Oh No! here we go again

It has been far too long since my last post and lots has happened with the bees
well the honey extraction is over and it has been eventful, the Snakey Lane hives produced well and the advantage of having a garden centre next door has paid off producing a sweet dark brown honey, the Hatton Road Bees produced another super of honey only this time it is almost black but more on that later...

On of the big events this year was the London Honey Festival held at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank this was the first one and we hope it will be held as an annual event we got a little West London Honey collective going and took along our honey to sell we had a ball and sold lots of Honey.

Then no sooner than the harvest is in you have to start thinking about getting the bees ready for winter so you need to check the Varroa levels and get your treatment regime planned make sure that there are adequate stores and autumn nectar is coming in (usually Ivy) so the stores are all full. You will top up with sugar syrup if the Ivy fails to deliver.

Then it is Honey Show time my Local show is the Twickenham and Thames Valley this year I decided to enter both the Snakey Lane and Hatton Road (Black) Honey I have not been a successful shower of honey in the past  as I usually get taken out of  the competition with insipid granulation at the beauty show stage. But this year both honeys were looking good

I put Snakey Lane in the Members Class (dark) and The Hatton Black In the Open Class (I actually enter to make up the numbers). But hey surprise surprise  The Hatton Road  Black honey landed a 1st prize

Sadly Snakey Lane didn't fare as well. I will be doing some pollen sampling soon to try and determine the source of the black honey.
On the day of the honey show  OCT 9th I had a call to say one of the Snakey lane Hives has swarmed Oh No! here we go again.........

Yummy Honey

Well it is harvest season at last  and the first lot of extraction is done. The first lot was from Hatton Road, the Honey frames are uncapped and loaded in to a centrifugal extractor and then with my new motor is spun at high speed and it runs down the side of the tank when it is full it is passed into a honey tub through a sieve to remove any large pieces of wax etc.

The uncapped honey frame (uncapping is done by slicing the caps of with a hot knife)

The Uncapped frames are placed in the extractor and spun at high speed  (in this extractor the frames do need to be turned over)

Once the honey tub has been allowed to stand and you take a drop to asses the water content of the honey the sample is placed in a refractometer and checked that the water content is below 20% (this year it has been 18%) this insures that the honey wont ferment.  Then it is put in to a settling tank this passes it through another two filters, one is a fine fabric mesh made out of a nylon curtain I bought at a market in Turkey, this process remove any fine granules of wax and debris.

The Honey is allowed to settle in this tank and is then bottled.

That is really the entire process there is no other treatment done to the honey it is that natural.

This year we have 227g and 340 g jars available

We have also available jars with natural honeycomb as an added extra

Round 2 starts with The Snakey Lane Honey

Bees for Sale and now we are going Top Bar

This year has been the first year I have sold bees and I used a wonderful site called Bid4Bees. I had created 2 Nuclei colonies especially for this purpose both of these colonies have prospered and hugely benefited from the oilseed rape crop (Canola) which has allowed the bees to make loads of comb and the new queen to lay lots of eggs therefore producing lots of bees so I think my customers did well.

spot the queen

A polystyrene nuc box

So I spent the proceeds of the sale on procuring a cedar top bar hive.

Top bar bee-keeping is becoming very popular at the moment and many people are choosing this type of hive as it considered more natural. Certainly the bees do build their colony as they would in the wild but it is not a system for producing lots of honey as it you can't easily extract using a centrifugal extractor so you need to press the honey out of the comb or use it as cut comb honey. This means that the bees lose the wax when you take the honey where as in hives set up for honey you spin the honey out of the frames and the frames can go back to the bees so the can refill (this can happen over a few years saving the bees a lot of work). I see the top bar as a solution for people who want to keep bees but don't want a lot of messing around with honey. So I have decided that I need to give it a try and I want to develop a way of producing a nucleus of bees for sale in the Top Bar format at a premium of course

A Top Bar hive

Dead Queen Never

well just to take a moment to to up date you on what is happening in the hives

1. the queen wasn't dead... the next week we expected to find lots of queens cells but we found a lovely marked queen running around laying eggs in all available spaces. we found 2 good swarm cells and decided to make up a nucleus colony.

2. I started this spring with 3 good colonies and now I have 11.. well you might wonder why I haven posted... I think that is the explanation. so the 2 Apiaries now look like this
Hatton Road 1 Colony so far produced 15kg honey (mainly Oil Seed Rape) and 4 Nucleus colonies one a caste swarm from one of Hattons nucs and 1 caste swarm from Snakey lane (I think caste swarms happen when the emerging queen doesn't kill all the competing queen cells and flies out to mate and when she comes back another queen has hatched so she flies off with half of the bees to try and form a new colony) interestingly I know which colony the the Snakey lane swarm came from but I can't work out which colony the Hatton one came from but the Hatton swarm has built good comb and the queen is laying already 4 days later (this does make me suspicious that it is actually a caste but a small swarm from else where).
Now down at Snakey Lane  the Oil seed Rape has been keeping the bees so busy we are battling to keep on top of it. we have the 2 original colonies plus 4 Nuc boxes  the first Nuc came from the colony which had the suspected queen loss that didn't happen and I think it is doing fine the second nuc came from the lovely (Valium bees) that don't seem to be bothered by having bee-keepers around. and was located on another part of the site by a pond and appeared good and strong of course these were the ones that swarmed. and each colony has produced another nuc making a total of 4.
Ok I must dash we do need to check the bees again today

Oh no the queen is dead?

Bee-keeping throws up strange events so that you have to change plans rapidly. Yesterday  we had an event at Snakey Lane allotments with 2 new bee-keepers where we accidentally killed the queen and it was entirely my fault. One of the hives had an unmarked queen which has always been very illusive so I decided to mark her with a blue spot to make her easy to find.

I captured her in a queen marking cage and painted a blue spot on her thorax and then released her into the hive in this process one of two things happened either the smell of the marking paint made the workers think she was an invader and they attacked her or I injured her on placing the frame back but we noticed a cluster of bees around the queen who looked very ill and could not walk. she then appeared to fall to the bottom of the hive.

The only positive thing is that she had been laying lots of eggs and the colony will create new queen cells. The other benefit is that it was our plan to create more colonies for each of the new bee-keepers (my trainees) on the site and this is the opportunity about a month earlier than planned.

As for the Hatton Road site it is steaming along and looks like this 

what a yummy sticky mess

We really have been blessed with some lovely weather lately. It was such a pleasant morning I thought I had better check the progress of the merger today. I should have done it on Sunday but the local children were playing football at the club next to the allotment (it is probably a good idea to avoid having lots of smoke an flying bees around to alarm mummy while little Jack and Chardonnay are playing sport). So today I checked the new frames in the busy merged colony and they have started to build plenty of honey comb so I could move the queen to the new brood box. I was an relativity simple procedure once you have found the queen she is likely to be in the main brood box and she should be easy to spot because she has a blue spot on her thorax (A blue spot signifies she was born in 2010) as queens usually live no longer than 5 years so a 5 year colour cycle exists, White is years ending in 1 or 6 Yellow is 2 or 7,Red is 3 or 8, Green is 4 or 9, and Blue 5 or 0. So once she was found she was moved to the new chamber and the old brood box has a queen excluder (the queen is much bigger than a worker so an excluder allows the workers through but the queen is trapped) and a hive entrance placed on top then the new box with the queen on top of that so all of the old box can hatch the brood already in place (and there is lots of it) over the next 3 weeks. The exciting part of this event is that I have extracted about 5KG of honey this afternoon, a very fun sticky job.

A Budget Day Merger

Well the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced his budget for growth a nondescript event if I must say so myself, 50p off a tank of diesel is no great shakes.

So I decided to conduct a merger, well the merging of two bee colonies at Hatton Road.

Hatton Road is a very noisy site, as it is located next to Heathrow Airport. The Hive is 775.5 meters from the end of the South Runway, so it is a great spot for plane spotting. Bees don't have ears so it doesn't worry them.

.

Well I had 2 Colonies there but (as in my previous post) sadly one colony didn't come through the winter with a surviving Queen (they checked out to be disease free), I confirmed this in another inspection before the merger. So the best thing to do as it is too early to get another Queen is to merge the colonies together. The main method if you have the time (which we have) is to separate the colonies with a sheet of newspaper you take the roof and crown board off the first colony which does have a queen and lay newspaper over the top of the hive and slit the paper in a few places, the old colony goes on top, and the roof and crown board on top of that. The bees eat their way through the paper over the next day or so, slowly becoming accustomed to each other.

This is a pleasant adventure, compared to the chaos method alternative where you have a sloping board running into the hive that you are keeping, you then need to isolate the queen ensuring she is safely in the home hive, while you shake all the bees from both hives on to the board and amid the chaos they all run into the hive with out too much fighting. This is not for the faint hearted  (only to be done if the area is generally public free) but a spectacular sight as it happens very quickly (like a film speeded up).

Spring has sprung for real this time (Warning grusome photo alert)

Oh the joys of seeing sunshine and feeling its gentle warmth against your skin. Over the weekend it was the first real bee-keeping weather and at last a chance to have a good look inside the hives. Both of the hives that were moved on St Patrick's Day were both in fine form with plenty of brood plenty of bees and plenty of food. The colony that over wintered at Snakey lane was also in fine form. The sad news is that the largest colony that overwintered at Hatton Road seem to be in bad shape and seems to not have a laying queen (although I am not convinced there is no queen) there is no brood in any stage but plenty of food still quite a few bees. I will leave it for further inspection next weekend (weather permitting) In the meantime I have taken a sample of bees for analysis so I can look at merging the remaining bees to assist the more successful colony if they don't look like being able to continue. 

There are 2 diseases that  that I have checked for Nosema  which infects the gut of the bee caused by a protozoa (a unicellular parasite from the fungi family) it requires a sample of bees (killed by freezing) mashed into a paste with a little distilled water and sampled under the microscope, I am pleased to say there was none to be found ( this hive was checked last September and was positive  and treated with Fumadil) this is a picture from that September inspection

The other problem is Acarine which is a extremely tiny mite that infests the trachea of the bee you will be interested to note that a bee does not breath through its mouth but a series of spiracles on the side of its body the mite lays her eggs in these airways, seriously affecting the bees breathing, the hatched mites climb out and transfer to other bees via the hair.

The only way of checking for this is to decapitate the dead bee and check the trachea if it creamy coloured it is fine if is marked and dark in places you have a problem ( You need to check a few bees and it is a fiddly job)

Here is a photo of one of the dissections

Well I feel we are all clear and if they are to be merged It will be OK . I will keep you posted

St Patricks Day.... a day to move the bees

I closed the Uxbridge Apiary today the two hives have been relocated at Hatton Rd and Snakey Lane. How does that happen I hear you cry. It started yesterday when I Closed the Hives, I waited until it was a little chilly ( which is standard at the moment) and I placed a block on their entrance ( I designed a one-way system that allowed any returning bees in but the bees inside could not get out.) I strapped the hive with a ratchet strap and I left it over night. This morning I loaded my sack trolley and went to the hives and sealed up the entrances completely with Duct Tape and sealed the edge of the floor to stop any side ways shift. Once they were ready I wheeled them down to the car ( Thank you Citroen your Picasso range is perfect 2 hives fit perfectly with out moving the seats)off down the road with 2 colonies of bees in the back.

I am happy to report that both colonies are securely in place in their new site. They will have to learn a whole new area to forage the Snakey Lane bees will be happy to find a Garden Centre next door. Now it is time to plan the comb changes for all the hives( it is an expensive business)

Decline of honey bees now a global phenomenon, says United Nations

Headline from The Independent 

well the alarm bell are ringing high up the chain at last ... well the alternative is hand pollination and I have discussed that in previous posts.

I must say that here in the UK I haven't seen any reports of Colony Loss as seen in The USA and other countries. I personally believe that it is the result of intensive bee keeping and the transporting of huge quantities of bees from one area to another for very short pollination periods of about 3 weeks then packing them up and transporting them 1000s of miles to do the next crop. This is a disruptive process and the bees miss out on variety of nectar and pollen in the process. This is a very profitable business to a bee farmer who will receive about $200 a colony for his effort especially as they turn up with 1000 hives for 3 weeks and they will complete a few of these in a season. 

Bee keeping is worth a lot of money to agriculture and  the economy. 

But there is something more than just profit in bee keeping ( I know as I have a huge cost and not one ounce of profit) there is a lot more love needed.

Is it time to have a re-think? I really think so!

spring has sprung.......for the moment

the bulletin boards are buzzing with bee talk......... spring has sprung... for the moment

 I can all change with the wind. Since my last blog I can announce that my bees are buzzing and the Uxbridge bees were bringing in plenty of pollen ( I think they have re-discovered the local garden centre but there are plenty of local plantings of early blooms and crocus in the parks which is a real plus). The Hatton Road  bees have found some nice early pollen and the daffodils are all bobbing in the breeze and I am sure there is early blossom in the old orchards. I am sure that the bees in Snakey lane will be all visiting the garden centre next door. It is still a time of trepidation as they may be bringing in pollen but a lot of early flowers are not great producers of nectar and bee-keepers will be lifting their hives to judge the amount of food remaining in the hive. I will towards the end of this week do exactly that and I will give them some light syrup to help things along if they need it. It would be lovely to get a really nice day where I feel confident that I could open the hive and have a look.
So if you are thinking about a garden do the bees a favour and include some early blooms to help them on their way

The picture is from Simon Croson a fellow bee-keeper from Lincolnshire 

who has some wonderful photos on his website

http://www.sicroson.com

sun will shine....please

Today looks like a it will be a spring day so I will travel around to check the hives, it will hopefully be sunny and get up to 14C, and spring flowers are starting to show so I hope to see bees carrying pollen (protein) on their back legs to feed the Queen.

Last night I spent an enjoyable evening at the last of my General Bee Husbandry study group unravelling the mysteries of Queen introduction (not gay bar style introduction, but surprisingly similar in having the right queen at the right time). There are many reasons that you would want introduce a new Queen to your colony most of which are to do with a general breeding program and colony temperament and and queen failure (the queen does get old and tired and fails to lay viable eggs).

 The great revelation of the evening was an understanding of Snelgrove and the Snelgrove method of swarm management it is quite complicated to get your head around, but when you lay it out and map the procedure it becomes surprisingly simple, so be warned my training groups, you will be trained in  Snelgrove in 2011

and after finding Snegrove boards available at £8 each on-line  it will be a inexpensive option.

Bees in Australia

I just had a chat with my father back in Australia and he has resorted to going around his vegetable garden with a artist paint brush pollinating his plants by hand, oh the joys of retirement at 81 years old.I have suggested that he really should look into getting some bees. There is a native Australian social bee (lives in a colony) which is sting-less and would be suitable for his garden. These bees live in smaller colonies than the European Bee and early colonists watched brave Australian Aboriginals gather honey with out the aid of masks and protection not realising these were a sting less variety. If course these bees live in temperate climbs an do not have the need to store honey for the winter months so the colony's stay compact the estimate that you could harvest about 1kg from a colony a year (compared to 20 to 50 kg a year with the European bee). It is for the pollination and not the honey that he needs the bees, the same applies to all of us as 33% of everything we eat requires an insect pollinator. I hope you will support a local bee-keeper or bee conservation group or invest in some nice sable artist brushes.

Oh dreaming again

It is a rainy morning in Izmit (Turkey) I am lead to believe it is Allah crying because I am going home, it always rains when I leave Turkey (not true but it does often rain when I leave).

I always dream about the bees when I am away and last night was no exception. In my dream I had left my bees in a village which was the village I grew up in Australia but full of people from a village I used to live in, in Somerset. I arrived back and my bee hives had disappeared. Interestingly I treat this as a good omen once I came back from Turkey and one of my bee hives had been destroyed by a deliberate insecticide attack and I didn't dream about bees then.

Any way the good news is I won the Beehive on Ebay It is now paid for £79 inc. delivery, so I must get the hammer ready when it arrives.......back to the last of the packing.

Getting ready for spring

I am preparing myself for the season ahead.
I have ordered 4 Polystyrene NUC boxes (Nuc boxes are Half brood boxes for raising small colonies, hatching queens and swarms until they establish themselves)
I have started biding on Ebay for new Hives ready to house new colonies.
Get that money out.

February 17th 2011

The temperature is sneaking up above 10C.
The bees are sneaking out to find some pollen, the queen needs feeding.
Pollen is the protein in a bees diet and the queen needs to create new eggs.
in 3 weeks the eggs will hatch building up the colony for a spring harvest.
please think about bees when you plan your garden early flowers give the much needed pollen