WHEN TO START INSPECTIONS?

This weekend’s named storm aside, beekeepers are on the cusp of a new season. We shouldn’t open our colonies too soon though or we risk harming any baby bees, for whom chilling is bad news. The problem comes that we’re impatient beings and desperate to see how well our charges have survived the winter. But, what temperature is actually safe for inspections to begin?

American Beekeepers appear to see 60°f (15.5°c, also favoured by the National Bee Unit in the UK) as a safe target, whereas Europe seems to aim for 14°c – which is a not insignificant 7% lower. Of course many Beekeepers hedge their bets and settle for their own preferred ‘rule of thunb’, a sunny day, being able to work outside in a t-shirt, hive activity levels, etc, but the truth is that with no set standard, it’s down to a personal risk assessment.

With this week looking unsettled, again, and last week overshadowed by Covid, goodness knows when we’re going to get our first inspections in…

Risk outweighs impatience. Probably.