I had bees. Last year at this time I had placed two hives together and both were full but when I split them one hive vanished into the other. I am guessing I did not have a queen in one of them. Then the numbers fell until there were a few handfuls of bees going into winter and still there in January but … they have all vanished. there are no dead bees in the hive so I assume they just left.
I am meeting two people who run four hives and only take a little honey leaving the rest for the bees and not feeding them sugar – which is what I was trying to do without success.
It does make me wonder if there is enough natural world in the UK for bees to survive without sugar at all as they have done for 63 million years. We shall have to see.
#apiary
#bees