
December was eventful and the first few days were busy nursing a poorly pink-footed goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) that a friend found huddled by a busy roadside unable to fly. I wasn’t sure how long I would have her for but I called her Lucy and grew very fond of her. She was a small goose but well fed and felt quite chunky when I picked her up which boded well for her survival I thought.
For the first two days I kept her in a safe enclosure where she drank the water I offered, and pecked a bit at some grain, and some grass I pulled out of the lawn, but she had no real appetite and was a bit listless. There was always a possibility that Lucy had avian flu. I could see no obvious wing damage when she stood tall and spread out her wings.

On the third day Lucy was restless and pacing the small enclosure so I picked her up and carried her out and into the lawn. Immediately she ran her beak over the grass but I could see that she was only drinking the watery snow off it and not yet eating grass. At night I just walked up to her and bent down to pick her up and carry her back to safety; there was no resistance or attempts at escape, just a quiet hissing sound and a gentle nibbling with her beak at my hand. I loved watching all her movements with her long flexible neck that she tucked into her back feathers to preen.
On the fourth day I was reassured to notice Lucy actively tearing at the tops of the grass stems and eating heartily. At the end of the day, I sat on the bench with her on my knee for a few quiet moments before shutting her up for the night and it was a special time. She let me stroke her long neck and push my fingers deep into her feathers to feel the warmth trapped next to her body. I had a feeling that Lucy might be a young goose making her long trip south to over winter in the UK and maybe she was just exhausted.
On day five Lucy probably flew off mid- morning and hopefully joined her family, or found her way to another flock of geese overwintering here in Nairnshire. Great flocks of Greylags come here too from the Arctic regions of Greenland and Svalbard and I feel sure she would find some of her kind. I did search for an hour in all directions to make sure that she hadn’t walked out and got trapped somewhere. None of my neighbours noticed her so I was satisfied that she had indeed flown off to where she belonged. I was both happy and sad to see her go and her leaving left me with a strong sense that domestic geese can make good pets and be natural lawn mowers. Watch this space!
Magical Snow.

By the 5th December the weather changed and brought a good old- fashioned winter like we used to have here 30 years ago when we moved in. Overnight temperatures dropped down to -3-9˚ C, and for several days the temperature remained at – 5 ˚C throughout the day. A visit to Logie Steading near Forres was magical https://www.logie.co.uk/ . We went over to collect our Christmas roast but hadn’t checked to see if the farm shop was open or not. It wasn’t because of the snowy roads so we had the riverside walk to ourselves and the only tracks ahead of us were made by animals. The river Findhorn was partially frozen over, and we could see otter tracks down below on the ice. Many winters ago, I was there at the just the right time to see an otter on the opposite bank eating a salmon and oblivious to me watching him tear the fish apart and devour it hungrily.






Observation Hive.
Sadly, my fears for the very small observation hive bee colony’s winter survival were well founded and when I looked in on a mild Christmas eve, they were dead. When I installed the small secondary swarm with virgin queen on 9th June, I had great hopes of their building up to get through winter. One of the problems was that the queen was superceded as soon as she started laying on 24th June. She was killed by the colony and an imperfect supercedure meant another gap in brood rearing. I fed them syrup and they collected stores too. Because my observation hive is set up to take jumbo National 12” x 14”, and I don’t use those frames anymore, I couldn’t give them a frame of stores which would have been a good thing to do and might have secured their survival.
The queen stopped laying on 6th October and I saw no evidence of further laying despite checking thoroughly with a torch at the end of the month and once again in November. I was reluctant to remove the covers and disturb them as the temperature dropped in November. At the end of the month, I was worried to see that they had moved out of their cluster as the temperature rose, but instead of moving to stores on the bottom frame they moved to top of the top frame which had no stores. I set up a small contact bottle feeder with strong sugar syrup solution but my heart sank then as I realised there was nothing else that I could do. The cluster on the front was tiny and almost smaller than my palm and the cluster on the back not much larger. I rolled some fondant into a thin worm-like shape and tried to push it down through the top feed hole between the frames but with difficulty.


We had 2 weeks of sub-zero temperatures till Christmas eve when I discovered their demise and had the sad task of removing them and cleaning the hive parts with soda crystals and washing up liquid. I used tweezers to remove the bees from the cells and I will fumigate the frames with acetic acid 80% before reusing. I found the queen in the middle of the larger cluster on the back of the frame.
Winter Care.

Thick snow block the entrances for a few days but I leave them alone as they have plenty ventilation and are less likely to be enticed outdoors by bright light reflecting off the snow. In subzero temperatures they almost instantly freeze and hit the ground. Sometimes during prolonged winter weather I shade the entrances with wooden boards to maintain darkness inside the hives.
I have 8 colonies overwintering and they all had oxalic acid vapour/sublimation treatment using my nifty varrox Eddy https://andermattgarden.co.uk/products/varrox-eddy . Only 2 colonies showed a heavy varroa drop and I will treat them again before the days get longer. You might wince at the cost of this piece of equipment but how much is our safety worth? I lend this out to my beekeeper friends for the very small fee of £2/hive and I know that they cannot come to harm if they follow the very clear instructions. My initial layout cost is already reducing in the second year.
All overwintering colonies have a half a block of fondant but only 2 colonies are up in the top box and accessing the feed.
Happy New Year 2023.

A happy healthy New Year to you all and thank you for subscribing to the blog. I appreciate all your many comments, and donations to blog maintenance over the last year. I’m excited that so many people across the world want to tune in now and again, and welcome to new readers from St Lucia, Cambodia, Panama, St Vincent & Grenadine, Antigua & Barbuda, Malawi, Grenada, American Samoa, and Kosovo bringing the blog to 138 countries. Look out next week for an interesting connection between sunflowers and varroa.
Phew. When reading the opening of this week’s blog, I had an uneasy feeling that Lucy was going to change your Christmas Day dining plans😅
Happy new year to you and thank you for sharing your insights over the year.
Steve
Hello Steve, Thank you for supporting the blog and commenting. Lucy and her chums are safe here!!!
I hope that you have a great new beekeeping season in 2023 and I look forward to my Zoom presentation with Westerham beekeepers. Happy New Year, Ann.
That’s a lovely heart-warming story about Lucy!
Oh thank you, Philip. I’m glad you liked the story about Lucy. I’ve just had a small blue tit in my care, but only for half an hour. It hit the window and lay stunned so I brought it to my bird recovery box to lie/sit in the dark for half an hour. I was hoping to photograph it before releasing it and pushed the covering cloth to the side to get the camera in position, but with the first hint of light and a space it flew straight up and off. Happy New Year, Ann.
Looks like I will have to hatch some goose eggs in 2023
They are very good at keeping the grass down they are also very good at fertilising it!!!!!
Happy Hogmany, Ian and thank you for reading my blogs. I would like to talk geese with you when we have our frame cleaning session. Any advice will be welcome. I had an idea of incubating the eggs here so that the goslings could imprint on me but more research is needed. See you in 2023, Ann.
Another beautiful and inspiring article. Happy New Year when it comes.
Hello Gino and thank you for commenting and supporting the blog. I wish you a great new year and ongoing success with the Simply Honey Company. Happy Hogmanay, Ann.
Thanks for all your posts this 🙋 looking forward to them next year , have your family a nice time . From Buzz from Essex. Ps Haven’t yet restarted with bees building up equipment 🙆🤦 .
Hello Buzz and thank you for commenting and supporting the blog. Wishing you a happy New Year and a good start with the bees again. Ann.
I was extremely lucky to have met Lucy and I wish her well wherever she may be. Wonderful photos of winter! As usual an informative and fascinating blog. When is the book out!!?
Hello Susan. Glad you liked the winter photos and blog. It was good to have you visit Lucy and give your opinion. Ah well, about the book. These will have to do meanwhile but thank you for suggesting one.