the Dawn of the Season

Over the years, this is a view that you may have seen several times.  It shows my beehives at the low point in the beekeeping year.  On a mild day the bees will fly out on a "cleansing flight" but otherwise they are quite quiet.

However in the second week in January the queen will start laying eggs.  The temperature inside the hive has to be raised.  To do this the worker bees start to use energy and start to consume their stores of honey collected last year.

It is at this time that beekeepers have to assess the weight of the hives to make sure the bees are not running short of food.