Strawberry Grove Growers

At first I thought it was rather fun selling honey and other things at farmers markets and did every one I was invited to.
However as time went on I became less and less interested in them - I did 51 in 2015, 31 in 2016 and 20 last year. This year it will be a maximum of 12.
One of the problems with them is that I think they distract me from what I am really interested in, which is the bees and the preparation, set up and taking down after the event are a pain in the bum.

Although I take, for me, a lot of money at big events like  Bromham and Kempston fairs and the Beds Young Farmers Rally, the markets aren't an income source and just fund what I need for the bees, although they don't even do that completely.
If the Inland Revenue are reading this, yes I have made a loss every year.
So I now only do the monthly market at Bromham Mill and the quarterly market at Potton which are nice friendly markets where I have lots of regulars I know and chat with, and the very occasional small one off event.

A couple of months ago I was contacted by someone who had apparently met me at Bromham and asked if I would come along to her Open Day.
Before committing myself I had a look at their web site and, putting aside my dislike of Facebook, their Facebook page.I  didn't want to make a hasty decision so I then carefully considered whether or not I would go, taking into account a wide range of considerations and factors and after 0.001 of a nanosecond decided I would. Hell, yes!

It was a great day and I really enjoyed it, the photos on their Facebook page give a good idea of what the day was like and what is happening at Strawberry Grove.
As well as fruit and vegetables, Fliss and Sam also have some goats and chickens and are planning to get some pigs and turkeys for Christmas,
Chatting with them throughout the day it seems they are also interested in having some .........can you guess?

I met them again and have agreed that we will aim to have two hives for next Summer.
Rather than rely on me getting some swarms, which can be an unreliable source and also means no honey until the following year, I will move one of my colonies there and we will also get what is called an over wintered nuc which is a small colony created this year that gets through the winter and will [hopefully] produces honey next Summer.
All being well Fliss and Sam will be able to offer Strawberry Grove honey for their customers next year.
We have sorted out a site for the bees which is very 'Ravensden'ish' in that it is secluded and surrounded by trees. It's lovely.
I already have some of the equipment needed and over the coming months will start to set things up,

Strawberry Grove is a community based project and local people can come to the Grove to get involved and the same thing could be done with the bees. It could be an opportunity for people to help look after the bees or just find out a bit more about them.

Sam and Fliss sell wonderful veg boxes that are a combination of the usual and the unusual.

I am trying purple carrots. Yes, purple.

I suggested that perhaps I could take a few boxes to Bromham market to sell and gauge the interest. Its possible I could deliver them to the Bedford area.

Why are wasps such b......ds?

Wasps, the comedy villain of the insect world that [nearly] everyone hates.

I dislike them because a few years ago I had a queen, called Barbie, that produced wonderfully calm productive bees and she was the star of the show when I took her to markets in an observation hive. One morning I thought there were a few more wasps around her hive than normal and when I came back in the afternoon the wasps had taken over the hive killing the colony.

But why are they such b....ds?

Unlike honey bees wasps don't die when they sting you. Honey bees have a barb on their stinger that means when they try to escape they disembowel themselves. Wasps have a smooth stinger and can sting you many times.

In the early part of the year wasps are fairly placid and like honey bees will only sting when provoked.

Later in the year things change and apparently its because of the unusual ecology and bizarre anatomy of social wasps,

In the spring, queen wasps wake from hibernation and start to build their nest, laying eggs and raising their first brood of daughters. These worker wasps cannot produce fertilised eggs, so spend their time helping their mother to expand the nest and raise more young."

The worker wasps then go in search for soft-bodied invertebrates [wasps are carnivores unlike honey bees which are vegetarian] to give to developing larvae.

Bizarrely, adult wasps cannot digest the food they catch because their gut is so constricted by their thin 'wasp waists. Instead the workers chew up the prey and feed it to the larvae. In return, the larvae produce a sugar-rich spit that the workers can drink.

The colony will go on expanding throughout the summer until the queen decides to produce males and new queens. After these 'reproductives' have left the nest, the old queen stops laying. This means the workers no longer have access to larvae.

Instead, they live on the sugar produced by rotting fruit. This can be a problem because fermenting fruit contains alcohol, so wasps can become intoxicated and rather irritable.

We still hate them though, don't we?

Water for the bees

Water for the bees

Obviously bees need water, not only for their own consumption but also to regulate the temperature in the hive.
Bees maintain a hive temperature between 32C and 35C and to cool the hive they spit water into the hive and fan it with their wings.

The Scald End bees are OK as they have a stream about 5 feet behind them.
For the Ravensden bees, there's not much near by so I have been trying some water drinkers for them.
I finally finished up with a seed tray full of water with a sheet of correx floating on it. There are holes punched in the correx for the bees to drink from.
I might try to rig up something with a ball cock attached to a separate reservoir so it fills itself.

Click the button to see the video

Bee News - August

The weather doesn't get any better. Everything's brown and there are cracks in the ground wide enough to get your hand down. Then it rains but its too late to help plants produce nectar.
The local Oil Seed Rape was taken in a few weeks ago and this triggered a notice from the Association saying that's it for honey this year.
It has been the worst year I have ever had and took nothing off in May for the first time ever.
I have taken what honey is available which probably won't last me until next year.
To be honest I'm not really too bothered about missing a few markets.
As I said in a previous blog most of the hives have had their brood space doubled which has meant there is little excess to extract. However checking the brood boxes, they are all full of honey and brood so this bodes well for their winter survival.

Swarms and Swarming updates

The swarming season is probably over.. Its been much quieter than I expected although the few swarms I have actually dealt with have taken up a lot of time collecting and sorting The three swarms that have been moved into Ravensden appear to be doing fine.
The highlight of it all has been the unexpected monster in a bait hive that has been transferred in my Top bar Hive.

Things seem to be going well and I am tempted to make another weird type of hive called a Warre Hive, pointless but interesting.

Perhaps a winter project.

Drinker for the bees

Bees need water like we do and this Summer being so hot being able to get some is more important than ever.
At Scald End there is a stream running behind the hives so no need to worry about them but at Ravensden there isn't water for a mile at least.
I have tried various types of drinker with varying degrees of success but the one that has worked is just a seed tray with a sheet of correx floating on it. The correx has small holes in it for the bees to drink from.

Click the button to see the video

Getting stuff back in

As the honey season is over I have been bringing back unneeded equipment from Ravensden and Scald End.
This is the unused supers, brood boxes and nuc boxes.
There is a lot of repair/improvement work to be done over the winter.

Varroa

Now all the supers are off, its time for the first varroa treatment. There us something on the website here about varroa and the treatment will be done in the next few weeks.
Blog to follow

Something new?

Although I haven't done many markets recently I was invited to an Open Day in Gransden.
It was a terrific day and the project Felicity and Sam are running there is great.
Their web site and Facebook page gives you an idea of what they are doing.
I will do a blog about it next week but there is the possibility that they want to have some hives on their land.