satisfactorily, the amount stored honey and note any old frames which need replacing, as quickly as possible so that the brood nest loses as little heat as possible. The bees will maintain their brood nests at 35°C and with the numbers of bees at their minimum, we do not want to make this task any more difficult by our interference.

Beekeepers with whom I have been in contact, are well pleased with the condition of their over-wintered colonies. The survival rate seems to be high, even amongst the small nucleus hives. Reports give a range of two to five frames of brood in the colonies. Some nuclei which were not very strong in autumn have very small patches of brood and, if the beekeeper has a colony which can spare a frame of brood and bees, this frame could help the little colony survive. Remember to lightly spray the frame and the receiving bees with warm water containing a little sugar to prevent any fighting by giving them the cleaning up job to do.

We have been watching pollen being carried into our colonies since the beginning of the year. This is always a good sign as it signifies that brood is being reared. What is does not tell us is the type of brood i.e. worker or drone brood. It is only this first examination which will give this information. If there is only drone brood in the hive, the colony is doomed since it needs worker bees to perform all the tasks in the hive.

There have not been many reports of drone laying queens this spring. We have had two good summers in a row when it was possible for the virgin queen to fly out and mate successfully with as many as a dozen drones, thus ensuring no inbreeding and enough sperm to last her lifetime. The good summer weather also meant that, providing the beekeeper has done his job properly, the bees are healthy and strong in numbers. If the queen has no sperm left in her spermatheca, she will lay unfertilised eggs and these eggs hatch into drone brood. If there are still plenty of worker bees then it is worth removing the drone layer and re-queening with a young queen which has been over-wintered in a nucleus hive. If no replacement is available, then try giving the colony a frame containing eggs and very young larvae. The bees may choose to rear a queen on the just-hatched eggs. At this time of year when drones are not being reared in large numbers, the bees may ignore the opportunity to rear a queen because they are aware that she may not be able to get mated so early in the season and it is worth persevering with a second and perhaps even a third frame if the second gives no results either. Again, the judgement has to be made as to whether or not the number of bees in the affected colony is high enough to warrant the introduction. If not, then unite the bees with another colony if you are sure there is no disease present.

Drone brood in a colony may also be due to laying workers. Since worker bees never mate they cannot lay fertilised eggs. Worker bees have small latent ovaries which can develop if queen pheromone (a pheromone is a chemical signal) and brood pheromone are not present in the hive i.e. the queen has been missing for at least four weeks. This means that something has happened to the queen over the winter, the most likely being that she has died of old age, another reason to keep young (no older than two years) queens in all colonies. Drone laying workers can be recognised from the brood pattern which will be scattered over the frames rather than being concentrated in one area of the brood nest. Also, when closely examined there will more than one egg in each cell, sometimes as many as five. There is no future for a drone laying colony. The most favoured way of dealing with it is to take the brood box about 200m away from the apiary, shake all the bees into the grass, go back to the apiary and remove all parts of the hive from its position into safe storage. By the time you reach the apiary, some of the flying bees will have got back before you! Ignore them and when they find that their nest has disappeared, they will eventually find a home with another colony in the apiary. Any drone laying worker which finds its way into another colony will be dealt with by the bees in that colony.

The second inspection should be for disease in the hive including signs of American Foul Brood, European Foul Brood and nosema. Anything which strikes the beekeeper as being unusual should be noted and questioned. The uncapped, white, crystallised remains of ivy honey should not be mistaken for anything sinister. Mr Sam Clawson from AFBI assured us in March that he would be pleased to examine any samples of bees or comb about which we had doubts. The AFBI web site will give details.

Remember to keep a record of everything which is found in the colonies, of any action which has had to be taken and of any future action which may be necessary. Anyone intending to rear queens in their apiary should also be noting factors such as stability on the frame, docility, brood pattern, pollen storage, quality of comb building, the following tendencies of the colony and disease resistance so that only the best queens are used as ‘queen mothers’.

The next meeting of Fermanagh Beekeepers’ Association will be held in the Railway Hotel in Enniskillen on Thursday, April 30 at 8pm prompt. The speaker will be Ms Julie Corry who is the local Bio- diversity Officer. All, beekeeper and non-beekeepers, will be welcome to attend.