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Wild Garlic Pesto & Pasta

Spring is definitely in the air (well, when the clouds get out of the way). This means the bees larder of nectar-hunting opportunities has become much more succulent. It’s the equivalent of shopping for-frozen-fishfingers-at-Farmfoods in February to middle-class-manchego-buying-at-Waitrose in May.

So the bees are smugly stuffing their faces now – but they aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the sweet smell of spring! Yes, it’s time to go ‘native’, pretend we’re Bear Gryls and get out FORAGING again. This is not only a chance to scoff free food but an opportunity to shred the office uniform, be at one with nature and look cool in front of your wife with your obvious manliness.

Yes, foraging might be about walking through woods and hunting out flowers but this is no Timotei advert. It’s blooming DANGEROUS!  There’s no sell-by-date on these plants. A tasty looking blossom could easily turn you into a vomiting-Exorcist-impressionist. But hey ho, it’s fun!!!

One of my favourite forage foods is wild garlic which is in blossom with white flowers right now.

Wild Garlic And Bluebells
Wild Garlic And Bluebells

The flower is edible too – making great salad decoration and the opportunity to impress friends and readers of this blog with my daring (though I doubt you would see this as one of the items you have to eat on a bushtucker trial in “I’m a celebrity … get me out of here”)!

Wild Garlic In Mouth
Wild Garlic In Mouth

Wild Garlic Pesto Recipe

  • 1 large bunch of wild garlic, washed
  • 60gms pine nuts, toasted (cashew nuts are cheaper)
  • 60gms parmesan cheese (other Italian hard cheeses are cheaper)
  • 150mls olive oil
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • Pepper

Method: Place all the ingredients into a food processor, except the olive oil, and mix for a couple of minutes then pour in the olive oil and mix again.

Eat with pasta and add single cream! Delicious.

Honeybees On Apple Blossom

And here’s one of my honeybees on another Spring flower.

Honeybee on apple blossom
Honeybee on apple blossom

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The Malborough Man

Beekeeping is a personal journey. For me it has been about finding purpose and nature and hence, regaining my sanity but a sub-theme has emerged. Beekeeping has made me ever more aware of my shortcomings: poor DIY skills, fear of bees and general worrying that the bees are OK (food, varroa, disease, mated queen, swarming, etc.). I’m not the self-sufficient adult I had hoped to be.  I have called this theme manliness.  I know, I know.  DIY and being brave is definitely not male-only territory but as a man I feel the pressure is on.

My last test was building a flat pack hive. It wasn’t perfect but hopefully the weather and weight of the hive is fixing the poor build.

However, another opportunity presented itself for me to prove my manliness … buying my first ever cigarette lighter, for my smoker.

Me: “Please can I have a cigarette lighter”.  I stumbled over my words, I squeaked like a teenager. It was obvious I was a virgin cigarette lighter buyer.

+ 2 man points.  It should have been a +10.

Man behind counter: “We don’t sell them” in the kind of way that made me feel like I had to clarify I was a beekeeper and it was for my smoker!

– 10 man points

I went to the shop next door and was successful in my purchase. I got the smoker to light first time.

+ 10 man points

I was very proud of myself and felt the testosterone radiating from me. When I got home my wife (not to be messed with at four months pregnant & yes, I have told the bees and now you) informed me it was my turn to do the dishes. I reassured myself that in 2014 it is still considered manly to wear Marigolds.

Smoking Hive
Smoking Hive

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The Beekeeper’s Bible & Bee Update

Very excited. I’ve treated myself to The Beekeeper’s Bible or to be more precise “Collins Beekeeper’s Bible” (UK Link, USA Link).  A friend first told me about it as it contained instructions on how to split hives without finding the Queen – i.e. essential reading for a novice beekeeper.  It also contains the history of beekeeping, bees in literature, the uses of honey, beeswax and pollen and of course modern beekeeping practices. It’s a hardback and feels earthy. In a word the book is “charming”.

I was prompted to buy it as it is currently at a 35% discount to £19.50 in UK (45% discount to less than $20 in USA) for the hardback.  416 pages of beekeeping.  Should keep me in reading material for the next two months.

Beekeepers Bible
Beekeepers Bible

Bee Update (3rd May 2014)

  • Hive Two (the colony that successfully over wintered): Brood on 9 of 11 frames, no queen swarm cells, I cut out drone cells to reduce varroa mite count
  • Hive Three & Poly Nuc: Hopefully these new colonies have mated Queen, will do an inspection next weekend (very exciting)
Inspecting Bees
Inspecting Bees
Drone Brood
Drone Brood

 

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Honey Jar Labels – Join The Talking With Bees Network

Are you getting excited about the prospect of harvesting honey? Other beekeepers are and a few have asked me about my honey jar labels.  Like-minded, local beekeeper types.  It got me thinking…

A national (and indeed international) network of beekeepers using the Talking With Bees label!

It’s a label that says the honey is locally and independently produced as well as standing out from the crowd.  It also directs people to this website which will profile each of the individual beekeepers who sign-up to the network.

I have already proven the labels are attractive to the most exclusive health food shops and delis in my area but with no plans to expand my hive ’empire’ beyond my backyard I thought it would be nice to extend the branding to other beekeepers who want their community to appreciate their local, tasty honey.

I am very excited by the idea, not least by the fact it’s a great way for us beekeepers to network and get to know each other.

So if you fancy getting involved here’s the plan below.

Wotton-under-Edge Honey
Wotton-under-Edge Honey

The Basics

  • Buy Talking With Bees honey labels customised for your location.  I will ensure you have that location exclusively
  • Get a page on this website which will rank high on Google and other search engines

More detail can be found here: Honey Labels

Forget Gorgeous George – It’s All About The Queen

Prince George might be causing a stir down under but back here on the allotment it’s all about the Queen.

If all has gone to plan a new Queen will have hatched out in my hive and polystyrene nuc over the weekend.  Now I need temperatures to get above 16C in the next 3 weeks so they can take their mating flights.

Here is a video from today of the original hive plus two new ones.  They’re looking surprisingly busy:

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Bees For Free

On Sunday, my apiary expanded from one to three colonies. Here they are:

Two Hives Plus Nuc
Two Hives Plus Nuc

Sunday morning I received a call from Pete. He had about 10 queen swarm cells in his hive.  He wanted to keep the Queen, but lose the swarm cells.  I took an empty brood box down and we put the 5 frames with the swarm cells into the box with 6 new brood frames.  We shook two more frames of bees into the box.  The bees were mainly house bees rather than flying bees, so when I moved the brood box back to my “apiary” (of one hive), they didn’t fly the 200m to their old home. Back in the apiary I did a further split to create a nuc (= nucleus, a small hive that only fits 5-6 frames) and manipulated my original hive to provide stores for my two new colonies.

Here’s a Queen cell:

Grafted Queen Cell (courtesy Roland Prakel)
Grafted Queen Cell (courtesy Roland Prakel)

I’m hoping these new colonies will be a full strength for the July nectar flow.  Timescales: Queen will hatch in less than 6 days (19th April) and then has up to three weeks to mate and start laying (i.e. by 10th May at the latest). New brood will start hatching out by 31st May.

Here’s my new polystyrene nuc:

Maisemore Poly Nuc
Maisemore Poly Nuc

If they survive the season I think I owe Pete at least a jar of honey.

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First Inspection Of 2014

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 Hive
Smoking The Hive
Inspecting Frame - Capped Brood In Centre
Inspecting Frame – Capped Brood In Centre
Dead Winter Bees
Dead Winter Bees On Hive Floor

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5 Things That Improved My Sanity This Week

It’s been a good week and this is why – in order of what cheered me up the most:

  1. I discovered the bees were alive (phew)
  2. The sun has started to make an appearance
  3. I got into the allotment, did some digging and planted some seeds
  4. I bought an assembled brood box and stand (and saved myself a day)
  5. I bought some new work shoes …
    1. for £21 – half the price I though I’d have to pay
    2. from my local corner shop – so I didn’t need to go into town
    3. and they’re synthetic – meaning I don’t need to polish them
    4. 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
Spot The Difference!

So that £21 bargain brought me a lot of pleasure. Is this my equivalent to shopping therapy?

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Hive Three & A Confession

Life is pretty busy at the moment – that’s what I told myself as I succumbed to the temptation  of buying an ASSEMBLED, yes, yes, yes, ASSEMBLED hive.

I’m ecstatic at the relief of allowing myself to buy an ASSEMBLED hive.

I saved a day and the stresses of hammering, gluing and generally bodging flat packs.

I blamed the fact that buying an assembled hive was only an extra £25 (brood box and stand assembly charge).

My Guilty Pleasure - Assembled Hive In Box
My Guilty Pleasure – Assembled Hive In Box

Now, I just need a swarm or I’ll split my current hive into three hives.

I’ve written quite a lot about building hives:

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.

The Bees Are Alive

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
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).

Enjoying Coffee In The Spring Sun
Coffee In The Sun

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  • 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
  • Hive Two Record Card – I keep my hive records online

Honey Goes To London

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:

My ultimate aim now is getting Nigella to lick my honey off her spoon.

Beekeeping Podcast

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).

Link To Podcast

Gary & MaGary & Margaretrgaret
Gary & Margaret

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UK Beekeepers Needed

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.

Contact for Further Information

Anna: ai0098@my.bristol.ac.uk/a.ignatieva91@gmail.com/ 07715238567

Useful Links

Acid-Resistant Bugs

Bugs In Numbers …

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.

Further Reading

2,000 Varroa In Hive Two

Unbelievable.

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.

Photo of the varroa board in August 2013:

Hive Two Varroa Board 24 August 2013
Hive Two Varroa Board 24 August 2013

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Batkid – Real-Life Superhero

Every now and then I cut out a newspaper clip for Heidi, that I think she’ll like. This story brought on a few tears, but hopefully it will add a feel good factor to this Sunday.

As reported by the BBC on 15th November 2013:

San Francisco rallies for ‘Batkid’ Miles Scott, leukaemia survivor

Thousands of people in San Francisco have turned out to help a boy recovering from leukaemia fulfil his wish to be Batman for a day.

Miles Scott, five, participated in events across the city including fighting mock crimes and receiving an honour from the mayor. Make-A-Wish Foundation, which organised the event, received pledges from more than 10,000 people to lend a hand. Miles, in treatment for several years, is now said to be in remission.

Batkid
Batkid

According to local television, the youngster thought he was just on his way to get a Batman costume so he could dress like his favourite superhero.

Miles nabs villains

But then he heard a broadcast from San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr appealing for help from “Batkid”.

Next, the pint-sized superhero saved a “damsel in distress”, tied to cable car tracks along a major urban street.

A San Francisco Chronicle live blog of the day’s events showed hundreds of people cheering Miles on during the “rescue”.

Miles was ferried from events in one of two “Batmobiles”, or black Lamborghinis with Batman removable stickers, which were escorted by police.

Later, he foiled a faux robbery in the city’s financial district with the help of an adult Batman impersonator.

Authorities who participated in the day’s events pretended to apprehend the villain, the Riddler.

Miles also travelled to AT&T Park to rescue the San Francisco Giants baseball team mascot by disarming a fake bomb planted by another classic Batman baddie, the Penguin.

‘Military operation’

The US justice department even prepared an indictment for the Riddler and the Penguin.

Towards the end of the day San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee gave Miles a key to the city.

US President Barack Obama praised the mini-caped crusader in a video from the White House, saying: “Way to go, Miles! Way to save Gotham.”

An estimated 7,000 people turned up to help make Miles’ wish come true.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation said the event was “on the scale of a military operation”.

In real life, Miles has defeated an enemy even more ruthless than Batman’s nemeses – he is presently recovering from leukaemia, with which he was diagnosed at 18 months old.

Real Life Batkid
Real Life Batkid

His mother, Natalie, said Friday was a “celebration” of her son’s completion of treatment in June.

“This wish has meant closure for our family and an end to over three years of putting toxic drugs in our son’s body,” she wrote in a statement on the foundation’s website.

His father, Nick Scott, thanked the charity and everyone else who took part.

“All the doctors, nurses and all the other parents that have to deal with the same thing we’re going through, I hope they get a conclusion to their illnesses like we’re getting,” he told KGO-TV.

Watch

If you are loving this story, here it is as reported by ABC World News:

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Blog Update

I have dared to add some novice How-To guides on that complex business of Swarm Management:

Guest Beekeeper With No Pants

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
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.

Local Honey For Sale

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:

Hive Records

To keep up-to-date with how I am managing my hives you may want to view my notes:

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.

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Grieving For Bees

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…

Grieving For Bees
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!).

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I find the Queen alive and create a “nuc”

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?

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