Bee News

An update on how the bees have been doing recently.

Despite me saying I would manage swarms better this year, it hasn't been a great success. Although I managed to get the swarm that only went a yard at Scald End, two colonies [possibly more] at Ravensden swarmed and they both were so high in the trees there was nothing I could but watch them leave.

This may come back to bite me in the bum but I think the swarming is over and there haven't been any queen cells, a sign of potential swarming, for a while.

I still try to check on a weekly basis and the last time was during some really humid weather, which bees hate, and they didn't enjoy it. Neither did I.

There is one colony at Ravensden that is beginning to rival the famed Bedford Bastards I had and even allowing for the weather they made it clear they didn't want me around.
I normally wear my bee suite and use rubber Marigolds but they were so pissed off, I went home to put a thick shirt on under my suite, used my leather gloves and put on gauntlets to protect my arms.
Even then it wasn't a pleasant experience and after it was over I gave the suite a proper wash. When bees sting you they leave behind a sac containing the attack pheromone and these get embedded in the suite. Too many of them and you become a walking target so the suite  and gloves have to be washed from time to time.

Apart from keeping queen cells in check and putting supers on to give them space to expand into, I did split some colonies, most of which seem to be OK. This does mean my intention not to have any more colonies has gone out the window.

There was a hive I was worried about at Ravensden. It only just made it through the winter and was really struggling. However I fed it and gave it some tonic and its completely transformed. Its now managed to fill all its brood frames and I put a super on it a while ago.

I'm very, very pleased.

There is something called the National Bee Unit. This is a government run scheme to which bee keepers register and it issues advice and help on bee matters.

Last Spring they issued a warning about possible starvation due to the wet weather and a week or so so they issued another email headed 'Starvation Alert'. The email started 

Beekeepers may wish to monitor their colony food levels closely, particularly in any splits, nucleus colonies or colonies where the entire spring honey crop was removed. In some areas of the UK, our Inspectors are concerned at finding colonies that are starving.

it then went onto say

However, in other areas of the UK the blackberry, lime and clover is now out and colonies are starting to bring in an excess crop, so it is also important not to feed unnecessarily and risk adulterating honey with sugar syrup.

Unfortunately it didn't say which area was which. Even with the near total absence of Oil Seed Rape, there is a lot of clover and lime around and the blackberries are beginning to flower so I don't think I need worry.

I have been without honey for a while now but a few weeks ago I did the first extraction of the year.

Not my favourite job but a reasonable amount was produced and enough to maintain the Farmer's markets for a while. I had to cancel the Beds Young Farmer's Rally and a couple of other smaller events but the honey arrived in time for me to do the Open Farm Day at Scald End where some of my bees are kept. Despite the wind damaging my gazebo it was a great day and I strongly recommend you come next year. There's lots of farm machinery to clamber over and I was next to a monster vehicle whose tyres must have been 8ft in diameter. Lots of cute animals and I am particularly fond of little piglets.

I took along my small observation hive with a marked queen and as usual it attracted huge interest. The kids in particular were fascinated.

Leaving the best news to last, I have seen the Beast!!!!

The regular reader of this blog will know of the hive at Ravensden I call the Beast. It has the only queen I have had that has managed to maintain two brood boxes rather than just one and on each inspection both boxes are full of brood. This translates into lots of bees which translates into honey and she produced a full super for extraction with other frames and another two supers not far off being full.

The problem with a double brood box colony is that it obviously takes twice as long to check and given queens are notoriously shy and difficult to see, I have never managed to track her down and mark her.

At the last visit I thought I would just give it a quick look over and took the supers off. Second frame in and there she was, walking purposefully across the frame in open view.

I always have a queen catcher with me in case I see the queen.

It works by having the blue mesh on top of the catcher in the photo open and putting the catcher over the queen. The blue mesh is then slid back catching the queen. The internal tube is then pushed upwards but this can't go high enough to squash her, and she is stuck between the foam on top of the tube and the mesh. If you do this when her back is upwards you can keep her still to apply the paint to her thorax. She's then left for a couple of minutes for the paint to dry otherwise when she is re-introduced the retinue bees whose job it is to look after her, will lick it off.

In my excitement I managed to put the catcher on her upside down and predictably when I lifted the catcher, she shot off to hide in the gap between the frame and the comb. Flipping the frame over I saw her emerge on the other side of the frame and I managed to catch her again. Paint was duly applied.

I don't know if its my imagination but she seemed huge to me, and dwarfed the little worker bee that was also trapped.

It is a huge benefit to have a queen marked. It can make inspections easier, swarm control much more controllable and because she is easier to find, raising other queens from her is easier. Whether or not I will do this this year to something I will have to think about.

Some wasps have started to make an appearance. Fortunately they weren't too much of a problem last year but I will get my wasp traps ready for them.