Thoughts on this month in beekeeping by Janine Sparks
NOVEMBER 2025
The beekeeping season is allegedly over, but I have been doing four bee-related things over the last week.
Firstly, having lost a colony to mice last year, I have mouse guards in place to keep them mouse-free.
Secondly, I am just lifting the roof every now and then. My bees are still flying on the warmer days, so they are expending energy and not finding much nectar or pollen, so they will be using their stores. I left them all plenty of honey (the first super is theirs) but in this weather the queen is likely to still be laying, so I stand by with some fondant ready just in case!
The third thing I am doing is working my way through that box of wax, cleaning it and making candles in readiness for the Farnham show later in the month!! I am getting a few nudges from him indoors about splodges of wax and the smell of beeswax melting – oops.
Finally, I went to the National Honey Show this year and will write up my notes for next month’s newsletter. As usual it was a great show, and we heard some good talks many with up to the minute research findings.
What’s going on in the hive?
The older bees will be dying out and the new young bees bred in September and October will sustain the colony through the long winter months. The queen will still lay eggs through the winter, so you should see bees bringing in pollen on warmer days, when they can find it.
What’s in the larder?
The leaves are falling now and on meandering round my garden today I didn’t expect to find any flowers at all, but I did – some ivy, nasturtium, a stray dandelion, some oregano, winter jasmine and violas.
Now onto cleaning up all that kit….. I am giving my bee suits a good clean now the season is properly over, to try and get that propolis off them ready for the spring and doing a bit of mending (my Basic assessment badge is falling off!). I have just finished freezing all my drawn supers for 24 hours to destroy any wax moth, and they are all in my bee shed in sturdy plastic boxes for the winter.
