2024 Cliffe Castle Bee Blog #18
If you visit Cliffe Castle now, and any time before the Easter school holidays 2025, I’m afraid you will find our observation hive is now empty of bees. We take them away for the winter to let them have a more natural experience of living in the darkness of their nest space during the cooler months and to be able to treat them against the varroa mite. The varroa mite feeds on the internal food reserves of the adult bees and young larvae, making them weaker, shortening their life span and making them more susceptible to several viral diseases.
Steve and I collected the hive and bees last night (Monday 9 September) to take them to their winter quarters at our Airedale Beekeepers Apiary. As you will imagine, they were not at their happiest, after being squeezed into my car, driven to Silsden and then trundled over some bumpy ground on a barrow, to their new home! We managed to transfer all the frames into the double polystyrene nucleus box as the light was fading.
I returned the hive to Cliffe Castle this morning (Tuesday 10 September), gave it a quick tidy up and put it back on the stand. I hope there will be some pictures of bees decorating the glass sides very soon, to make it look a little less forlorn.
Whilst I was there, I picked up the lists of names that young visitors have suggested for our new, green, queen of 2024. The Observation Hive Team members are checking them now, to choose their favourite and I will let you have the name of the winner as soon as I know it.
We hope you have enjoyed seeing the bees on your visits to the museum this year. It has been a very tricky season to get the colony queen-right, but they managed it in the end.
Thanking all the staff at Cliffe Castle for being so patient and helpful (even coming in to help us deal with bee issues outside their usual working hours). Thank you to all visitors for your continued interest and support (which makes it all worthwhile).
From the observation hive team (Steve, Mike, Lee, Anthony and Linda) and our summer holidays 2024 Beekeeper by the Hive group (Louise, David, Gill and Linda).
Hope to see you next year, to do it all again!
Linda