Honey, varroa and bees

Wot no honey?

Last year was a poor year for honey and for a while now I have been trying to eke out the honey I have until the girls produce some more.
And failed.
I am doing a dog show in Blunham next week and that's it for the time being
In the past I have been able to get local honey from people I know who produce it in commercial volumes but they don't have any either.
Normally the first honey extraction is during the middle of May so I have cancelled some markets until this arrives
However on Sunday I received an email from my bee keeping association saying:-

After a promising start to the season the weather has been unkind to bees yet again. Some of my sites are winter and spring bean and both crops are suffering. The winter bean is not yielding due to lack of moisture and the the spring bean is not growing for the same reason. The forecast for next weekend offers some hope but forecasts are not always correct. Here's hoping they are right this time.

Anyway, due to the lack of a good honey flow some colonies may be struggling, especially strong ones. We have not had many good flying days days so food supplies may be running low. Do check your colonies have enough stores. Colonies in some parts of the county have brought in honey and others haven't. It is a patchy picture.

The Empire expands

I don't normally blog about market stuff but last week I was contacted by Country Fayre, a flower shop in St Neots.

Sandra wanted something different for her shop. Apparently she had come to my stall when I did the market in St Neots and thought it might be an idea to have some local honey on display in the shop , so I am supplying her with honey, marmalade, fudge and honeycomb.
Her website is here

All honey granulates and turns from runny honey to set honey which is quite hard. The process can be reversed by gently warming the set honey although some people like it and prefer its grainy texture.
Recently I was asked by someone I know who also does the Potton market to make creamed honey.
This is half way between runny and set honey and has a buttery texture without the graininess of the set honey.
You need some creamed honey as a seed and you mix it with runny honey making sure you don't get any air in the mixture.
I use a simple paddle attached to an electric drill.

The mixture is left for 5 days.

I took it for Charlie to taste and she's happy with it so expect to see if on my stall at some point in the future. 

Assuming I have any honey to make it that is

Charlie's website is here

Varroa Count

The public demand for the full results of the recent varroa count has been overwhelming, so I am pleased to announce that I have completed checking the varroa boards and that they all have a minimal mite count - all less than 2 a day over the 3 day period I checked them.
One colony had a count of 10 per day, itself nothing to worry about too much but I will check again to see what's happening. If the count increases I may need to apply a varroa treatment.

Since the first trial of my new varroa counting device, I've made changes to it and had Leonardo da Vinci not died 500 years ago and was around to see it, would probably be impressed.

Or possibly not

Bonkers Colony.

During one of the few warm periods I checked Ravensden and they were all busy, however the WBC hive was going bonkers.

It has always been a vigorous colony, feeding well on the autumn feed and was the first colony this year to have a super added to try and reduce itsr swarming tendencies.
I could have just added another super but it seemed likely I had a very good queen and she could use the extra space to lay eggs. This would in turn increases the size of the colony who would then fill the supers more quickly.
I thought I would do a video of this but yet again my camcorder started acting up and turned itself off when it felt like it. Despite working in IT for many years I don't trust it and agree with Douglas Adams that 'technology is a word that describes something that doesn't work yet'
However I have stitched together the bits it felt like recording with some text to fill the gaps.

Propolis and the Apothecaries

Last year I met Julian and Valerie who were interested in the propolis tincture and cream I produce.
If either of you don't know what propolis is, there's a leaflet I give out here,
They reenact medieval medical practices as the Two Apothecaries and they were interested in propolis as an ancient medicine. Their Facebook page is here
I met them again at the St George's Day event where they had my propolis on display.
Valerie and I had a long conversation about honey and hay fever that persuaded me I ought to publish the hay fever blog I did recently.

The Blue Tree

At this time of year I am often asked what sort of flowers people should plant.
There are a couple of leaflets on the web site here. We have a Ceanothus shrub  in the garden and the bees love it.

Swarm Update

Yesterday I had Chloe, the daughter of some friends who live in the village helping me with the bees.

This is the fourth tour of the bees I've done this year with some more provisional bookings.

I understand the English Tourist Board now consider this to be the third most important tourist attraction in the village after the bench outside the church and the house where the second smallest pub in England [the Case is Altered] used to be.

As it was Chloe's first visit we kept to the smaller better mannered colonies and started with the swarm I brought back from at Scald End.

It had consumed two pints of syrup within three days and when I had a quick look yesterday it had nearly gone. When we looked today it had gone completely and Chloe gave them another two pints.

They have got through half a gallon of syrup in less than a week.

They have built up very rapidly and in the gap where I should have put a frame they made a nice little sheet of comb that Chloe had for a souvenir.

As we were looking at the frames the queen very obligingly decided to have a bit of a wander and we both saw almost simultaneously.

In case Chloe hadn't seen her she emerged on the other side of the frame in clear view.

She had a white dot on her back that confirms she had come from one of the hives in Scald End although I'm not sure yet which one.

She now holds the record for the shortest ever swarming flight.