I have had some good news:
The bees were all checked on the 28th December and all are still alive despite the bitter cold weather. They were all fed with a block of fondant, and we will be able to see which are the stronger hives when we do the oxalic acid, which will hopeful be in the next few weeks.
Now is the time if you have not already started to get on with your winter jobs, one of my jobs this winter will to me to make some homemade contact feeders and I am in the process of working out the correct sized mesh for the feeders, fine enough to make a seal but not so fine as to stop the bees tongues. You can just punch holes with a small nail in a jar lid, but I am going down the mesh route as more bees can get their tongues in, and hence feed faster.
Another project, if I get around to it is to make some nucs and just maybe some baby nucs or mating nucs, I have the plywoood so now down to work in the next couple of months.
