Batten down the hatches

The Met Office has issued an 'Amber Alert'; there's a storm coming.
Wise beekeepers have secured their hives to stop the roofs flying off; the foolish will leave it to chance and risk killing their colonies.
There is an upside - with a force 10 gale at least none of us will be worried about hive ventilation over the next 24 hours!
However,once the storm has passed, the 'ventilation debate' will continue. That's because beekeepers basically fall into two groups: Top ventilators and bottom ventilators.
Personally, I'm a 'bottom' man because I use open mesh floors on my hives, which effectively means the bottom of the hive is open to the elements. You would think that would provide more than enough fresh air for my colonies, but apparently not. Last spring when I opened up my hives I noticed there was black mould all over the inside walls, which suggested inadequate ventilation.
Initially I was surprised because there was no problem with ventilation the previous winter. But then I remembered there were two important differences: Firstly, the hive was 3 boxes high rather than the usual 2, and secondly I had left the dummy boards in situ.
As a result the warm fug from the cluster of bees rose up to the top of the hive, cooled on the roof, and then slid down the sides, condensing on the dummy boards and walls, leaving them damp.
This winter I've left the dummy boards out and the stack is just two boxes high, so the air should be able to move freely around the hive.
I suspect it's already moving quite freely and will be even more so by tonight when those 60 mph winds set in!

Taste & Smile

In order to survive until spring a colony of bees needs about 20 kg of honey stored in the hive before the onset of winter. When I checked a month ago my colony had just 1/2 kg!
Nowhere near enough food, but I was quite happy because there was lots of brood. After months of waiting for the colony to build up the queen had finally got around to laying in earnest, and all those extra mouths to feed meant the bees were consuming food as fast as they were bringing it in.
But what to do? If I just left the bees alone they might make enough honey to see them through winter, but if they didn't they would starve... unless I fed them.
I could wait until November and then feed them if necessary, but there's a snag: Whether it's nectar or sugar syrup, bees have to evaporate off the excess water before they can store the stuff as 'honey', otherwise it will ferment in the comb, and drunken bees are not nice!
But by November it won't be warm enough for the bees to evaporate off the excess water, so I decided to feed them a 60% sugar syrup. They concentrate this to 72% sugar solution for storing in the comb by fanning-off some of the water with their wings.
So far they have taken about 17 kg of syrup, which will give them about 15 kg of 'honey'. That's not enough, but I think it will suffice because I know they have been frantically bringing in nectar as well.
As autumn progresses and the flowers die back it may be surprising to learn that right now we have a big nectar flow in progress, and the source of that nectar is ivy. Ivy makes a fairly unpleasant honey that sets rock hard in the comb, but it provides an important top-up for winter stores, which is just as well because all this sugar has proven expensive.
Word has obviously got out because I see Investec have just issued a 'Buy' note for Tate & Lyle shares.
I'm not surprised.