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Welcome to this web page. We are a Husband and Wife team who beekeep around the borders of Harrow Middlesex and Hertfordshire.
Our intention is to give the reader an insite into a year of beekeeping.
January: the first of the four apiaries were visited and each hive was "hefted" to guage the weight of honey stores present within the hives. The entrances to the hives were clear - and this year we used open mesh floors to allow greater air flow through the hive - and reduces the build up of damp, which will affect the bees if it becomes too extreme.
The hives were in good condition, with the exception of those on the farm which was attacked by woodpecker again; the chicken wire ordered came too late!! Fortunately the bees are resilient and survived the attack, but another eight boxes had to be patched up!
February: brought milder weather and bees were leaving the hives for their "clensing flight", and the bee suite covered in yellow splants as a result! With the aconites and crocus's out, the bees were busily bringing in this early source of pollen, a good indicator that the hives are active and the queen will start to lay her eggs for the forthcoming season. I removed all hive roofs, just to give me an idea of the welcome awaiting me, and as you would expect some were more fiesty than others, but all said Hi!! Now at the last week end of February all stores were ok for the hives, with one exception where sugar syrup was used to suppliment their low food stores.
March: checked the open mesh floors of the hives on the apiaries, all but one were covered in dead bees from the winter, although the remaining bees are actively bringing in pollen. Now I put these mesh floors on at the begining of October and during the winter just checked that the entrance was clear, which they were; however the evidence is that the bees were not removing the corpses from the hive, even during the milder weather in February. The one exception was a hive on the nursery where no more than 6 bee corpses were on the mesh, suggesting that these bees have very good cleaning instincts; they were certainly welcoming and building up into a strong hive, from which we shall rear queens from later on in the season. Still one apiary to visit, where woody woodpecker resides, these hives will need the boxes replaced since they are all damaged, so I am leaving this until the weather gets warm enough to open the hives up and change the floor, brood and super box.
Passed the British Library at the week end and saw a poster "2b or not 2b that is the Q" so took a picture for any beekeeper who might be amused!!
Also see the picture of the Olympic Rings, as seen suspended in Kings Cross Station, remember to buy our Honey when you come to visit!
All Steamed Up! The two hives which died over winter were steam sterilised. We have two pieces of equipment, 1 is a steam tank in which is placed frames from the hive, the melted wax is collected into a bucket; 2nd is a steam hose used to clean the hive boxes. The wax in the bucket is washed with rainwater and stored until ready to recycle into wax foundation, polish or candles,(see picture: beeswax from steamed frames).
Sandra "just checking" see pictures: "Any One There" and "We Are Buzzy"
April: what a kick start to the season! All this warm weather has certainly brought the BUZZ into our beekeeping activities. One hive had wild honey comb in between the super frames and cover board, so placed another super on the hive for them to draw out and fill. We have bees with attitude on the Oil Seed Rape (see picture) bringing back the nectar at a rate of knots, dizzy with the task at hand and stroppy when we come to check out the hives. We use this activity as a good way for the bees to draw out the wax foundation into honey comb, remembering that for every pound of wax produced eight pounds of honey is consumed. Some hives are showing evidence of queen cell preparation, ready to either superceed the old queen and or swarm; so it is now that we select which hives to generate more queen cells from, using temperament, cleanliness and honey gathering qualities as a guide to aid decision making. We now start to take out with us the Nucleus boxes, in which we will start off a small number of nurse bees and some newly laid eggs (1-3 days), it is these eggs which the attendent bees will nourish with royal jelly to generate queen cells. It now becomes a waiting game to see if the queen cells hatch and if the queen becomes successfully mated!
May: An early spring brought on both the blossom and the bee brood (see picture of healthy bee "brood frame"). This in turn has in some hives generated early swarm preparation, and allowed us to rear the next generation of Queen bees (see pictures "let me bee" of mated queen bee with white mark on thorax, signifying this year 2011and "Newly Mated Queen") and allows for easier location when looking through a hive containing something like 50,000 bees!
Spring honey has been collected and stored in large buckets, and when time allows this will be jarred up into 1LB honey jars for you to taste!
There is now a lull between the early spring blossoms and the summer blossom appearing, commonly known as the June gap, but this year it is occuring some 2-3 weeks earlier, so we keep an eye on the honey stores in each hive to ensure that they are sufficient to tide them over.
Weekly examination of our hives keeps us buzzy, but with the new camera I am hoping to take videos of our beekeeping activities! Wild Poppy picture of honeybee visiting the flower, and another with 3 honey bees with creamy coloured pollen on their hind legs; there were also bumble bees and solitary bees on the same flower, but to quick for me to gat in focus and snap! Swarm picture attached : we come prepared with 5 brood frames of undrawn out wax, in a swarm box; and once the tree area is cleared the swarm is shaken so that the bees land inside the box! Positioning the box is imperative, or else the person holding the box under the swarm can be covered in bees! Once the Queen bee is inside all the other bees, workers and drones, will follow; you see vigorous fanning of bee wings around the box as they send out pheremones to the other bees not already in the box. Some bees return to the branches, but so good is their communication that they re-orientate to the swarm box, and with patience you will retrieve nearly all the bees from the tree to the box. Once done a sheet is used to wrap the swarm box, ready to transport to an apiary.
June and July: probably the buzziest time of the year because of the honey harvest, swarm prevention and keeping an eye on the parasite varroa destructor, as well as wax moth larvae and the adult moth, foul brood (European and American), chalk brood and evidence of nosema!
Sealed honey super frames are removed from the hive and placed in empty super boxes which are covered to prevent the bees from coming home with us! When at home, we store the super boxes in our honey extracting room and start the process of removing the wax capping, followed by placing the honey frame into a nine radial centrifuge, used to spin out the honey from the individual comb. Following extraction of honey it is filtered, to remove bits of wax, and stored in food grade honey buckets, prior to pouring into a settling tank, from which it is jarred up into one pound jars.
The empty frames are returned to the hives, ready for filling again, if we are lucky!!
After last years attack by wasps we are adding wasp traps near the hives, which comprise a jam solution in a jar, with a small hole in the lid; seems to be working and less wasps (at the moment) around the hive entrance, so hopefully the weaker Nucs will stave off these aggressive predators. Hibiscus and Thistle: picture of honey bees collecting nectar and pollinating.
August: Honey collecting season is over, with bottling to commence in the next few weeks. Time now to treat all the hives for varroa, which will last for 6-10 weeks.
New photo included: we take no credit for this rare photograph of a Queen Bee being mated by a Drone, courtesy of BBKA Facebook page, but show it to acknowledge the beauty of nature and the skill of the photographer.
September: A clearing up and checking month, where we make sure that all hives have evidence of 1-3 day old eggs, i.e. the queen is still laying, and check that there is enough honey stores to see them through the winter months. The wasp traps are still on site, and examination shows they have done a good job, one even having a Hornet inside; but the wasps are still very active and trying to gain entry to the hives, so the bees are on Guard Duty at the entrance and only Wellcome Home returning bees (see Pictures). Note the yellowish/orange pollen present on the legs of the bee returning to the hive; this is a good sign that the bees are still out foraging (see Aster Daisy) for food (pollen and nectar), and reassurance that the hive is active.
A check is made of the hive stands: stability and soundness of timber, so they will be stable over the winter months and of course clearing up around the apiary sites, weeds and overgrowth of bramble and nettles etc. Woodpecker Deterrent: activity on the farm apiary, started to give one hive a sounding out on the hive box! This year I am ready with the Chicken wire (see Picture) and returned to surround the hives with wire in the hope that this will deter them causing any damage: wait and see if it works!
October: All hives are still active, with bees bringing in the pollen and nectar from tree Ivy (see picture) which is recognised as the last available source of food before winter sets in. One hive has gone queenless, as evidenced by no eggs being present, so this was amalgamated with the hive next to it, using the recognised newspaper technique; the bees don't have a preference: Metro, Mirror or Times will do! Varroa treatment continues for another two weeks, at which time the varroacide strips will be removed, more of this in the coming weeks.
November: Varroa treatment finished with all varroacide strips being removed after 9 weeks of treatment. During the process one hive was observed as producing Drone brood, no worker eggs were seen and the majority of bees were Drones! At this time of the year we would expect to see few, or no drones at all, since the workers kick them out of the hive ( their role being principally to mate with the virgin queens); so a decision was made to cull the drone laying queen and allow the hive to die out. In practice, the worker bees would drift to other hives, and the remaining drones would die out. The empty hive would be removed from the apiary and all frames recycled: i.e. frames sterilised in a steamer, dried, cleaned and made ready for next spring. Bee House picture sent by a friend to us, the location is Switzerland, Reichenbach, and a fantastic bee house with Des Rez accomodation; the different coloured hive entrances help the returning bees find the right address! Warm days in early November are keeping the bees active, with observation that the workers are still bringing in pollen - their protein source - for the winter months; noted also that honey stores are being depleted more rapidly than normal for the time of year, so will have to monitor the weight of the hives during the winter to make sure the bees do not die from starvation.
December: Finally a cold snap has arrived, which will encourage the bees to cluster for the oncoming winter; lets hope it stays this way for the changeable temperatures only encourage brood laying and the greater consumption of honey stores. Hefting the hives in the second week of this month showed all to be of sufficient weight to see them through, but I also pencilled in the diary that some hives will require fondant (fructose/glucose patty) to help them through in the spring.
In the garden evidence is present of bulbs coming through the grass; maybe Spring is nearer than we think, certainly the garden Robin seems to think so: with the singing of song proclaiming our garden as his territory!
New Year looms......lets hope it is a peaceful and productive......Happy New Year!
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