I think it’s all OK but would value your beekeeping opinion on my concerns. In summary:
I found the marked Queen (she’s 3 years old now)
Brood: There were eggs, larvae and capped brood in both the lower and upper brood boxes – approx 4 frames
Stores: Most of the stores is now 80% uncapped – approx. 6 frames; plenty of pollen stores
Bees: Several hundred, maybe 1-2,000, not sure. Did not feel there were loads of bees but I did the inspection at 2pm so a lot would be out and about
Several hundred dead winter bees on the floor (photo below)
Concerns:
Do they have too much space with a double 14×12 brood box situation? Bees were thinly spread about. Will they be able to keep the brood warm? I assume they will do the right thing and that it will be OK.
Some of the stores was quite black. Is this due to the comb going black or have the stores gone mouldy? I assume it’s the comb that’s become dark.
How best to expand from 1 to 2 hives and when? I presume an artificial swarm but what’s the earliest I can do this? Wait till the bees cover 7 frames?
Smoking The HiveInspecting Frame – Capped Brood In CentreDead Winter Bees On Hive Floor
It’s been a good week and this is why – in order of what cheered me up the most:
I discovered the bees were alive (phew)
The sun has started to make an appearance
I got into the allotment, did some digging and planted some seeds
I bought an assembled brood box and stand (and saved myself a day)
I bought some new work shoes …
for £21 – half the price I though I’d have to pay
from my local corner shop – so I didn’t need to go into town
and they’re synthetic – meaning I don’t need to polish them
and I no longer need to try and hide my old work shoes behind chairs and under the desk as they were not polished for the five years I have been wearing them
Spot The Difference!
So that £21 bargain brought me a lot of pleasure. Is this my equivalent to shopping therapy?
Read More
W H Thomas & Son – Shop where I bought my shoes. Old school, local clothing store. Also sell online. Apparently they sell a lot of y-front underpants to Japan!
PS. I did a Varroa count today (counted 5 mites over 14 days) and the count has dropped to less than 140. The previous count was 980 and I haven’t done anything in the meantime. Strange. More info at Hive Two Record Card.
It is definitely a huge relief and good for my sanity to see my bees flying as we enter Spring. Now, they just need to survive until April when there will be more forage available. Here they were at the weekend, busy bringing in pollen:
Spring Bees
And it’s lovely to just sit and watch them:
So far so good. I removed the mouseguard. The hive is still heavy with stores. When the temperatures reach 15C I’ll treat the varroa with Apiguard and open the hive to find out if the old Queen is alive or if they have superceded her. I just need to think about my strategy to expand to three hives this Summer (an artificial swarm and a real swarm would be ideal).
I even managed to find 30 minutes to sit on a bench in the sun with a coffee. My wife tried to get me involved in tidying up the house but I said “pah” to Spring Cleaning and bring on the Spring Dreaming. It definitely did more for my sanity (if not my marital relations).
Coffee In The Sun
Read More
Beekeepers Anonymous – If you are dealing with the grief of losing a bee colony over the Winter, this Beekeepers Support Group page might help
How-To Guides – Includes feeding bees, varroa management, beekeeping calendar
Last week, Bristol piemaker, Pieminster, took my honey down to London for some foodies to sample along with other Bristol food products. They wrote about it here: Bountiful Bristol & Beyond.
And if that wasn’t enough to get me excited, the event even started some tweets and retweets:
A couple of beekeeping, Kiwi hippys interviewed me for their regular podcast . We chatted about how I got into beekeeping, my best moments and why I’m still afraid of bees. It takes a few minutes to warm up but please do have a listen, or check out their other podcasts. They’ve interviewed other beekeepers like Emma and Emily from London and Philip Chandler (the Barefoot Beekeeper).
Anna is a student at the University of Bristol and is conducting research to understand the impact of beekeeping practise on honeybee decline. There is more information below and Anna’s contact details if you want to be included. I understand she needs 5 more beekeepers for her study.
Anthropological Analysis Of Beekeeping Practise In The UK
What is the purpose of this study?
Honeybees have suffered serious declines globally. Research has concluded that there is no single explanation for the rise in mortality, and that it is most likely a combination of many direct and indirect stressors. One such area of this debate is beekeeping practise, which is what this study will be exploring. The aim is to speak to 30 beekeepers over the telephone or on Skype about their bees, their experiences since becoming a beekeeper, and their thoughts on the decline of the honeybee in general.
What does participation entail?
You will be required to commit to one short telephone or Skype interview lasting around 10-20 minutes. During the interview, I will ask you about yourself, about how you came to become a beekeeper, what you do with your bees now and how you do it.
Why have I been invited to participate?
This invitation is open to all beekeepers, new and old, commercial and sideliner, and is available to be passed on to recommended friends should they also wish to speak with me. As my work is essentially an exploration of views, I am interested in talking to beekeepers from all walks of life and with varying opinions on the debate. This is a chance for you to have your voice heard and be among the first to contribute towards an analytical debate surrounding yourself and your bees.
What are the possible benefits of taking part?
There is no direct benefit to the participant as I am not in a position to advise on best practise; however, you will be lending your voice to a currently underexplored but very important area of research, therefore the indirect benefits to taking part are plenty.
There are no known disadvantages to taking part in this study.
What should I do if I want to take part?
Taking part in this research is open to anyone and is voluntary. If you do decide you would like to be involved, please call, text or email me on 0771523856/ai0098@my.bristol.ac.uk and let me know. I will get back to you as soon as possible and we can arrange a date and time for the interview. I hope to finish the interview process by the end of February.
What will happen to the results of the research study?
The results of this research study are for my dissertation topic. The final piece of work could be published but will most likely be used in concurrence with my postgraduate research project. If so, all participants will be informed of this. You are welcome to request a copy of the finished piece once it has been completed. I have provided both my university and my home email address so that you can keep in contact with me should you wish to order a copy after I leave University.
Who is organising and funding the research?
I am conducting this research as an Archaeology & Anthropology undergraduate student for my dissertation at the University of Bristol. There is no funding for this research. This research has been approved by the University of Bristol Research Ethics Committee.
On my last Varroa count on 21 December 2013, there was an estimated 1,700 Varroa in Hive Two. I was hoping that the Oxalic Acid treatment that I applied on the same day was going to reduce the varroa to about 340 (i.e. a 90% reduction).
On Sunday I did a Varroa count. Over 11 days, 27 mite had dropped onto the Varroa board. This means there has been an Average Daily Mite Fall of 2.5 Varroa mites and an estimated number of adult Varroa mites in the colony of 980.
This means I only reduced the count by about 40% … which, in turn means … I have failed!
Bugs On The Brain …
Perhaps it’s because of the warm winter we are having leading to more capped brood and the oxalic acid being less effective? Perhaps I could have used more acid? Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps …
I may have lost my battle with Varroa but the good news is, I have not yet lost my sanity. In fact, I’m proud to tell you that despite the bad news, I am surprisingly quite calm about it. Two years ago I would have been pulling my grey hair out but I think experience has chilled me out.
A former boss once said to me “just do what you can”. This is based on the premise that we have busy lives and not to worry about all the things we just don’t have time to do. So I’m going to add Apiguard in April and cull the drone brood. Until then, I’ll just sit back and count my Varroa.
Disclaimer: “just doing what you can” is often not enough … it just might make you feel better on the journey.
I have just undertaken a varroa count on Hive Two. 40 mites dropped over 8 days. The Varroa Mite calculator, calculates the following:
Average Daily Mite Fall = 5.0 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 2,000
Treatment is recommended as soon as practically possible
What makes this unbelievable is that the varroa count on 24th August 2013 came out as a low 290 mites in the colony and even after that I applied Apiguard for two weeks.
It looks like I will have to apply Oxalic Acid next weekend – let’s hope it’s mild.
For the sake of any American readers, what I mean by pants is underpants – but this should become apparent as the story unfolds.
On a Sunday morning in July, this Summer, I went for a run, had a shower and then put on my thickest pair of pants as I was to inspect the bees later in the day. Despite it being another hot day there was still something comforting about my thick pants.
I considered sending my mate Anthony (who was to join me later for a bee inspection) a jokey text about wearing armour plated pants, but I thought this was just going overboard as I had texted him earlier telling him to bring some cotton wool for his ears and nostrils. Okay, these thoughts amuse me during my moments alone.
I showed Anthony and his son some empty supers and explained how a hive worked and then stepped into my full bee suit and wellies, secure in the knowledge that I had three layers of protection in the most sensitive of places should the bees attack me. I gave my mate the ‘guest half suit’ and it did cross my mind that his trendy jeans looked a bit on the thin side.
Here we are, all excited:
Thriller Bees
I assured Anthony my bees were friendly seconds before he became my first guest beekeeper to get stung. He made a lot of noise about it – these actor types like the attention. I kept calling him to come back and to be fair he did come back for 30 seconds to get a look at the bee eggs and larvae. We then headed home for some antihistamine ointment.
I popped up stairs to change out of my suit and jeans and get the ointment. Anthony was keen to show me his bee sting and came up too. It then also became evident he didn’t have any pants on (“he’d forgot to take them to his brother’s where he was staying the night”).
Let’s assume he wears pants 364 days per year out of 365 days and that he just got very unlucky to find himself dropping his trousers, showing me his sting and applying cream. Or perhaps the exhibitionist in him got lucky?
So the moral of this story is, if you are going to inspect some bees with a friend, best to wear pants. Not just for that triple layer of protection, but so that in the event you do get stung on the upper thigh and want someone to look at it, it’s a bit less embarrassing for all concerned.
You can read more about this inspection in my hive notes from 21 July 2013.
Bee Update
All looks good. None flying as it’s too cold. They buzz when I tap the hive. No dead bees on the floor (amazing).
If you have been missing my posts, you might want to have a read of My Favourites.
I have a beekeeping friend in Bristol and I have written before about his towering hives, triple brood boxes and two Queen colonies under a post called Hive Envy According To Freud.
He’s been beekeeping for ten years, but he’s also been renovating his house and neglecting his garden for the same amount of time. So we’ve just started a system where he takes the boxes off the hives, I pick them up, harvest the honey, jar it and sell it with my Talking With Bees label. I give him the boxes back so the bees can take the honey I have left.
I also pay him for this opportunity – but at 2am I was starting to think he should pay me!
I have written more about this honey, where to find it, Darren and his bees here: Bristol Honey.
New Pages
You are by now probably aware that there is a bit of a perfectionist in me so a lot of research went into getting the label right. I have produced a few pages about honey labelling and honey:
I Love Honey – sets out my manifesto for Talking With Bees local honey
Hive One is now deceased sadly (read: Starving Bees). Hive Two is currently Queen Right, healthy and well fed. Amazingly the Queen is marked as I explained in An Inspector Calls.
Yes, for people like my wife, grieving for bees may seem a little overdramatic and when I’m forced to watch another episode of ‘One Born Every Minute’ by the missus, I can appreciate that it is. Still logic doesn’t account for emotions, and my marital comeback is that ‘it’s my hive and I can cry if I want to.’
The death of a hive is not even a subject I can expect much matey compassion for down the pub (well not before five pints when even the chip shop being closed can seem slightly heartbreaking). Nobody seems to understand that I have been going through a grieving process but let me explain…
Hopson B & Adams J (1976) Transition – Understanding and managing personal change
Please refer to the dotted (b) line on the graph above as the (a) line is for positive events which this most certainly wasn’t.
My Grief Cycle
Day 1. 6pm.Distress – Gut wrenching moment when I realised there was no bee activity. Compounded when I opened the hive and found dead bees. Thousands and thousands of dead bees burrowing into their comb looking for food that wasn’t there and starving to death. It turns out a mass insect grave is pretty horrific to look at. (See: Starving Bees)
I went back home, barely mentioned my heartbreaking discovery and went on as usual. Perhaps opening that bottle of Sloe Gin barely five minutes after taking off my bee suit might have been a hint something was up.
Day 1. 6.30pm. Disbelief – I couldn’t believe it. I thought the bees were tougher than this. I proceeded to do a good Victor Meldrew impression – i.e. “I don’t believe it”.
Day 1. 6.45pm. Denial – I needed to feel that the colony could live on. I made up some sugar syrup and went back out to feed their dying bodies. It was like armageddon in there but I didn’t feel at all like Ben Affleck.
Day 1. 7.00pm. Guilt – I was responsible for these bees and I obviously couldn’t be trusted. This was the worst feeling to handle especially as I couldn’t share it with anyone – least of all my wife who was wanting me to look after our daughter the next morning. I still had to maintain that illusion of competent carer…
Day 1. 7.05pm. Loss of confidence – My improving self-image / esteem as a beekeeper was at an all time low. Just as I had started to think that yes, one day, I too will be mingling confidently with those bearded old pros at the associations, it was now clear that would never happen. I would have to give back my ‘Brilliant Bee Keeper’ badge which I say my wife made me (but I so obviously helped with).
Day 1. 7.10pm. Anger – I was angry with myself. I had no one else to blame but myself. This was worse than when I rolled my parents car two weeks after passing my test and was consequently car-less for the rest of my teenage years. (Though I do have to admit, the loss of a hive probably doesn’t stunt my middle-aged sex appeal quite as much as the loss of wheels did).
Day 2. Bargaining – Just as I was about to take the hive apart, I found the Queen alive. I felt I could do something. I fed them again. Maybe I could be Ben Affleck after all…
Days 1-5. Chaos – Yes I had about as much success as Tony Blair being the Middle East Peace Envoy. After I fed them they were robbed, fights broke out, wasps had a go, there was carnage. I then decided to block the hive up. I then unblocked it a few days later. I did everything I could think of.
Days 3-5. Resignation – I began to accept the probability of this colony not surviving.
Day 6. Depression – There was nothing else to be done, this colony was not going to survive.
Day 9. Acceptance – I took the hive apart. I was now a beekeeper with just one hive. It is unlikely I will be making 50 jars of honey next year. My local monopoly on all things honey-related will have to wait.
Day 10+ Partical recovery so far, rather than a new confidence. I am now able to write about it at least.
I am starting to think about lessons learnt. Ironically, one may be that despite my aim to be as natural a beekeeper as possible, in this case more human intervention was needed. Those bees needed to be fed earlier.
Beekeepers Anonymous
I feel like there is a need for a beekeepers support group which can help us deal with our grief and help us on the beekeeping journey. I have created a page called Beekeepers Anonymous for this purpose. I’m happy to be the first to stand and say ‘Hello, I am Roger and I miss my bees’. Let me know how you guys have handled any loss of your own (and make me feel a bit more sure that I’m not alone!).
Day Three of finding starving and dead bees and I am still gutted.
In my angst, I poured too much sugar syrup over the starving bees in Hive One and the result yesterday was a frenzy of other honey bees (perhaps mine) robbing this hive. It made me feel even worse.
I set out yesterday evening with the plan to dismantle the hive and throw any live bees in the grass so that they might enter Hive Two, but as I was doing a final check, I saw the marked Queen … and she was alive. There is less than a cupful of bees to look after her, so 99% this colony is doomed, but in a last ditch attempt to save her and the remaining bees I decided to try and create a “nuc”.
I started trying to pull out all the dead bees out of the comb with tweezers but it was taking too long. So I shuffled the frames to give the bees there best chance. I also moved the one dummy board to help keep them warm.
I fed them this evening and blocked up the entrance for the next 24 hours to prevent any further robbing.
The weather forecast for next week looks good but I will be surprised if this colony lasts long.
Has anyone else nursed such a small nuc of bees with no eggs or larvae, so late in the year, through the Autumn and Winter? I would love to hear from you.
23/09/31 update: There were no bees in the feeder last night. Today the hive was being robbed again. The feeder was full of robber bees this evening. I have blocked them all in for three days to prevent robbing and perhaps the robber bees will make it home?
Further Reading
Starving Bees – Where I find that Hive One has been starving
I am in shock. On Saturday (just 4 days ago) I was really happy as my bees were busy and there was lots of activity. In two days time I would have removed the Apiguard and fed them. There are still lots of flowers about and the weather has been pretty good, until the start of this week.
Today, I popped down after work to find Hive One was very quiet. I opened it up to find lots of dead bees and a few bees moving around very slowly. I pulled out a frame to find dead bees with their heads in the comb. I lifted off the brood box to find a pile of dead and dying bees. They had starved to death. There was nothing I could do as all the brood had died and the Queen was probably dead. Note: I did not harvest honey from this hive (I harvested from Hive Two).
This had been a healthy hive with a 2013 Queen. In my dreams it was going to produce 50lb of honey next year.
In my shock and state of denial (the first stage of bereavement) I have fed this hive. By tomorrow I will have accepted the inevitable, I’ll pour their syrup into the Hive Two feeder and clean up.
The videos and photos below say it all. So sad to see the remaining bees moving around slowly trying to do their chores.
I’ve now fed Hive Two (which seemed OK). Check your bees.
I had heard of these places whilst on beekeeping training courses and in whispered conversations. They had evoked more fear than curiosity … until now. Yes – I am talking about beekeeping equipment suppliers!
I imagined it to be like an old-school DIY store, the sort of place where beemen and beewomen would hang out to shoot the breeze. They would look me over and make me feel very small. It would be difficult to have a private, one-to-one conversation with the owner. “Yes I am a beekeeper. I’d like some bees and hives please,” I would ask quietly. “What type of bees and what type of hives?”, would start a conversation where I would gradually have to reveal the depths of my ignorance. I’d leave the store and they’d be thinking “I give him a year”.
But being a beekeeper and blogger I thought I should be brave and it was time I visited an equipment supplier rather than just buy online.
So, was the visit to be like my recent experience at a local DIY store to buy some curtain hooks? (After several visits I ended up buying all the packets of curtain hooks, none of which fitted).
Maisemore – My Local Supplier
Maisemore are just 45 minutes drive from where I live. I first read about them on their website and was really pleased to find that they operated 1,000 hives across a number of locations. They were still practicing beekeepers and would understand my issues. They are also a family run business in its 3rd generation.
Maisemore Apiaries Warehouse
I arrived to find a big warehouse, a shop, lots of planks of cedar wood and some beehives in operation. Not clean, shiny beehives like my own, but proper working hives that had been built decades ago and stood the test of time.
Maisemore Shop
Johnathan, who owns Maisemore with other family members, was behind the counter. Whilst I was there a few people came in asking about Queens and buying equipment, but nothing like the scary dudes of my imagination. Johnathan knew his stuff and we got chatting. We got on so well in fact, Jonathan kindly agreed to give me some equipment in exchange for some mentions on this blog – hence my new Beekeeping Equipment page!.
Why I Liked Maisemore
They know their stuff – They operate 1,000 hives and understand beekeeping. Their products are not over-engineered and they rely more on word-of-mouth than big budget advertising.
Great value – Their “Rock Bottom Bee Hives” are made of cedar and I couldn’t find any cheaper on my searches. I have listed and provided links to other suppliers here: Beekeeping Equipment Suppliers
Wide product range – They have all the equipment a new beekeeper needs. If you visit the shop, 95% of the equipment you would need is in the shop and I am sure Jonathan would be able to lay his hands on anything else you wanted, either out-the-back or in the warehouse
I got some free stuff!
If you do buy from their store, please give me a mention (they deliver nationally and internationally). Next year, I’d love to negotiate a good deal on this yellow suit for my “Guest Beekeepers” 😉
Beekeeping Equipment In Maisemore Shop
Read More
My wife has banned any further spending on beekeeping equipment and I have now started a very small relationship with Maisemore which I talk more about here: Beekeeping Equipment
As I have described in two previous posts, my apiary was 1 of 200 randomly selected in the UK to be part of an EU study to better understand colony collapse.
Previous inspections by the National Bee Unit have revealed deformed wing virus and confirmed that my bees died due to combining my hive of laying workers with my healthy colony – these workers then killed my queen and no new bees were produced.
This was the third and final visit and my two hives received a clean bill of health. No deformed, shiny or black bees. Healthy, laying queens. Healthy amount of brood. All looks set to start preparing for the Winter.
Bee Inspector – Inspecting Frame – August 2013
My book keeps saying things like the “pons asinorum of beekeeping”* is to find and mark the Queen, “see that you cross it and you will be a beekeeper”. I have been wholly unsuccessful in this – until now, whereby I can claim partial success, but I cannot yet say that I have fully crossed this bridge.
The inspector spotted both my Queens and I took the opportunity to mark them (blue) – bonus. They looked pretty big.
Marked Queen
I have updated my hive records and all is looking good as we prepare for Winter:
As most of you will know, last year there was a lot of beekeeping effort on my part – involving approx. 2 swarms, Queen Less colonies, high varroa and several panic attacks. And there was not a lot in return – 4 jars of honey, 2 of which were unripe and the other 2 scraped out of the comb. Read: The joys and guilt of harvesting my first honey for how my first harvest panned out.
This year however, I have actually PRODUCED! Or rather my bees have.
Yes – one of my hives has produced a surplus of honey – about 13lb which has filled 25 jars. It might not be enough to sell to shops, but it does mean that I have enough to give to friends (very discerning ones) for Christmas. Not bad for three frames of bees with a Queen that I put in their new home on the 9th June!
Frame Of Capped Honey
I consider the success a joint effort. Yes the bees have worked hard (to produce this quantity the bees have flown about 700,000 miles – that’s the equivalent of almost two trips from the Earth to the Moon and back and visited about 26,000,000 flowers) and I, of course, have done the vital task of peering at them occasionally (a.k.a. “inspecting”).
If you find these numbers mind blowing, check out my new page on Honey Facts.
The process of extraction was fun, if time consuming and sticky. Here’s my STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO EXTRACTION…
1 – FIND A LOCATION – And by this, I mean find somewhere other than your own home to do the extraction. In my case, it was my parent’s house. This was agreed with simply bribery and promises of a year long supply of honey.
2 – GET HELP – In my case, my Mum and Dad. Basically they couldn’t resist getting involved.
3 – DO NOT GIVE TOO MANY INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUR HELPER (and definitely do not “ssshhhh” her when she is trying to give advice) – Or your mum might decide she can, in fact, ‘resist’ the urge to help you.
4 – MARVEL AT THE CAPPED HONEY FRAMES – It’s true! The evidence! These bees really do make honey.
Fat Supers Full Of Honey
5 – CUT THE CAPS – Uncapping the honey is like undressing a gorgeous woman. Only a little bit less intimidating and even more fiddly.
Cutting Caps Off Frame Of Honey
It’s fascinating to cut off the wax cappings and watch the honey ooze out and reflect on the process that has resulted in this golden liquid, before putting it in the extractor (which I borrowed from a fellow beekeeper) and spinning it.
Frame Of Uncapped HoneyHoney Frames In Extractor
It’s surprising to see that the comb is empty after just 1 minute of spinning. You think that you haven’t got much in the bottom of the tank but before you know it you need to empty it into a plastic tub. And 14 frames later you might have filled that 30lb tub.
Empty Honey Frame After Extraction
6 – STOP FOR TEA – It’s a long process. I optimistically started at 7.30pm thinking I’d be back in time for a bit of News at 10, but came staggering back home at 2am.
It’s a sad day when your late nights no longer involve snakebite, clubbing and kebabs, but tea, biscuits and your parents … Mind you, both have the same sticky floor effect.
Filtering Honey Using 1.5mm Filter
7 – TAKE PRIDE IN YOUR JARS – Yes! Finally a use for my labels! I am inordinately proud of my jars. Have a read of my labelling advice page to find out what you legally need to put on there, and how to go about producing them.
Wotton-under-Edge Honey
8 – TIDY UP – Or promise to. I had to come back the next day. My Dad and I (I know, it’s shameful) both had a go at mopping up the honey but the floor remained sticky three washes in.
I’ve subsequently spent some time researching the best ways to clean up honey and it seems it’s … hot water and hard scrubbing. Exactly what you do not want to hear.
9 – REMEMBER TO KEEP THE WAX CAPPINGS – I put the wet frames and cappings back on the hive and amazingly they were dry within a few days.
Wet Wax Cappings For The Bees
This video shows how dry they were:
Bee Update
In brief – the Queens are now marked (unbelievable I know), the varroa counts are low, the colonies are healthy and currently have Apiguard on top.
All the notes on the number of frames of bees, amount of brood and stores, feeding and treatments are detailed in my hive records. These include photos and videos.
When I blogged “Bees RIP” I got three times as many hits as usual for a posting within a few hours. I now understand why “there’s no news like bad news”. However, I thought a sensationalist headline like “Talking With Bees Gets Published” might drum up some interest too.
But firstly, I’ll update you on the bees – yes, I actually have bees again. Hive One: a Queen should have hatched out last Saturday and hopefully mated this week. Hive Two: contains Pete’s old Queen but on my last inspection, due to aggressive behaviour (by the bees) and a beekeeping suit that I have discovered allows bee stings through (!!! do they all do this??) I don’t have any further update.
Below is a photo of the two Queen bee larvae I culled from Hive One. I left two emergency Queen cells.
Queen Bee Larvae
Rather than blogging the details of my inspections, I have started publishing the hive records under My Apiary.
So yes, crikey, someone liked my ramblings enough to put them in print.
Now, I have spent a lot of time researching and writing about my thoughts on bees and perhaps the odd thought about people liking my thoughts and somehow getting a paragraph published in a beekeeping magazine one day. But despite all the effort, the phone is not abuzz from bee publishers. Ironically it seems the one post I devoted to updating you guys on becoming a father (a process that involves no research whatsoever) is the one that grabbed the attention.
My wife Heidi was completing a National Childbirth Trust (NCT) feedback form where they asked if anyone wanted to write about their experiences as a new Mum or Dad. She sent them a link to my post On Being A Dad and they liked it enough to include it in the Spring issue of their magazine.
Now it might not be the acclaim for all the hard work and devotion I have paid to this beekeeping pursuit that I was hoping for, but I reckon it still counts for me claiming to be a published author!
I can but dream of the phone call from the BBKA or Bee Craft asking, “hey, we love your stuff, please, please, please can we publish some of your articles?”
Crikey. My first bee experience of the new season, and my manliness is already under self-scrutiny.
What is it about me (my character) that Pete ended up hefting my hive around? Is it something I could do something about … like press-ups? Or is there somehow I could boost my alpha-maleness so that no one would even consider offering to help?
Or am I over-analysing this and is it simply that he is a strong-armed farmer and I am an office-working weedling? Perhaps I could help him out with some Excel spreadsheets? Probably not.
A similar thing happens when I am at Mum & Dads. If I don’t get asked to do the washing-up, I can definitely feel/anticipate the expectation … but somehow, before I even have the Marigolds on, Dad has started?
I’ve written a few times about the manliness issues that beekeeping has prompted. It’s not attractive! Have a read!!
It was like a scene from E.T. as Pete and I headed up the quiet estate on the back of an old Land Rover in our white (bee) suits with a radioactive device (beehive). Children were called inside and curtains were drawn.
Even before we started we were resigned to the fact that finding a Queen was as likely as finding alien life. So we split Pete’s hive and placed six frames of eggs, brood and bees into my hive body.
When we got to my “apiary” of two empty hives we decided to split the frames further so I would have three frames in each brood box. I then added frames with foundation to each hive and fed them with 1:1 sugar solution.
My New Apiary
Unknowns
I may, or may not, have the Queen
My new colonies may, or may, not raise emergency Queens
I may, or may not, have two functioning hives
Unknown unknowns
Probably
Challenges
Pete uses a standard national brood body whilst I use 14×12’s. I am expecting a lot of wild comb below the frames I inserted which is likely to make inspections more difficult. The plan is to shuffle these three frames to the side and remove them over the coming months. Any advice on the speed and timing of this much appreciated?
Final Thanks To Pete
Thanks for the bees, having a plan, spotting eggs and for lifting the hive body (it was really heavy; I have felt the need to write about this under Manliness Already Under Scrutiny). And thanks for the lettuces.
If in three weeks time, I have no Queen or eggs and the lettuces are dead … you might realise I am in need of more fundamental support?
If you want to get started and don’t want to buy a nucleus/package of bees, then you might want to read my how-to’s on Catching A Swarm and Hiving A Swarm. Please note my disclaimer on the How-To main page which clarifies “I am not Britain’s leading beekeeper or teacher …”.
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