It has been a very hot and dry summer. So much so that the harvest this year was about a third of my usual ones. Less flowers and thus nothing for the bees to feed on. It seems to me that the drought conditions we suffered did not allow the bees to forage as usual so they obviously responded by eating their own honey, which after all is why they make it. I refuse to feed them sugar in the summer, with a strong colony this is not a problem they just eat their own honey. However, if the colony is not so strong the bees do not have enough to survive on, so I risk losing the colony. It seems like cheating to feed them sugar in the summer and any honey then harvested would not be real honey. In any case I got just enough real honey for our own, and the family’s consumption.
Alas, the rest of France had a record honey harvest. How the cookie crumbles!
Winter arrived late but there was some rain, which helped a lot.
Once I had harvested the last few frames of Sarriette honey in October, I rushed to inspect the hives and start the biannual varroa treatment and to give them some sugar candy. Fortunately, all seemed well in the apiary although very quiet which is not surprising.
I find my weekly trips to the bees are quite therapeutic and it makes me happy to watch the colonies thriving and working hard. If and when I lose a colony or two which happens despite my careful husbandry, there is a feeling of profound loss. I feel personally responsible for not being around to save a colony, and wonder if I did something wrong.
It may sound silly but the bees are my friends I want to help them to survive and grow. When they eat their own honey to survive, which I would rob them of, I have to simply grin and bear it.
Now the Beek will try to survive winter with his bees and await spring when he will hopefully be able to create new queens and colonies, and a better year.