Panorama - Because I Can.

I took this blip of the Pentland Hills from the farm where I keep my bees. The largish hill, about 40%ish in from the right is, I believe, that on which a large cross was reputedly raised, its function being to encourage the Scottish army just before the battle of Roslin. I forget the name of said hill but will check up in time for the seven hundred and tenth anniversary next Sunday. Although the Roslin Heritage Society have published a booklet on the topic, I feel that much of the information is speculative: the numbers of men involved seems rather large when you look at the area of the site into which they are said to have fitted, and even the number of actual battles fought within the area is up for debate.

I was not too happy with the bees: they were there, they were active and they had plenty of food to last the winter, but, there weren't enough bees. Winter is a time of attrition, you try to start the winter with a large population so that those left by the middle of February can keep the temperature high, high enough to start breeding the young bees needed for foraging in the spring. If too many bees have failed to make it this far then they may not make it through. Normally I do not have problems with over-wintering, but for the last couple of years the girls have been rather neglected at important times; in particular, I have been away from home when I should have been treating them for the varroa mite; the treatment, when it was given, may not have been as effective as it should have been.
Time will tell.