Its not been a great start to the year as I've lost four colonies due to varroa and partly due to starvation. As our Autumn was very mild the bees were out flying through to the start of December they managed to collect a vast amount of Ivy nectar which had set solid when they needed to eat it. Some of these I will melt down and give it back to the bees when I shook swarm them over the coming year instead of feeding them sugar.
Thankfully though its not all bad news, my other 11 colonies have survived and several of them are building up quickly and are very strong. This is a short video of one colony which is in a home made 6 frame 14x12 nuc
