"Even a poor beekeeper can do well in a good location, but even an excellent beekeeper will do poorly in a bad location."
True - but not the whole story.
In this area we have more than enough forage - early sources like blackthorn and pussy willow, then hawthorn, huge areas of oilseed rape, field beans, some top fruit (although not so much these days as many of the orchards have been grubbed up), horse chestnut, lime (basswood), blackberry, clover etc. finishing with ivy in the autumn.
Yes, the location is important, but even more important is the weather. You can have all the forage in the world, but without good weather conditions for the bees to exploit that forage it might as well not be there.
The year 2012 showed this quite dramatically. We had bad weather throughout the summer and there was hardly a speck of pollen in the hives right through from spring to final inspections; colonies did not develop and we went into winter with small colonies of old bees. Massive winter losses followed.
2013 brought better weather, colonies rebounded and winter losses fell.
2014 was even better and with a 50% increase in colony numbers (from our own stock) and an average crop of 88lbs per colony it was a very good year indeed.
For us, one of the most critical periods is May. At this time we not only hope for a good crop - it is the time when colonies are usually swarming. Bad weather at this time means poorly mated new queens that may survive the summer, but then fail in the winter. This year we had the worst May on record with either cold, wet, windy weather - or any permutation of the three. We are already seeing queens either not mated or starting to fail. Colonies are attempting to supersede them now. Fortunately the weather seems likely to improve during the coming week - and that cannot come too soon.
Best wishes
Peter
52°14'44.44"N, 1°50'35"W
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