Housekeeping

The magnum opus last week wasn't planned like that.

I started with a relatively concise outline, fleshed out a few paragraphs in the afternoon, added a sprinkling of relevant scientific references, and dropped in the images to round it off. The following morning I completed my usual 'did I really mean to write that?' proofing, and the standard pre-submission tweaks … only to discover it was ~2,000 words longer than intended 😮.

But I pressed the 'submit' button anyway 😄.

This week I'm not going to make the same mistake. I've got an even briefer outline (actually just one word, the title of the post), will avoid the science, and have a self-imposed word count of 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,250 3,624 words.

What could possibly go wrong?

Don't tell the bees, but the beekeeping season is over

In my little corner of the Scottish Borders the bees are foraging busily, there's fresh nectar in the boxes, and pollen-laden workers are still landing clumsily near the hive entrance {{1}}.

During the warmest part of the (still unseasonably warm) days, entrance activity is high. However, it starts later in the morning, and tails off very quickly if it clouds over, or by mid/late afternoon.

All this is a bonus as far as I'm concerned. The entrance activity, in particular the pollen gathering, means that queens are still laying.

However, there's no need for any more inspections, the Apivar strips are out, and the fondant has all been consumed.

The season may not be over for the bees, but the beekeeping season is over for me.

I have only three tasks left to do in the apiary before the end of the year:

1. Add mouseguards to the hive entrances that require them {{2}}. I usually wait until the first frosts for this, and will certainly delay until daytime temperatures drop significantly and foraging tails off.
2. Insert a white Correx tray under the open mesh floor to monitor hive debris and get an idea when brood rearing stops. There's no point in doing this until pollen gathering is over.
3. Treat the colonies with trickled or vaporised oxalic acid when broodless.

Since all of those are still some way off, I've been focusing on tasks outside the apiary.

Housekeeping

My pre-winter tidying this season means I'll have less to do at the beginning of next season.

Since bitter experience shows I'm often woefully under-prepared for the start of the season, anything I can do now that improves things is an easy win.

The weather is still decent, so it's good to work outside, and the winter storms, which make some of these preparations essential, have yet to start.

At the same time — though not actually simultaneously — I've been doing some digital housekeeping. I'll deal with one important aspect of that first, before discussing the boxes, frames, stores, and straps.

Comments

I've changed the commenting system on the website.

For most readers this change will go unnoticed and/or ignored. That's because the majority of subscribers read the newsletter on their phones or tablets, rarely visit the website, and never leave comments.

Only subscribers and sponsors can comment on posts, or read comments left by others.

Despite the readership growing by ~60% since switching to the new website software in March 2024, the number of comments per post has dropped.

I like to think this has everything to do with the success of the newsletter format, and not a general lack of interest 😉.

Whatever the reason, it now seems nonsensical to use a separate commercial commenting system, so I've moved everything 'in house' to use the native Ghost software.

For readers who do leave comments, this introduces one very significant change.