Good years, bad years...

Ivy bee Colletes hederae (Wikipedia)

And that's how it goes!  2024 was our best year in terms of honey production, 2025 has been our worst year on record.  In 16 years of beekeeping we can't remember such lengthy spells of hot, dry weather with no rain.

What's the problem then?  I don't think there is one, it's simply that the seasons were out of alignment in 2025.  It was a superb spring for hedgerow blossom and the fields are now lined with the scarlet of hawthorn haws and the purple of sloes on the blackthorn bushes.  I reckon this year's sloe gin will be exceptionally good!

Lime trees and brambles can be a significant source of nectar and honey for our bees but the weather got the timing wrong.  The flowers opened in the middle of a long hot dry spell  and the bees descended on them.  There was plenty of pollen to be had - essential protein food for the developing larvae - but almost no nectar.  What the foragers gathered they consumed and there was no surplus for humans to extract.

So where are we now?  We have 10 good strong colonies getting on with their autumn preparations.  8 of them have new queens, all raised locally by our bees - none of those expensive imported queens for us!  Honeybees face enough threats in the environment without risking the import of devastating pests such as Tropilaelaps, a tiny mite that is spreading westwards across Europe.

And it's September which means the ivy is starting to flower.  Many insect species depend on it for an autumn boost to see them through the winter.  One of nature's marvels is the ivy bee, a small mining bee that times its emergence to coincide with the ivy bloom.  The males emerge from dry sandy soil in large numbers, feed on the ivy and then lie in wait for the females to appear a day or two later.  A brief but frenzied mating season finishes with the females digging new burrows and laying eggs to await next year's ivy.  No, they aren't swarming honeybees - someone always phones us to ask!

​Well, here's to another beekeeping season ahead.  See you next spring!

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