Diary of a novice bee-keeper

7 out of 7 hives are alive!

2012-02-16T13:57:00.001Z

It's a warmish day - about 11c - with light westerly winds and pleasant sunshine.
I noticed that the bees in the three hives in the garden were active, so Mrs Novice and I went on a bike trip around the other hive sites (about a seven mile round trip).

The polyhives on top the containers at the edge of the field are a-buzzin'. In December when I applied Oxalic Acid (as a varroa treatment), the polyhive with the plastic frames was the most populated - and today it had a thick stream of bees waiting to get back in through the single bee-space that I had allowed them (to keep out wasps, at first, and then mice).

So all is good. I will give them a feed in a couple of weeks and add in some pollen substitute to encourage the queen to get laying.

Just finished the varroa treatment

2011-12-28T17:38:00.002Z

I have just treated the last four hives with Oxalic Acid at 3%.

The instructions are to dribble 10ml per seam of bees.

It's a bit hard to determine a seam of bees. Is it a seam if they occupy just one third of the width?

Oxalic acid, applied when there is no brood, is very effective at knocking down the varroa. It erodes their extremities and makes it easier for bees to groom them off.

Varroa infestation is a prime culprit for colonies that do not thrive. The bees are weakened by the little bloodsuckers and are affected by mite-borne viruses, like "deformed wing virus".

The first three I treated just before Christmas, when there was a calm lull in the weather. And I was surprised by how active the bees were. I gave them some additional syrup because the warm weather has made them more active (and hence the consume more).

All seven hives are alive, but a couple are a bit depleted. They might not make it through the winter.

The biggest (and most active, interestingly) colony is in a polyhive on plastic frames. Who'd'a thought it? But that hive has a full width feeder and I gave them a LOT of syrup in later summer and autumn.

The polyhives feel that much warmer and dryer when you open them.

I don't expect to post again before the spring.

I wish all my followers a peaceful and bounteous new year.

Apologies for by absence

2011-08-19T17:49:00.003+01:00

I have been too busy beekeeping to blog!

Well, it's the best excuse that I can come up with (ending the sentence with two prepositions - naughty!) [the best excuse up with which I can come - there, that's better].

A summary of the season: started with three hives, now have eight, but am about to give away one (the last hive on National frames - hence the generosity).

The increase is down to swarm-catching. The downside is that I have no idea what sort of bees I have - their health, termperament, etc.

I will blog again on trumps and disasters of the season.

A tout a l'heure.

Propolis by the kilo

2011-08-19T17:38:00.004+01:00

A swarm that I hived earlier in the year, in a commercial hive, has produced a huge amount of propolis. See photos.

The floor was, perhaps, a bit too deep, making the entrance a bit large.

But I have never seen so much propolis.

They made a complete blockade from it - punctuated by tunnels for ingress and egress.

I have now replaced the floor with an open mesh floor.

Apidea update

2011-05-11T12:29:00.003+01:00

A very odd thing.

The apidea with the virgin queen in was empty. See above.

The apidea without the queen now has a laying queen. Photos to follow.

Either my memory is faulty or the queen went on a mating flight and returned to the wrong apidea.

Anyroadup, a result!

Carbon Dioxide Experiment

2011-05-04T12:47:00.004+01:00

A very experienced beek who I heard talk the other days said that CO2 would anaesthetise bees. This can be very useful when conducting artificial insemination.

Now you don't need me to tell you that I'm not planning any of that stuff - the clue is in the title of the blog :-)

But I am always fascinated by gadgets, and I am nervous about handling queens, so I bought a CO2 spray that is intended for cleaning cameras, etc. See photo below. Your for £10 from ebay.

I then put ten bees in a tupperware box and gave them a good squirt of CO2. Result: apparently dead bees. See next photo.

Ten minutes later ........

Mortality rate: 0%.

So I shall use this technique for putting queens into queen cages. Very useful for someone as hamfisted as me.

Topbar is dead

2011-04-26T19:57:00.002+01:00

Went to inspect the topbar only to find a pile of dead bees and the comb being munched by wax moth.

The only satisfaction was feeding wax moth larvae to the chickens.

They didn't starve, there was still honey in the comb.

Probably virus damage as a result of varroa. The topbar is hard to treat. You can't close it up for Apivar to have the maximum effect, and you can't dribble oxalic acid because the bars are closed up.

It might be possible to fume them using an oxalic acid heater and crystals, but to be honest, I'm not going to bother finding out.

I think the topbar must find a new home.

First try at queen rearing

2011-04-18T11:36:00.003+01:00

Here are the apideas that I bought last year. They are Swienty brand - and there are many others. Reading the reviews, I think perhaps Swienty are not the best.

This first photo shows the mini-frame with the foundation strip, held in place by molten wax applied to the edges.

The second photo shows the feed chamber, loaded with Apifonda (bee candy) with a piece of balsa wood on top for bees to stand on rather than fall in and get stuck. Note the queen excluder on the upper right - to stop the Queen getting stuck in the apifonda.

Third photo is of the painted nucs. Each a different colour. Should be a green one, rather than two shades of blue, but I didn't have that paint in the shed. Note the entrance on the middle nuc is open.

Final photo is of the nucs in position. I stocked each one with 300gm of bees (well, OK, a scoopful) and a queen cell from friend Emma's gentle bees. She had eight QCs to deal with. So one of these queens (if successful) will go back to her.

Opening the topbar or the first time this year

2011-03-20T10:46:00.002Z

Hive opened on a lovely sunny calm day, about 14 c.

The photo above shows four bars, upturned and stood on top of the hive.

Several things to note:

Stores
There is still something to eat. The wider comb nearer the bar is still full of sealed honey.

Beespace
The two pairs of bars show the beespace that that bees naturally make between comb. It's not regular. It is wider at the tip of the comb, where more bees need to pass one another, and narrower at the bar, where honey is stored, capped over, and through passage is not required.

The starter strip
You can see the groove that I have put in the bars - with a circular saw. I filled this with wax to give the bees a guide (a strong hint, if you like) on where to put their comb. They complied on most bars, but the central bars have crossing comb that is also glued to the inside of the hive, so I can't remove them for inspection.

Colour of the comb
The comb is quite dirty where the patter of many tiny, dirty, feet has walked. The cleaner comb is almost white, and obviously much newer.

Of course, one of the features of a topbar is that the comb that this year contains honey might last year have contained brood. Yum! A bit too natural for my liking.

Busy bees and yellow pollen

2011-03-13T17:15:00.003Z

Yes, I know, pollen is often yellow, but this is bright yellow. I think it is daffodil, or perhaps Forsythia (sp?).

Both out-hives, a mile from home and a couple of miles apart, are bringing it in.

It's a lovely sunny day, but quite cool at about 11-12 c.

They are munching their way though the apifonda - especially the aggressive lot in the field.

All three colonies are doing well. Which one to raise queens from, that is now the question? Certainly not the aggressive ones. We will see. More to follow on this subject.

Crocus pollen

2011-02-18T09:49:00.001Z

At about 10 degrees (c), bees were bringing in crocus pollen. Vivid orange/yellow and unmistakable.

It's a good sign of a healthy colony.

Topbar colony still alive!

2011-02-15T11:45:00.002Z

Despite the harsh winter, the colony in the topbar hive is still alive.

The bottom of the hive is just mesh - so the colony is exposed very directly to the elements.

Just goes to prove - something, anything - depending on your prejudices :-)

This colony was a fresh swarm last June (see previous posts about my two sons collecting their first swarm from high in a tree, with advice from me in India via mobile phone).

So a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon.

Community Apiary

2011-02-15T11:40:00.005Z

I have been talking to the leader of the Food Group of Transition Community Corsham (Transcoco) about a community apiary.

Of course, there will be the usual debate between the "natural"-ists who will want topbar hives with no intervention and the "regulars" who will want removable hives and regular inspections.

Where do I stand? Against chemical treatments, that's for sure. The last thing bees need is more chemicals.

But if you keep bees, then you should do your best to keep them healthy. You wouldn't keep cows and just leave them be, would you?

More as this story develops!

All three colonies are through the winter

2011-02-06T21:17:00.002Z

It was about 8 degrees C when I inspected my three colonies last week.
I was expecting one or more to be dead, given the very harsh winter, but all three were very much alive.

It was a bit late, but I gave them their Oxalic Acid treatment.

Two colonies were very docile, but the third was very aggressive. I wore just a smock top and several bees burrowed into my pocket and stung me through the lining. Luckily, just my leg. Could have been worse.

This colony has always been feisty, even though they superseded the queen last autumn. I was hoping their disposition would improve.

This is the colony that I might move. It produced no excess honey last year and I think it's because it is just too exposed a position. They had plenty to eat, with a field of Oil Seed Rape just next door. But they never thrived.

Dismal end to the season

2010-12-11T11:13:00.001Z

I have gone into winter with just three colonies.

Three weak ones were destroyed by wasps.

So I have two WBC hives for sale. Any offers before they go to ebay?

I will cut down the number of types of hive that I operate from three to two: Commercial and Polyhive.

Keeping more than one type of frame format is barmy - it just happened that way. So now I need to rationalise.

Next job: dose the hives with Oxalic acid. I did this last year and the bees survived. Would they survive anyway? Dunno. Do they have a big varroa infestation? I don't think so. But I'll follow the prescribed treatment.

News from the home hive: the weather has just warmed up to about 8C. A few bees are on cleansing flights and there are quite a few bodies on the landing board, so they have had a clean-out.

Honey Harvest

2010-08-10T18:49:00.003+01:00

Photos by my son, Tom.

Took 65lbs off three hives. Not brilliant, but better than last year. We spun 47 frames- but some had crystalised a bit, so we didn't get the full yield. That's the problem with waiting until August to take the year's harvest.

Only one of the hives had a good year. It did two and a half supers.

The second was halted in May by going queenless - then got destroyed by wasps (see other posts). But it had done a super and half by then.

The third was the hive that started in May (?) as a swarm from friend's garden (see previous posts) - so taking a full super from that was a really good result.

Two queens installed into queenless hives

2010-07-23T11:08:00.003+01:00

I bought two queens from Easybee.

They were in these bee cages, below.
I was confident about one of the hives. It had been queenless for some time (but see next post). So I knew it would accept a new queen.

The other hive I was worried about. Through pressure of time, I was not able to leave a day between killing the old queen (who was not laying) and introducing the new queen.

The result? Both queens laying very happily.

Thanks, Easybee.

Thieving robbing little bastards

2010-07-23T11:04:00.003+01:00

One of my hives has been overrun by wasps. It was one that I had recently added a new queen to, and she had started to lay.
But too late. There were not enough bees to defend the hive and the queen has now disappeared, presumed dead.

I have moved the frames with brood and a couple of frames of brood from another hive into a nuc box, together with the remaining bees. The nuc box has two small entrance holes, so is much easier to defend.

Maybe they can make a new queen from eggs on the frames.

New Poly Nucleus box

2010-07-03T12:24:00.003+01:00

Just bought a nucleus box from the excellent Modern Beekeeping in Devon for £29.

Admire the paint job! I like it. I wonder if the bees will. I bought a couple of sampler pots of "Shades" by Cuprinol, that were intended for the wooden bench that you see beneath the box. But looks good on the box, innit?

Unfortunately, it doesn't come with a central divider that enables one to keep two colonies in the same box. But a judicious hack at a sheet of Correx, the materiel du jour, fixed the problem.

See below with three brood frames in one side.

The final part of the job was to fashion a blocking panel for the entrance that will not be used if either the full six frames are being used as a colony or only one side is being used. See also the open mesh floor (essential for travelling any distance with bees on board).

I'm impressed with these hives. I have a colony in the full size polyhive and its doing well.

Colony status at 29 June

2010-06-29T23:48:00.004+01:00

Now have got eight colonies on the go - shared with friend E.

1 x topbar
- looking good - new swarm in June.

1 x commercial from swarm last year
- swarmed while I was away in India - but were very confusing
- has unhinged queen cell but no eggs, so suspect a virgin queen awaiting mating.

1 x commercial from swarm while I was away
- they just moved into an broodbox full of empty frames
- awaiting a move to out apiary because they are right outside my back door
- blighters stung me just because I was sawing close by

1 x WBC in garden, last year's queen
- 10 frames of brood
- looks set to do well this year

2 x WBC at out apiary
- one has new queen
- patchy brood
- not sure if the queen is a good 'un
- one was queenless until E put a queen cell in from beesoc (came from a very gentle hive, so I hope it works)

1 x polyhive
- new queen in last month
- doing well

1 x national
- swarm taken on a duvet cover (see previous post)
- now in local town awaiting return to Pickwick Towers.

But a lot of money spent on kit to get this far and not a lot of return.

Top bar hive going well

2010-06-29T23:30:00.007+01:00

My two teenage sons, T and J, captured a swarm for the first time (with advice on the 'phone from me in India) and E put it in the topbar, which has now been moved to a more secluded spot in the grounds of the local manor house (photo above).

The comb is lovely - as you might expect because it's brand new (photo above).

Only in one case have the bees not followed the waxed groove in the underside of the bar. They have produced a convoluted shape that spans two bars (photo below).

The V-shape of the hive is supposed to prevent them from bridging the comb to the side of the hive, but on most bars there is a small amount to bridging comb (photo below).

Apologies for the break in transmission

2010-06-13T03:05:00.002+01:00

I am working in India for three weeks.

Back with the bees and back online in about a week.

Major trauma / excitement

2010-06-01T17:52:00.002+01:00

I am off to India on business for a few weeks, so I needed to hand over my hives to friend E to look after while I am away.

We inspected the hive at D's and found it to be queenless and full of ferocious bees (because of their queenlessness).

I drove there in my open top car and had to drive away after the inspection in full protective gear. Stopping a few hundred yards away to take off our headgear. We didn't want to frighten the natives.

Returning later that day, we did an "artificial swarm" because there was one swarm cell and numerous supersession cells. We put the swarm cell and one supersession cell into the new hive (along with nurse bees), and left the rest in the original hive (with their own supersession cells).

Heaven knows what will be the outcome. I will know when I return. I think we should leave them alone for a few weeks to sort themselves out.

Nuc Box made out of correx, duct tape and timber

2010-05-22T18:27:00.006+01:00

Note the handsome and functional feet to keep it dry and the three entrance/exit holes at the front.

The Correx is magical, lightweight stuff. Can be cut with a Stanley knife and bent at 90 degrees without breaking. It glues to wood using a contact adhesive.

Note the lid hinged with duct tape and the retractable ventilation panel - which can be retracted to put a packet of fondant on top.

The lid, shown here open, is a sandwich of correx and polycarbonate sheet from Wickes. One frame shown (holds four).

Note staples in side - not its best feature, but correx seems of with it. I though it might split.

Cost all up - about £10 (€11 and rising!). Tools required: craft knife, saw, drill, steel measure.

Benefits: light, cheap, dark inside, dry.

New residents at Pickwick Towers

2010-05-22T18:24:00.001+01:00

The urge to make some chicken, egg, yolk, etc, puns is almost overwhelming. Must resist. Must resist. Oh, all right. I give in. We live a many-layered eggsistence. There. Two puns in one. One subtle, one not. Happy now?

First swarm of the season

2010-05-16T19:09:00.001+01:00

Took a swarm yesterday out of a beech hedge - 12 ft (4m) up. Luckily, I had a stepladder and I was able to poke the lid of the nucleus box (in video) into the hedge and shake the swarm down into it.

It was in my friend Julie's garden, and she had gone out for the day, after phoning me.

I forgot to bring my old sheet with me, but as luck would have it, Julie had left a duvet cover on the line. See also in photo.

Mrs S was horrified - as was Julie, I think, but she was far too polite to say so. Well, I have washed it. What's more important, bagging a swarm of respecting a duvet cover? One has to get one's priorities correct. :-)

Julie is a beekeeper too, by the way, but she didn't want this swarm. I'll look after it in the nuc box for a month, in case she changes her mind.

Woodpecker damage

2010-04-13T20:14:00.001+01:00

Just noticed this on my commercial hive that is in a field in the middle of nowhere.

What a nuisance! Will have to invest in some chicken wire before it gets any worse.

Disaster! A dead colony

2010-04-10T20:04:00.000+01:00

My best colony has starved to death. I am bereft and very cross with myself.

It was fine a couple of weeks ago, and the hive next to it is fine. I guess it just didn't have the same amount of stores.

And the hive that survived had fewer bees going into the winter.

I will be much more careful in future and feed syrup even when it doesn't look as though they need it.

Cleaning off the brace comb

2010-04-10T11:23:00.000+01:00

If your queen excluder is not touching the top bars and is not a complete bee-space away from the top bars, the bees will make brace comb between the QX and the top bars.

And I have scraped it off.

Had an interesting talk at the BeeSoc recently on beespace, and this was one of the messages. Pay attention to correct bee space and your hive will be much less clogged with propolis and brace comb.

Nasty looking insect

2010-04-10T11:17:00.000+01:00

Dunno what this is - but it doesn't look good. It had pupated between the lifts of the WBC hive.

Pollen wallah

2010-04-10T11:14:00.001+01:00

There were a number of bees, but not many, who were noticeably covered in pollen (rather than just have it attached to their legs). Centre of photo. They were so yellow that I thought for a second or so that they were wasps.

Maybe they are the pollen-putter-away-ers.

What to do with this sugary mess?

2010-04-10T11:10:00.000+01:00

The photo below shows a mess of unused stores from the winter. It's a mixture of ivy honey and fondant.

It looks like they have cleared out the cells ready for the queen to lay in them.

So I don't want to junk the frame. But they will never clear all that grot, which reduces the capacity of the brood box.

Dunno what to do. I don't have the experience. Sigh. Another few decades should do it.

Polyhive? It leaks!

2010-04-10T11:00:00.000+01:00

The polyhive (see previous post) that I assembled leaks!

I left it in the garden and returned to move it a few weeks later and the feeder was full of water.

The fault lies in the design. The lip that is present in the other boxes (brood, super, floor) is missing from one edge, where the feeder lid is. See below. You can see bottom right where the lip finishes.

The solution is relatively easy. The run-off cut-out on the roof (see below) needs a chute adding to channel the water off the roof and prevent it from running down, past the missing lip, and into the feeder.

It's not that easy to see in the photo, given my brilliant (!) camouflage painting, but you can just discern the cut-out in the centre of the photo.

I shall be on to the vendor and report what they say.

Feedbee? Bah!

2010-04-10T10:50:00.001+01:00

About a month ago I put some Feedbee into all four hives. Two had it as a syrup and two as a slush on the top bars. In neither case would the bees touch it.

Photo below shows the dried up remains of the slushy version.

Anyone else had any experience of it? Some people swear by it.

Photos by Chris Jackson

2010-03-20T12:33:00.002Z

Friend and bee guru Chris Jackson took these photos between 27th Feb and 1st March and send them to me for publication in the next BeeSoc newsletter.

I have his permission to share them, and accompanying words, with you.

Note pollen basket - a.m.m foraging on Sarcococca, aka Sweet Box or Christmas Box.

The bees will go mad for Christmas Box. The fragrance is delicious and sometimes can be overpowering at times. Available from most garden centres and should be in every beekeepers garden.

It is evergreen, compact, pest-free, with shiny black berries holding on for 9 months of the year and then between January and March the delicate white flowers are wonderfully fragrant.

Tough as old boots and will take any amount of wind, rain, snow and frost.

The pollen basket or corbicula is part of the tibia on the hind legs

Honey bee hovers approaching Snowdrops while she transfers some more pollen.

Gave them a feed today

2010-03-14T16:10:00.000Z

I was worried about the late spring. The willow is not flowering yet and the only pollen around is crocuses.

So I have given them some Feedbee.

I've not used it before - so I'll have to wait and see. If the manufacturer's claims are correct, the bees will soon be walking on water and flying faster than a speeding bullet.

It's a very fine powder - as you might expect, if a bee has to ingest it - that you mix with 50/50 sugar syrup.

I have only two rapid feeders, so I made a batch that was runny enough to put in a feeder. The other two hives I made a slurry of it and put it onto greaseproof paper on the top bars. Sorry I have no photos.

I'll report back on how the bees are getting on with it.

Lovely warm 10-12 degrees Celsius and bees were out and about - so they need something to keep them going in the absence of any flowers.

Four out of four STILL alive

2010-03-05T18:43:00.002Z

A lovely sunny day today, so I biked the seven mile round trip to my out apiaries.

Flying bees at all three hives. Some had bright yellow pollen from (probably) crocus.

I checked their food when I did the (late) Varroa oxalic acid treatment a few weeks ago. There seemed to be a lot of fondant and ivy honey stored, so I didn't feed.

I'm really relieved. There is still a chance that their numbers will dwindle before they can get on will raising this year's brood.

The catkins are getting ready to flower - so pollen should be along very soon.

I've never used a substitute for pollen - I need to learn more about it.

Polyhive 6: Analysis

2010-03-03T11:32:00.002Z

I bought the hive mail order from Modern Beekeeping for just over £100.

Good points:

very, very simple to put together
very, very light
very helpful vendor when I had a query
very cheap
a large brood frame (Nationals brood frames are often not big enough to accommodate a prolific queen)
they will never, ever, rot (but cedar frames will last 50 years if treated right)

Bad points:

doesn't come with a feeder in the pack, you need to buy that extra. I missed that point and have now ordered one (c. £16)
not very green - wood is so much more carbon-right
the frames are Langstroth size (common in Northern Europe, where this hive comes from) so that means a new stock of foundation and frames
the frames need wiring, which was not emphasised on the website. So I now need to buy more tools and components (About £20) to put wire into the frames.

Moot points:

will mice and rats gnaw them?
will woodpeckers peck them?
will cleaning with Caustic Soda satisfy the Bee Inspector if he/she finds EFB or AFB? Or will you have to burn them? No-one seems to know.

Who would use these? Good for:

high-volume beefarmer
people with back problems.

Not so good for:

a traditional-looking hive
being "natural".

Will they be good for the bees?

They are used all over northern europe and the reasons are obvious: they are warm and dry. The makers claim that the Queen will lay right across the frame because the edges are not cold.

Polyhive 5: Frames and QX

2010-03-03T11:28:00.003Z

The plastic queen excluder sits neatly in the recess.

The purpose of the shaped plastic edges is clear when you put a frame into the box.

Polyhive 4: materials

2010-03-03T11:22:00.002Z

The material is polystyrene. Like the packing in a TV set, but much harder.

The floor (below) is in one piece. The addition of the open mesh floor is trivial - four screws attach it.

A small sheet of correx (left sticking out, below, for purposes of photograph) makes the varroa floor.

It is recyclable (Number 6) - but that's not a huge concern because I expect it to last 10 years.

Polyhive 3: Construction

2010-03-03T11:14:00.003Z

Two tools were needed: a small paintbrush to apply the glue and a screwdriver to put in four screws to retain the varroa floor.

It couldn't have been easier. I think (but not sure) that it would be possible to put in the sides upside down - but you would have to be pretty careless. I can easily be that dumb, but not on this occasion.

The sides fix together with interlocking mortice and tenon joints.

The top and bottom edges of the short sides are re-inforced with hard plastic edges. Easy to slide on.

Verdict: this is so easy, even a klutz like me can do it.

Polyhive 2: Finished but unpainted.

2010-03-03T11:11:00.003Z

Here is the finished hive, before painting.

Not that pretty.

There is a strap (like a car roof strap) that goes around the whole thing to keep it all together. Essential, given how light it is.

Polyhive 1: Finished article

2010-03-03T10:59:00.004Z

I'm posting these in reverse order so that you, dear reader, can read them sequentially (hope that makes sense).

I finished the hive with one coat of masonry paint and then an artistic rendering of camouflage.

The masonry paint in breathable and flexible - so less likely to crack and flake off than, say, gloss or emulsion.

These are "tester" pots. I still have some left in the pots - so it goes a long way, on top of the white masonry paint anyway.
So here is the finished article. Not too pretty - but I think it will blend into the landscape better than arctic white! I'll post some pics when it's in situ.

Four out of four ALIVE

2010-01-17T15:31:00.007Z

I've just been on a cycle tour of my hives - about a 6 mile round trip - on the first mild sunny day for quite some time. We've had freezing temperatures for about a month.

And I'm glad to report that all four hives have live bees. See photos below for proof. I was sure that the weakest of the four would perish in the cold.

I hadn't given them the oxalic acid varroa treatment that I had bought, mainly on the grounds that I am so hamfisted that I would make a mistake and do more harm than good. Second, opening them up in December would surely chill them. Third, who wants acid poured over them in winter? Seems draconian and highly interventionist. Fourth, they are all on new comb this year, so there might not be a big varroa problem.

BUT (and this is a big BUT) the life of the overwintering bees is significantly reduced by varroa. They might be here now in early January, but will they still be here in early March, when (I hope) the queen will recommence laying new brood? We will see. The die is cast now. I don't think putting on oxalic acid now will help matters. Any views?

And Harriet (see previous posts, and top right in photo) now has a couple of friends to lift her out of depression. And the buzzard that lives in the trees behind Harriet's field was there today as well. Always a pleasure to see.

Rather a grotty mess on the landing board. So I swept in off with my gloved hand, only to be rewarded with a sting on the back of my neck.

Happy new year to all my readers!

2009-12-31T10:33:00.003Z

I'm now the editor (and printer, enveloper, stamper and poster) of Beelines, the Monthly Newsletter of the Melksham and District Beekeepers Association.

In line with the infamous Peter Principle, the club has chosen the person with least beekeeping nous to take up the position.

I would like to publish it on the blog, but it contains member's names, so I can't. But I can show you the rather subtle Photoshopped photo that I put on the front page.

You might recognise the photo from the blog. It was taken by son Tom with a Canon DSLR. If you want to take bee photos, a DSLR with 12M pixels is essential. Getting bees in focus still requires the skill and eyesight of an 18 year-old.

My last contact with the bees was trying to fit a mouseguard to one. Although I used the utmost stealth, I was attacked by a host of angry bees and stung on legs and ankles (head and arms were luckily protected). They really don't like being approached when it's cold and windy and there is no honey flow. Good luck to any mouse that tries to make that hive a home.

I have decided against giving any hive a Oxalic Acid varroa treatment. Not because I don't think it will work, but because I am so incompetent (cack-handed, does that translate?) that I am likely to harm them inadvertently.

I will be reporting on the health of my four hives in the new year.

Happy new year!

Bees on the ivy

2009-09-12T16:33:00.004+01:00

Three photos taken today whilst Mrs S was collecting sloes for her gin. Normally sloshes it back with the merest hint of tonic, but she wants to make some Christmas presents. Bottle of Sloe Gin, Jar of Honey, pound of plum jam - what's not to like?

The first is of a bee with a lorra lorra pollen. Note the two big arange stripes on the abdomen - I think that makes her an italian strain. Well, she was flapping her wings a lot and nipping from flower to flower, so I think that must be right.

The second is a rather venerable old worker - she has lost most of her hair. Her black abdomen marks her out as an English strain. She worked the same flower head for about five minutes with infinite patience.

Third one has rather odd markings - the orange band doesn't go right across.

If you have a chance, go an sniff some ivy flowers. You'll be surprised by the rank smell - a bit like a wet bed full of bedbugs (older readers only perhaps). That's what the honey smells like.

My new friends C and L gave me a pot of ivy honey and I made some experimental flapjack for sale at the honey show last week (sorry no photos - I was in the catering tent all day). I thought the flapjack was disgusting, but it all sold, even with a health warning.

And I sold four jars of honey (half-pounders) at £3 a pop. Can't be bad.

Say hello to Harriet

2009-09-12T16:24:00.003+01:00

Harriet is a rather lonely cow, suffering from post partum depression. Now, I'd be the first to admit that my knowledge of bovine psychology is a bit, well, sketchy. But she did have a stillborn calf, and she has rather a mad look in her eye.

She lives in the field beside my most recent apiary. So I have added a barmy bovine to the guard sheep at the other apiary, in a bid to gather a Noah's Ark of bee protectors - a Rainbow Army, if you will, of farm animals.

Adding fondant

2009-09-12T16:13:00.005+01:00

Much to my surprise, two of the three hives that I inspected over the last two days were practically devoid of honey stores.

The two hives have very large colonies and I guess that a lot of bees need a lot of food. The smaller colony in the third hive (that I have complained about in previous posts) is still small, but quite well provided for.

There seems to be a gap between the end of the summer flowers and the ivy coming on stream.

In first photo, I cut a window in the fondant package.

In the second photo, you can see it placed window-side-down over the opening in the top cover (which in this case is perspex.)

Each bag is 2.5kg of a mix of -oses (sucrose, glucose, etc) that the bees find amenable.

They will take this bagful down into the comb within a week. And at a few micrograms at a time, that's a lorra lorra trips.

Hornets - huge brutes!

2009-09-01T12:40:00.002+01:00

See this huge hornet that I caught (with half a dozen others) in my wasp trap.

It's almost 3 cm nose to sting. Below it are a wasp and a worker bee. You can see how a few hornets could devastate a hive.

Vespa Crabro, if you're interested.

Cretan Honey

2009-09-01T09:28:00.003+01:00

I bought three jars.

From left to right, they are:

from supermarket, complete with Lot No. Full EC compliance. The clearest.
from a babushka at the side of the road, no label, but from Thyme (she said)
from Agios Nikolaus (St Nicholas) market stall on market day. Claims to be "Sage and Various herbs" (Daifora botana).

All delicious, needless to say. Cost? Between Euro5 and Euro6 per 225 g jar.

Cretan Hornets

2009-08-31T21:04:00.004+01:00

These are Vespa Orientalis. According to the pics on Wikipedia. The diameter of the coin is 27.3 mm. So it's big. And scary. But (I now know) has a sting which is no more dangerous than a wasp (yellowjacket), and they are less aggressive than a wasp.

I caught this one taking a swim in our pool. I helped it on its way, I'm afraid, because I wanted to photograph it. The previous day I had seen one kidnapping a bee from its hive. So I felt its species had it coming.

In photo below is same specimen plus a regular wasp.

In photo below I tracked them down to a wall of a cemetery, behind which they were nesting.

Cretan Hives

2009-08-31T18:48:00.004+01:00

I visited Crete on holiday with the family last week, and of course, when I spotted the hives below I screeched the car to a halt and leaped out with the camera.

Of course, the hives are more "rough and ready" than UK and US versions. See below. But I guess the bees don't mind.

I spotted a giant hornet land on this hive and carry off a bee. As I said in a previous post, the hornets treat them as a take-away dinner. Bite the heads off and suck the nectar out of the stomach. Discard the rest. See the next post for more on the hornets.

Two miles makes a difference

2009-08-19T12:10:00.002+01:00

My honey maidens and I tasted the honey from the two sites, which are two miles apart. And there is a definite difference in taste. One is slightly sharper, the other is rather more caramel-like.

But they got spun together and blended.

Honey maiden D, owner of one site, was disappointed not to get "single vineyard" honey - but at least she got to taste the honey from the hives at her property.

30lbs of honey

2009-08-19T11:50:00.004+01:00

Pounds? Imperial measures?! My loyal readers will both be thinking "Wasn't it kilos last harvest? Editiorial standards are slipping at Pickwick Towers."

But I have bought 128 half-pound (OK, 226g) jars from the Bristol Bottle Company in Keynsham (that's K-E-Y-N .... for older readers) for 21.5p each.

I used 60 of them. Do the arithmetic yourself if you're that pedantic. It's hard enough extracting and bottling and then writing the blog. Get a grip, dear reader!

First photo shows some of the 60 bottles. Actually the one in the foreground looks like the waxy end of the barrel scrapings.

The second photo shows the real deal - clear with a slight green tinge - which might or might not be the green in the glass.

Third photo is of a still-wet frame after being spun. I'll be putting these back in the hives this afternoon for the bees to tidy up.

Final photo is of the inside of my new honey extractor, being cleaned out by the bees, who will take the honey back to their hives. I hope most of these bees are mine.

And the occasional damn wasp.

This beautiful piece of stainless steel equipment was bought on ebay from a very nice man in Amesbury for £168.

So the accounting to date is: equipment bought, about £1000. Time invested, many hours. Payback, 60@£2 = £120. Don't go into beekeeping to get rich.

The local honey show at Lackham is on soon. Shall I enter my best jar into "Best Newcomer" competition?

New Apiary - No. 4

2009-08-16T17:19:00.006+01:00

My friend C has agreed to have some hives on his land. He has created a small oasis - lawns, apple trees, fire pit - at the back of his field.

I bagged a swarm last week, thanks to D, the local pest control operator. It's very late in the year for a swarm to succeed - but it was a big one. It was hanging in an apple tree about 2.5m off the ground. But a pair of steps and a hefty whack deposited it into the skep. First use of the skep, and I'm impressed.
The photo below is the "commercial" hive that I have chosen for this site. It was available - I had bought four complete hives from a friend of an acquaintance a while ago. But I had started off with WBC hives, thanks to my mentors D & M. Commercials and WBCs are different size boxes and frames.

It's not as pretty as a WBC hive, that's for sure. But I can't let them go to waste.

I have put an empty brood box on top of the main brood box to accommodate a feeder.

The palettes make a good level base, don't they?

The feeder is in the next photo. You can see the bees coming up from the brood box through a hole in the top cover, into the feeder, and then over the top until they reach the syrup. They consumed four pints in just a few days - and I gave them some more today. Dunno why the syrup is a bit yellow. It was Fairtrade cane sugar. Maybe I overheated it when I made it.

They seem quite defensive. There is a line of bees across the entrance and any wasp that comes close gets immediate attention - unlike the established hives that are more laissez-faire.

And yes, I have registered it on beebase.

Photos are not as good as usual because: a) I took them, not son T or son J; and b) they were taken on my iphone.

Tune in again in a few days' time. Honey harvest is pending!

Varroa mites counted

2009-08-08T17:17:00.006+01:00

First photo is of the floor of the hive that I covered in paper and vaselined a week ago - see previous post.

Most of the detritus is bits of wax, pollen and sundry rubbish. The brown blob in the middle is a varroa mite. In all I counted about 12 on the sheets - not too bad.

Second photo shows the mite in context of One Pound coin. The mite is bottom right.

The third photo is the best focus that son Joe could achieve. We really need a macro lens.

You can just about make out its claws.

The next post will show the varroa count after the first treatment - icing sugar - which I will apply after removing the honey next weekend.

Tout a l'heure, mes braves!

Bees for Development - my sponsored charity

2009-08-06T21:27:00.009+01:00

I had been thinking that I should give some of my ill-gotten, no - hard-won - gains to a charity.

So Bees for Development it is, then.

I will buy tamper seals from Thorne's to put on each jar.

That way, I can get buyers to donate 10p a jar.

Wasps!

2009-08-03T20:24:00.004+01:00

Perishers! There were several dozen inside the hive. The bees try to kill them, but the wasps are quite nimble.

I will go back tomorrow with wasp traps and I will narrow the hive entrance to make it more defensible (defendable?). The wasps were sneaking in round the edges of the entrance.

Putting in a Varroa screen

2009-08-03T20:12:00.004+01:00

I had removed the bottom board of the new hive, leaving the hive with just the Open Mesh Floor between the bees and the open air.

It's a healthy thing to do, because they are then well ventilated, which cuts down disease. I particular, it allows varroa mites to fall through the mesh into the grass below, never to return. With a solid floor (like the other hives), the mite could crawl back up, and onto another bee.

In the photo below you can see that I have put two sheets of A4 white paper onto the bottom board, and I have smeared them both with Vaseline. This will glue the mites in place, when they fall, so that I can count the litle buggers.

The next photo is of the bottom board half pushed in.

My plan is to count the mites that fall off in one week, without treatment, and then treat the bees with icing sugar to make them groom, and repeat the count, to see if it is, indeed, an efficacious treatment.

The other treatments that I will use are Apiguard (a preparation of Thymol, a natural extract of, er, Thyme) and Oxalic acid (again, naturally occurring, in rhubarb).

So I will post again with news of the results.

Please sign the petition for the banning of Neonicotinoids

2009-07-12T12:13:00.004+01:00

Neonicotinoids are killing our bees. Please sign the petition to have them banned in the UK.

For more info and to sign our petition please visit:http://www.soilassociation.org/bees.aspx

Honey in full flow now

2009-07-05T18:11:00.006+01:00

I visited my apiary at D's today, with son Joe (who took the photos).

I try to make this a low-impact hobby - so we cycled there. Only a couple of miles.

There are two hives there. One painted traditional white gloss, the other brushed with beeswax/linseed oil mix. Which do you prefer? Both are well-protected against the weather.

The guard sheep are still there - recently shorn, I think.

(My spellchecker doesn't like "shorn". Surely that's the right spelling? Yes, dictionary.com says that's OK. Must be the blogger spellchecker.)

Example frame from the super (ie above the queen excluder, so containing stores only.). This one is 100% nectar - no pollen at all. Looks very clean on new frame and new foundation, doesn't it?

These two colonies were new this year - so they're doing very well. Colony one has capped 80% of each of eight frames - the remaining two are not yet drawn out. So I'll need to put on a new super. So that's about 7kg of honey gathered in two months, from a colony that started out as a swarm in May.

The other colony is a bit behind. it has filled its brood box with stores, and drawn out half the frames in the super that I gave it six days ago.

But Colony Two has an iffy queen. There are four frames of brood - but I was expecting more. It's an odd shaped brood - suddenly stopping at frame four.

Adding some brood to the topbar

2009-06-20T15:44:00.006+01:00

Here is the topbar hive in its permanent location. There are six lime trees within 50 metres - so I'm hoping for some lovely lime honey.

To help the small colony that I installed, I have added a frame of brood from another (regular) hive. You can see the top of the frame in the pic below.

I was going to remove the comb totally from the frame and attach it to a topbar, but my colleague, Emma, whose hive this will be, persuaded me to leave it attached by just the top.

I have to cut the corners off - but luckily these were just stores, and I put them in the bottom of the hive for the bees to eat and clean up.

The hinge and stay is a masterpiece, and a work of genius (if that's not too immodest a claim). My friend Emma can't lift heavy things like roofs, so the hinged roof is ideal.

There are two 16mm holes for ingress and egress.

And an aluminium roof. There's a brilliant shop in Bath called Avery, Knight and Bowler that sells everything metallic. The 2m x 1m sheet of Al cost £16.

Fingers crossed for the bees. The sealed brood on the comb that I added will emerge in a few days and add to the colony.

New queen is a star

2009-06-12T20:48:00.005+01:00

Here is the new star of the show - a lovely big healthy queen, dressed in a delicate shade of fluorescent green - much like the home life of our own dear royal family.

She has layed four frames of brood since she came on to lay about 14 days ago. The photo above shows what a great queen she is. This is the perfect frame, with an arc of brood (the biscuit coloured area) surrounded by stores - pollen and honey. The lighter shaded capped cells are full of honey.

Avid followers of this blog will both remember that this colony was queenless from about 28th April, following the queen wing-clipping debacle.

But it's back on song now, and I'm predicting a good harvest in the autumn.

First honey harvest

2009-06-07T11:14:00.008+01:00

First photo shows the uncapping of a frame. The honey in this one seems a bit darker. See the cappings slide away into the uncapping tray.

I couldn't get the hang of it. Whether to cut on the forehand or the backhand, whether to cut up or down - and let the cappings fall away? It's an awkward job - and sticky.

The extractor, courtesy of Roger who is the engine room of the local bee soc, mentioned in previous blogs. Centrifugal force spins the honey out of the uncapped frames.

Two minor disasters. 1) one frame disintegrated and the comb fell out into the bottom. Had to retrieve it - getting even more sticky - because it was wired foundation and I didn't want the wire to wrap around the spinner. 2) the comb was weak in one frame and just flew out, wire and all. Another sticky retrieval.

Another uncapping - this time of comb on a brand new frame - so cleaner and easier.

See the uncapping tray full of sticky wax. I later put all this sticky gunge into a bain marie and heated it until the wax melted (65 celsius [how do you put the degree symbol into this blogger?]). Let it cool, then pull off the wax, leaving the honey in the pot. That gave me another 1kg of honey - albeit rather cloudy. Gave one pot to my friend Robin who came to help move a hive the next day. Thanks, Robin.

The honey glugging out of the extractor into the settling tank.

Pouring out the last kilo or so into the filter.

A good day - 8.5Kg of honey.

All photos by son Tom - Guardian Award-winning Photographer (did I say that already :-).

Cute prairie dogs

2009-05-31T07:06:00.003+01:00

There is a mini-zoo at Lackham, and these prairie dogs are a few weeks old. So cute.

Sorry about the photos - taken on my iphone without a zoom.

Honey, lovely honey

2009-05-30T16:00:00.003+01:00

The first proper harvest. 10 frames full.

At least 20 pound of spring flower honey.

ie Ten frames like this.

Cwaargh! Bring on the toast and coffee.

I guess the first 20 pound jars are owed to friends and family who have had to pretend to be interested in all things apiarist.

Otherwise that would have been 20 x £4.00 = £80. Not much return on the hundreds I have spent on hives and kit. But it's a start.

Queen No. 3 found and marked

2009-05-30T15:52:00.004+01:00

The swarm I collected last Monday (the Bank Holiday) has drawn at least four frames of brood comb and the queen has layed in most of two sides - I stopped counting.

Wow. This is some huge queen. See photo below of queen sporting new green adornment. Yes, I know she's probably last year's queen (or older) becuase this was a prime swarm. And the fact that she is laying so soon after swarming is (I think) another indication that she is mature. But the green pen was to hand - and it's better than nothing.

These bees seem more prone to festooning that the previous colony. They run to the bottom of the frame and hang off it. But they seem very gentle. But there again - it is a lovely day. 22 degrees celsius and no wind. So what's not to like?

So we now have three queen-right colonies. Good oh.

But the question is what to do with this nuc? They can't stay in this box for long.

Queen No. 2 found and marked

2009-05-30T15:45:00.003+01:00

Now I'm really motoring.

Found and marked the queen in the hive from which the nuc was taken on 2nd May. Green is the colour (of my true love's eyes - yes, it's true, but don't distract me with old song lyrics, probably mis-remembered). Green is the colour of 2009. So if the queen isn't green, she's been --- superseded. That's the bee rap,

She has layed about one frame of eggs.

See photo below of me marking her. Note the nurse bees getting very worried about what I was up to.

I have NOT clipped her wings - after the disaster in April.

Queen No. 1 found and marked!

2009-05-30T15:42:00.003+01:00

Hey, I might make a beek yet!

I found and marked the new queen in D's hive (the one with the sheep guarding it).

She's only small - but she is laying. No photos unfortunately.

So she took from 2nd May (as a sealed queen cell) until about yesterday (29th May) to emerge, get mated, and start laying.

Whew! Relief.

Caught my first swarm

2009-05-25T20:40:00.005+01:00

I got a call from Roger (entries passim) asking me if I wanted to collect a swarm.
I took my home-made nuc box and set off at high speed.

When I arrived onsite the owners of the property told me that the swarm was enormous and was hanging from a tree. But now the swarm was all in the undergrowth on a gravel path.

Mrs Owner was terrified of bees. But I shared her state of fear when a huge hornet started cruising the area. Was it after the bees? Hornets certainly like to eat bees by the dozen. They tear off the bee's head and eat the contents of the honey stomach. Nature, eh?

Photo above shows alarming faith in the strength of surgical tape - which was the only stick tape I could find in the rush. But the polycarbonate roof is good feature - at least you can see what's going on.

Mistake number one: I was concerned about the onlookers, so rather than shake the bees into the box (and putting bees into the air), I put in some of the undergrowth. Which meant that when I got it back to the house and the bees were hoping for an early night, I turfed them all out whilst I removed the branches.

Here they all are, trying to get back in through the two entrance holes - which you can't see for bees.

They were clustered to the roof when I opened it - and festooning ready to make comb.

I have given them three frames of foundation and a frame of ivy honey from last year (see previous entry). So now I'll let them get on with it for a fortnight, and post better photos when I next open them.

Catching queens

2009-05-24T08:12:00.004+01:00

This is just three of the six queens that we took from one colony yesterday, during the training session for novice beekeepers at the club. The middle one is in a proper queen cage. It has a plug of candy (sugar) in the entrance so that when the cage is put into a queenless colony, the queen will have sufficient "face time" (aaargh) for the colony to become accustomed to her scent and accept her.

These queens will be used to re-queen queenless colonies (perhaps mine if my virgin queens have not done the business and returned).

The other two are, yes, hair rollers. They provide the perfect mix of shape, ventilation, easy of use, colour coding. They are mounted in small wooden blocks that can be easily stored in a box.

Instructor Alan removes a queen from the queen cell. Steady hands are needed. Fifty-five years of beekeeping helps, as well. Note hair roller cage at the ready.

This cell is a bit tough. The drone uncapping fork is used to good effect, even though it wasn't designed for this job.

Modifications to the topbar hive

2009-05-24T07:54:00.003+01:00

The topbar hive now has a galvanised steel mesh at its base. In a previous entry I shows the plastic mesh that I had fixed, before I found out that there was a badger in the garden.

This is standard mesh that is used to make varroa screen floors. In case you missed it - the reason for this is that the mite will fall off the bee and through the floor, never to return.

Bees can regulate the temperature in their colonies very closely by building comb in clever configurations. But in the summer months, an open floor is fine.

These are the entrance/exits. There are six pairs of holes so that I can keep one, two or three separate colonies in the same hive (well, in theory). The holes are corked when not in use.

OK, so don't examine the workmanship too carefully. I drive a desk in real life, not a workshop. My new staple gun gets a lot of use.

How bees make comb

2009-05-24T07:43:00.003+01:00

This photo shows the colony making new comb. The frame has been added to the hive with the foundation broken off so that it is only a few cm long. This will encourage the formation of drone brood - which can be used either to take drones off into breeding apiaries or, more likely, to provide a test for varroa mite. I will say more, with photos, in another blog.

You can see the bees hanging in chains to make the comb - which explains (partly) why the comb ends up in the beautiful catenary shapes (from catena - a chain).

Bee scaffolding. More bees join the chain gang (sorry).

Missed four swarms! Gah!

2009-05-22T11:01:00.003+01:00

Got a call from Roger at the club. He was called to pick up a swarm from the large garden behind my garden wall. The fourth swarm from there in a few days.

My lure hives (see entries passim) were not alluring enough, apparently. Or not far enough away from the original colony. They prefer to go over half a mile away from the originating colony - for a very good reason: they want to spread out to avoid over-foraging the area.

But I was not at home, and he had to give the swarms to someone else!

But I live in hope. The topbar hive need some occupants.

My new top bar hive

2009-05-10T20:03:00.008+01:00

Inspired by Phil Chandler at www.biobees.com I have built a top bar hive. I heard Phil speak at a meeting of out local club (MBKA - see other posts).

He advocates a simpler, less invasive, method of bee-keeping.

So I have built the top bar hive to his design, with a few deliberate changes and a few inadvertant modifications.
This is the hive. Note the legs - makes it easier to work on the comb. The roof is quite light - another feature that makes it easy to use. Regular hives can have VERY heavy rooves.

The two separators (or followers, in the jargon). are shown here. They segregate the colony so you can keep two colonies in one hive if you separate them with one of these. They also allow you to expand the colony from, say, three bars to, say, ten.

The Vshape means that the bees will not join the comb to the sides of the hive - which would be very inconvenient because you would not be able to lift out the comb and inspect it.

The mesh is in the bottom of the hive. It provides ventilation, allows Varroa mites to fall through (and depart the hive - hurrah!), and prevents ingress by robbing bees.

I am worried by the access it affords to predators. There is a badger living in D's garden (which is current planned locaton) - in the Pampas grass (no, really, she put her hand in the burrow, felt something furry and warm and withdrew her hand promptly). So old brock may get his paws on the honey. We will see.

These are the bars. They have a groove in the underside into which I have put beeswax. This will encourage the bees to make comb on the bar in a straight line. Which nature abhors, but which makes husbandry easier for us.

So - all it needs now is a home and some bees.

Visit biobees.com for more.

Colony now queenless

2009-05-10T19:58:00.002+01:00

Disaster. Something I did (maybe) has killed the queen. I marked her two weeks ago. One week ago I split off a nucleus - which was succesful ( I went to see it yesterday at my friend D's).

But my colony now has no queen. The queen I marked is nowhere to be seen.

There are no eggs in the cells - further evidence.

But one of the swarm cells (see last week's entry) has been vacated - so I may have a virgin queen in there. So opening the hive was the last thing I should have done (had I known). Virgin queens are easy to upset.

I must cross my fingers and hope that either the virgin queen is OK, goes off to mate, and comes back and starts laying, or one of the other queen cells yields a new queen.

So I must wait another two weeks before opening the hive.

Honey, and a new nucleus

2009-05-03T16:39:00.009+01:00

I have taken four frames of brood out of the brood box, put them in a nucleus box and tranferred the colony to my friends D's hive (see previous blog).

All went according to plan, except that I could not find the queen that son Joe and I had taken so much effort to find and mark (see previous blog).

I'm pretty sure she's not on the frames that I gave to D. I gave her a couple of frames with big, fat, sealed queen cells that will now hatch into a new queen (all being well).

But my hive is without a queen - unless she's hiding. And there're the dilemma. There are some more nice queen cells in the hive (see photo below). But if the queen is in there, they may swarm when the queens in the cells hatch out.
So do I destroy the queen cells to prevent a swarm (if she's there, but hidden) or let them hatch to get a new queen (if I am short of a queen)? Hmmm - no idea. Time to phone a friend.

The good news is that there is a load of honey - 10 frames are full and 80% is capped. See photo below. The capped honey has a white wax covering. The uncapped honey is glistening in the light. I need it all to be sealed before I can harvest it.

All photos were taken by son Tom. This last one is a cracker. You can see why he's a Guardian award winning photographer and got an A at A Level Photography.

How hard can it be?

2009-04-26T14:48:00.002+01:00

You'd think that it would be easy to spot a queen bee. It's not. See the photo below. It's just one part of one side of one frame - and there are 11 frames in the brood box.

The bee in the box is a drone. A fat boy. Wider than the rest. These are the males - with just 16 chromosomes (vs the workers 32).

He's just there "to keep the ladies happy" (quoting a book).

He just eats until he decides to go and fly at mating time. If he's lucky (sic) enough to mate with a queen, his reproductive organs explode during the process, and he dies. Sometimes the queen can be seen returning to the hive, having been mated, with the important bits of drones hanging out, so to speak.

If he doesn't get to mate, he gets shoved out of the hive in the Autumn, to die. He's a useless mouth to feed, so he gets the boot.

Tough life. I feel his pain. :-)

Queen found and marked - hoorah!

2009-04-26T13:41:00.004+01:00

Since my last disastrous attempt to find and mark the queen, I have bought a new gadget. It's a queen marking cage, which has spikes around the rim (see photo) that are set narrow enough to confine the queen, but wide enough to allow workers to escape. The top is a grid of fine wires that enable a marker pen or the placement of a marker dot to be glued on the thorax of the queen.

The result can be seen in the other photo. A fluorescent queen. Not too neat - but effective.

Photos are by my son Joe, who is doing A Level Photography. Nice photos, Joe!

I also managed to get her wings to poke through the grid - and I clipped them. None too neatly, again. But she won't fly again! Why do this? The colony is getting ready to swarm. The queen is at least two seasons old - arriving with me last July. But she could have swarmed from another colony before that - so she could be three years old. Anyway, I have marked her red for 08. This year's colour is green.

The other sign that the colony is ready to swarm is that there are about five queen cells in the making - the most prominent one on Frame 6 (that's a note for me :-).

So my next operation will be to split the colony. The old queen will into a nucleus hive, which I have made. I'm too embarrassed by the quality of the woodworking skills to blog a photo. She'll be accompanied by some sealed brood and some stored honey. That colony is destined for my friend D's hive (see previous blog).

That will happen next weekend - weather permitting.

Setting up a new hive

2009-04-15T17:29:00.009+01:00

I have bought a second-hand WBC hive from eBay. Nice chap in Wellington, Somerset. It's a bit (wax)moth-eaten, but perfectly serviceable. And being made of cedar, it's light.

I have set it up in a small paddock next to my friends D&D house - and it look splendid against the blackthorn blossom.

It's facing east - so it'll get the morning sun. and get the bees out and about. So - lesson learned (at last) from the hive in my garden, which is under a north-facing wall, and doesn't get a lot of sun.

I have added a vial of swarm-lure. This is an artificial pheromone that will lure any swarm that is within sniffing distance (say, about half a mile). The makers claim that 50-80% of hives set up in this way will attract a swarm (provided the swarms are there at all).

It's a cheaper way of getting bees than paying £150 for a nucleus colony. Although, of course, you get what you get. And that might be a diseased colony with all sorts of maladies. It's a risk I'm prepared to take - because there are no other colonies on this site that would be infected.

The site is protected by these ferocious guard-sheep.

On second thoughts, any herd of animals that are known by their first names cannot be that fierce.

(Photos by Tom Summers, Guardian Competition-Winning Photographer.)

Wordle - nothing to do with bees

2009-04-09T15:55:00.002+01:00

This is a rather nice Java app. It takes text you enter and turns it into a picture.

Enjoy.

Spring Clean

2009-04-04T17:07:00.005+01:00

Time to clean out the hive, and add a queen excluder. It's now 17 degrees C and so it's safe to open up. Any colder and it would risk chilling the brood and killing them - which would set the colony back a few weeks.

My friend Julie helped me today. She is on the right, wearing the decorating overalls and my spare veil. It's the first time she's handled bees and she did really well - totally fearless!

There's good news and feared results of my inexperience. The good news is that the colony is in fine fettle. Really strong, with plenty of stores. The 2.5Kg bag of Apifonda (see previous posts) has been totally devoured. There is a lot of pollen being stored, and plenty of uncapped and capped brood.

The bad news is that there was a lot of brace comb. Natural comb that they had made because I left a gap in the hive - as a result of last September's Ivy Emergency (see previous entry). I had to put on a new box (a super) to accommodate the ivy honey flow and ivy pollen they were bringing in. But I had only a few spare frames - not enough to fill the box.

I was afraid that they would make this natural comb - but I hoped that I was early enough in the year to forestall it. But the weather has bee fine and sunny, and the results are in the photo. The roof has several well-developed combs attached.
I broke them off the roof, and in doing so, I spotted the queen for the first time. Or rather, Julie did. I have bought a marker pen (Red for 2008 - she's last year's queen). But I was too anxious about getting her back into the hive, that I didn't mark her. So that's an opportunity missed.

I broke up the comb and left it close by for the bees to take back any honey they had stored.

The last photo shows a couple of workers cleaning up the comb.

So my hive is now in good shape. It has a queen excluder, with the queen definitely below it!

It has a new polycarbonate roof, so that I can see what's going on without opening it.

And the queen is laying.

And so roll on the honey!

And as a nice bonus, we ate some of the honey comb with a cup of tea! Lovely. Very flowery - Daffs and Primroses, I guess. There are no trees flowering yet.

As part of the spring-clean, I bought a new brood box and super. So I can now return the boxes I borrowed from my friends Debbie and Mary, who have helped me so much with the bees. I bought new stuff from Maisemore. Delightful people. And they keep the most handsome chickens - running around in the road and car park (yes, it's pretty rural!). So I got some eggs too! Highly recommended.

Bees in Helebores, Winter Honeysuckle and Crocuses

2009-03-02T13:31:00.003Z

The warm weather has brought out the bees and they are in the garden in large numbers, feeding off the helebores (see pic), winter-flowering honeysuckle and crocuses (sp?). The pollen from the crocuses is very noticable on their back legs - it's bright orange. Like saffron - which are the stamens from a type of crocus (I think).

Another new odd behaviour: sucking at wet oak leaves. Now I know they need water. All living creatures do. Bees use it to dilute the honey that they take from the comb. But here's the odd thing: I have put a tray of water in front of the hive, complete with smooth rocks, so that it's easy to land and drink. But few of them use this - preferring to find a warm spot with some damp oak leaves and have a good old suck.

Bees are flying today

2009-02-15T15:39:00.002Z

It's just warm enough for the bees to fly today. They have been cooped up for several weeks, due to the extremely low temperatures (from about 10C to -5C). Today is about 13C (at the time of observation), overcast, with light winds.

There were quite a few dead bees in the snow around the hive a week ago. I presume they came out in response to a sunny warmish day - and found that it was colder than they thought [sic].

Did they take off and then crash and die? Or did they come in for landing and not make it onto the landing board? But for sure, when they hit the snow, they were doomed.

All the books say is "They will come out to defecate and then return to the hive". They don't say "Some bees will have suicidal tendencies".

So I continue to observe, learn and puzzle. The more I see, the less I know. However, I am relieved that they are still in the hive in good numbers. They have plenty of food (see previous blog on giving them some Apifonda - like bakers' fondant icing). So all bodes well today.

I must get a good thermometer to record the temperature at which various behaviours occur.

Bring out your dead!

2009-01-13T13:11:00.003Z

Today is the first mild day in January - about 10C. It's sunny and calm. So I thought the bees might be active, and they were.

I was worried that the cold weather had killed them off. But I needn't have worried. As my beekeeping friend Brian said "It's the best thing for them. They form a ball in the middle of the hive and don't use any energy. The worse thing is mild weather - which encourages them to fly and use energy, which they then replenish by eating their stores."

The dead bees on the landing board (in photo) have been brought out of the hive by the worker bees and, well, dumped on the landing board. I'll scrape them off when the bees have packed it in for the day.

I opened the hive and removed the empty Apistan container (the Verroa treatment). The hive was completely full of bees. I need not have worried.

But I made the mistake of not using smoke to pacify them. They were CROSS and many attacked me. I made another (maybe) mistake by not wearing my overalls. I wore a black fleece jacket and they really went for it. It's outside the back door now, covered in bee stings. Of course, that's the end of the bees that did the stinging, so I'm feeling bad about that mistake.

They might have attacked me for a number of reasons, but they are docile colony normally. Reason one: I didn't use smoke. Reason two: it's cold and they were not keen on being opened up. Reason three: they are not busy gathering nectar, so had nothing better to do. Reason four: they didn't like my black fleece.

Anyway, I gave them some Apifonda - which is sugar, rather like pre-mixed cake icing. You pierce the 1000g bag and place it - holes down - on top of the frames. So that's will keep them fed for a good few weeks.

I didn't pull out any of the frames for fear of chilling the brood - if there was any - which I doubt.

So that's it for a month or so.

A few mistakes made and lessons learned.

Honey Show at Lackham

2009-01-09T12:17:00.004Z

This is my first attempt to post photos.

Lackham College is the local agricultural college - and home of the beekeepers apiary.

We have an annual family day and show off our wares.

Here John is putting a badge on an interested you ng visitor.

And second, John opening the demonstration hives to show the visitors what a frame of bees looks like.

I've been blogged!

2009-01-09T11:31:00.003Z

My very good friend vegplotter visited me to help me open the bees and have a look-see.

She took some photos and, being an organised sort of person, put the photos on her blog.

Ivy Emergency!

2009-01-09T10:59:00.003Z

I'm a bit late posting this, but here goes.

In late September I had to return the borrowed hive to the lovely local beekeepers that lent it to me - so I bought my own and built it from flatpack.

When we opened the hive to do the replacement we found lots of bees clustering on the outside of the hive (well, to be accurate between the lifts of the WBC hive and the inner brood boxes and supers). We soon found that the broodbox was stuffed full of ivy honey. You can tell it by the rank smell.

Emergency measures were needed!

After some debate (phone a friend?), we decided to remove a frame of honey stores and replace it with a frame of empty foundation and put on a super of drawn comb (another loan from my lovely friends), and hope that would do the trick.

I added a feeder full of sugar syrup to the top of the super and closed it up, and hoped for the best.

All seemed well, but they were not happy girls. We disrupted them so much that a few did try to follow me back down the garden and sting me. They are normally very docile.

Lesson? There's a lot to learn. The large flow of ivy honey and the great increase in the size of the colony took me by surprise.

You may be wondering what I did with the honey. Well, I made another mistake. I uncapped it by running a large flat hot knife across the surface of the comb to remove the cappings, exposing the honey in the cells. I hoped that it would then run out through gravity. But no. Being ivy honey, it crystalised overnight and left me with a brick of solid comb. I may give it back to the bees in the spring and see what they can make of it. It's of no use to me. Interestingly, I thought the ivy honey was quite nice tasting. Strong, but not unpleasant.

Where is the queen?

2008-08-20T15:35:00.002+01:00

The queen is in there somewhere!

But I'm not experienced enough to spot her in a broiling mass of bees on a frame.

I have opened the hive a couple of times and looked for eggs. They're there - but very hard to spot, especially with my bi-focals. And there's quite a bit of uncapped brood - ie. eggs that have developed into larva in cells, but the cell has not yet been capped by the workers.

If I could find the queen, I might be able to mark her. But a) I can't see her (she may be lurking on the floor of the hive); and b) even if I could, I wouldn't know how to.

Lots to learn.

Problems with wasps

2008-08-20T15:31:00.002+01:00

It's now August and wasps are sniffing around the hive. I have seen a few in mortal combat with my bees, and the wasp is usually the winner.

I've set up a wasp trap and it seems to be collecting a good number of the stripey little b**tards!

I have my hive!

2008-08-20T15:22:00.000+01:00

I got my first colony from Deborah, a local beekeeper. It's quite a small colony - about 4 frames of bees, so I needed to build it up.

I fed the colony with sugar syrup - one kilo of white sugar to 0.5 litre of water - and was amazed that they ate that within two days and then proceeded to eat a kilo of sugar a day.

Well, I say "eat". I mean "store" and "use". When I opened the hive after about two weeks, the bees had drawn out quite a bit of the additional foundation that I had added and created a lot of capped stores (ie the sugar put into cells in the comb and sealed off, for later consumption).

Welcome!

2008-06-01T15:05:00.000+01:00

Welcome to my beekeeping blog.

I have bought and set up my hive, but am waiting for someone to give me a swarm to start my first colony.

I have joined the Melksham Bee-Keepers Association (MBKA). Lots of lovely friendly people, of all ages.

I'll post again with my progress, and what I learn.

Steve