The weather has not been good for the bees since the last diary article at the beginning of July.

The spring and early summer blossoms were finished and the bees were discouraged by the cool temperatures.

Very little nectar has been brought into the hives. Even on days warm enough for flying, the bees were listless and lacking in enthusiasm as they flew in and out of the entrance.

The beekeeper can usually tell by observation when there is a good 'flow' of nectar. The foragers fly faster and with much more purpose.

Another sign of the shortage of fresh nectar was the presence of a group of bees 'drinking' water from a patch of deep moss in the stonework in the garden.

They were carrying the water back to the hive to dilute stored honey to feed developing bee grubs.

Looking in the hives later confirmed that stored honey in the combs was disappearing fast to feed the colony.

Poor supplies of fresh nectar also affect the queen in her egg laying duties. She somehow senses that fresh food is becoming scarce and lays fewer eggs so that there will be fewer mouths to feed.

Management of the colonies is directed towards having lots of foraging bees ready to gather heather honey when flowering starts early in August.

From the laying of an egg to the new bee becoming mature enough to forage the nectar takes from five to six weeks. Therefore, the reduction in egg-laying caused by the poor weather in early July came just at the wrong time for the anticipated heather crop.

I have tried to overcome this by

uniting some of the weaker colonies.

This is a laborious process because the hives to be united must first be brought close together so that the flying bees with their strong and accurate homing instinct don't become lost by returning to the previous hive position. A hive can only be moved a maximum of two to three feet every couple of days.

Secondly, the queen from one of the colonies to be united must be found and removed - a task made easier if she is marked with a dab of paint.

Lastly, precautions must be taken to prevent the bees of the two colonies fighting each other.

The usual method is to place a single sheet of newspaper over the combs of bees of one colony and place the other hive full of bees on top of the paper. This is best done in the evening when the bees have finished flying for the day.

They then spend the night chewing through the paper. In sharing this task they accept the bees of the other colony. By morning there is a heap of shredded newspaper thrown out of the hive entrance and the two colonies have become one.

So far, this year has been a poor one for honey from my bees due to weather and, no doubt, wrong management.

A good heather crop could make all the difference. Ideal would be a long flowering season, hot humid weather, and a good rain every five or six days to keep the heather fresh and growing.

Geoff Halsall,

Wharfedale Beekeepers.