4, no 5, no 4, YES 5!!!

A few weeks ago I gave up on one of my colonies. It had been a swarm, back in July and had never really thrived. So much so that at the end of August I put them in a small poly nuc in the hope that they would fill it better.

Sadly, nothing happened and the last few times I looked, there was no brood and no eggs. The queen had clearly disappeared. Bee numbers were very low and the bees that were present were very lethargic.

So I stopped feeding them and left them to die away quietly…

Until today! I thought I’d have a quick look just to check that what I thought was happening was happening, and there, on the third frame in, was a huge patch of brood, surrounded by a ring of freshly laid eggs, and, walking proudly across it was a beautiful, dark (if a little small) queen.

 

And now I’m back to five colonies!

I don’t know if they’ll get through the winter on so little food and such a small amount of bees, but for now I’m just so pleased that I have a chance of getting five hives through.

Packing up for Winter

So I’ve spent the last few weeks thinking a lot about my little flying friends. I’ve been more than a bit preoccupied with winter and how to pack them up so that they have the best chance of surviving, bearing in mind that around 25% of colonies don’t make it through. Of course, much of that ‘chance’ will have nothing whatsoever to do with what I do, (or don’t do).

However, the main things playing on my mind have been food – whether to feed fondant or leave supers on, or both; disease treatment – do I really want to use chemicals to medicate my bees? And general issues such as mouse guards, woodpecker protection and hive insulation.

Just when I make a decision, something comes along and makes me doubt myself. But I’m here, on the last day of September and having just done my final final inspection, I’ve made a few decisions.

One and this is major for me, is that I’ve decided to treat for Varroa. It’s too late in the season to manage the disease any other way, and next year I’ll start thinking about disease management from the Spring and have a plan in place. So I’ll be off in the next day or two to get some disease control chemicals, based on thymol, which should give them a fighting chance of surviving any infestation.

So that means that I can’t start to feed my bees fondant for at least four weeks. But judging the amount of pollen (ivy) going in this afternoon, I don’t think I’m going to have to worry too much about feeding.

So, queen excluders are off, (a very heavily propolised rhombus bee escape that I forgot about is off), one last super that I thought was full but isn’t, is off, mouse guards are on, and ekes ready for fondant are on.

I just need to treat for varroa first, which I can do next week. And then in four weeks, start feeding fondant, after which there won’t be much I can do for them until the Spring.

It’s the pile of dirty equipment that’s piling up in the garage that I’m going to have to deal with now…

Green Queen Honey

A proud moment…

Catching the last of the buzz

I really didn’t want to do today’s inspection. But as is so often the case, when you don’t want to do something, it turns out to be fabulous!

You see, the shine had gone off the beekeeping somewhat. The last couple of times I inspected I was stung quite badly. It hurt. A lot.

The ring came off before it was too late

This hurt, a lot…

And it all seemed a bit boring. As July moves into August, the inspections become fewer and less important. The swarming season is over, and it’s all about getting the hives in the best possible condition for going into winter. As the flow ends, the bees become more feisty but there really isn’t much else to do.

Apart from extracting honey.

Just the one super ready for honey extraction

Of my five hives, just the one (the original) has honey to extract. I’m lucky that a local beekeeper has an extractor that he is willing to let me use, at his house, to extract my tiny little amount. And today I decided to halve the amount that I was to extract. I felt very assertive as I made the decision to leave half my crop for the bees. You see, when I opened them up, the supers are full, but there was hardly any stores at all in the main brood box. I just don’t think its right to take all their food, so I’m leaving them half. So just the one super to extract. It’s a nine-frame box; it shouldn’t take too long.

Full, ready for winter – my first hive

Hopefully I’ve put the clearer board on correctly and that will make sure that there aren’t any bees left when I remove the super tomorrow, ready for extraction on Thursday.

Exciting!

On a sadder note, I have finally admitted defeat with that swarm that landed in the paddock. Beautiful as it was at the time, and it was certainly an experience watching it being caught, I’ve always struggled to find a queen and having transferred it into a nuc box just 11 days ago, I’m certain that there’s no hope any more. Today there were no eggs, all the brood has gone and the bees, the few that are left, are quiet. Having tried to introduce eggs twice, I think enough is enough.

The question is, what to do with them now?

Some people just chuck them in the hedge, which I can’t bring myself to do, and some merge them with another colony, but I can’t do that either, based on the assumption that the colony is a complete organism and you can’t just transplant organs from one colony to another.

I didn’t feed them so maybe they’ll just tail off. Such a shame, and my first definite loss, but it was a swarm so would have been a bonus if it worked anyway.

The original Green Queen is doing incredibly well – she’s laying like mad, the bees are active and even slightly feisty. They have built the most beautiful brace comb on the bottom of a small super frame, which the queen has filled with eggs! I’m so happy and hoping that if she survives winter, I could even put her back into a full hive…

Beautiful brace full of eggs

Fantastic view of eggs

 

In all, today’s experience got me excited again. I spent a good two hours out in the apiary, didn’t get stung once, and I felt at one with the bees again. I felt comfortable on my own and, despite the loss of one colony, the success of the others is exhilarating once more.

Meeting one of my queens never fails to excite me!

 

 

Getting the Kids Involved

It’s all getting a bit quiet in the Lush apiary. But of course there’s still work to be done. Not least the extraction of honey! That’s what it’s all about, right! Well for some (most) beekeepers it really is. I’m coming more and more to realise that the honey prize just isn’t so important to me. Sure I want to chase that jar of liquid gold, but more so I just want the bees in my hives to survive. And thrive.

The first and the best – my Green Queen

So I’ve been thinking and reading more and more about natural beekeeping, as opposed to conventional beekeeping. Natural beekeeping is more bee-centred than conventional and, while much of the practice is the same, there are some strong elements that allow the bees to do most of the work by themselves and for themselves, without much intervention or manipulation by we humans. I’m learning, but it may be the way forward. Not sure what Mr Lush is going to think about not harvesting honey, though. I may end up with a section of conventional hives, and a small area of more bee-centred practice just to see what works.

Of the five hives that I have now, one is most certainly queenless. I’ve tried introducing two frames of eggs now but there’s no sign of a hatched queen. That’s not to say she’s not there, but I’m not reckoning on it. Next step for that one is deciding what to do about it before the season ends, which is in about a month.

The second anomaly is my beautiful green queen. The first and the original. She’s still in the poly nuc and doing really well. The remaining three are just wonderful – full, thriving and with lots of eggs. My worry had been that they weren’t clipped, but last week we managed to get two of them pinned down. Sadly it wasn’t me who clipped them, but at least it’s done now. There’s no getting away now!

But by far the most exciting development is the rise of my new assistant! Yes, Izzy’s decided she wants to get involved and since we got her a beesuit she’s been coming to club with me (they just love getting the kids involved).

This weekend I introduced her to my own bees. She hasn’t been stung yet so things could change, but as it stands, we have ourselves a little apiarist!

The Great 2016 Staycation

Sitting atop the Devil’s Pulpit, Offa’s Dyke

Before we moved to the great Forest of Dean, we came on a couple of summer holidays here. And one of the ways I convinced myself that it was a good idea, was that being here would be like always being on holiday in this idyllic environment.

Two years on, I make sure that I drive, walk or cycle through the forest daily so that I never fail to appreciate quite how beautiful it is, at any time of year.

So this summer heralds the Great Lush Staycation! We decided that we’d rather discover more of south Wales and the Forest, rather than travel in search of beauty elsewhere.

So far it’s been a blast; we’ve climbed Pen-Y-Fan mountain ( the highest in southern Britain), diced with the devil on the Offas Dyke ancient path at the beautiful Devil’s Pulpit overlooking Tintern Abbey, toured the Welsh valleys, taken in Tintern Abbey ( for about the tenth time, but I can never get bored of it), and revisited Symonds Yat.

On Yat Rock

Symonds Yat

On Top of the World!

Pen Y Fan

Corn Du, nearly Pen Y Fan

Even that doesn’t get old – we had our lovely friends over and thought their little five year old would love the ancient hand ferry. As the Saracens Head Inn was packed – it’s becoming too popular, that place – we ventured over to the Ye Old Ferrie Inn, or Yofi as they call it now. Apparently Yofi means beauty in Hebrew, so that’s pretty apt, too. Anyway, what a great pub! It’s got a fabulous garden terrace with lawn and tables and the food is fabulous as well as being very well-priced. Even on a hot and very busy summer’s day, the food came fast and the service was superb.

The old hand ferry back across the river at that point is cheaper than the one at the Saracens Head so it’s bonus points all round! After hiking back to the top of the rock, it was time for more food at the great little cafe at the top before showing Jo and Bertie the view from the top of the rock. Or Potter’s flypast as I like to call it due to the Harry Potter film in which he flies on his broom down the valley.

All this just a stone’s throw from home.

Did I mention that I still love living in the forest?!!

Tomorrow we’re off to the waterfalls…

Getting hot with bees and boar

We woke up to find this beauty on the front step one morning this week!

So its one of the hottest days of the year, and I’ve managed to fit in three of my favourite pastimes – cycling, cooking/baking and beekeeping. What I didn’t realise until today is that all my hobbies involve getting hot and sweaty, even in moderate temperatures. Now, three showers later, I’m facing the prospect of an evening baking the big little baby’s birthday cake in preparation for tomorrow’s celebrations.

Cycling through the forest will never bore me, and today, although the cycle trail was full of holiday-makers and lads racing in their off-road gear, reinforced why I love it so much. Not only was the dappled light stunning, but at one point I had to stop pretty sharpish as a mother boar and her two babies stepped out on to the track. She saw us first stopped dead in their tracks. I shouted for Izzy to stop, and we all stood there for a few seconds, within ten metres of each other, just staring at each other. I called for Izzy to slowly back away, as she was much closer than me, and at that moment, just as I was wondering whether to stay where I was, or turn and race off, looking for a sign that she may be about to charge, mother and babies turned and vanished into the undergrowth.

Izzy and I just looked at each other and carried on. I mean, what else could we do? My heart only beat a little faster briefly, but I noticed that Izzy didn’t race on too far ahead of me for the rest of the ride. After taking a turn around Cannop Ponds, we headed back, keeping an eye in the undergrowth for piggies.

So on to my second favourite pastime – the bees! So today I did my second solo inspection. All was good, although I’m really concerned about one of the colonies, which isn’t showing any signs of a queen, or any laying. They’ve built comb and stored food, but this is one of the swarms (the one that landed in the meadow, on a fence post) and I’ve been feeding it in order to help it along. Now that there doesn’t seem to be a queen, I’m not sure what I should do.

My feeling is that I should merge it with the original Green Queen, who’s still in a nuc box, and also, not really up to much. She’s laying, but that colony doesn’t seem to be growing. Other beekeepers have suggested that at some point I need to be prepared to merge at least two of my hives and I feel that now may be the time. Another alternative would be to introduce a frame of eggs from another hive, but I’m not sure that I want to sacrifice good eggs on a colony that really isn’t up to much.

I don’t need to decide quite yet, but what I have done is to stop feeding the failing hive. Instead, I’ve moved the feeder to the swarm hive that I helped catch a couple of weeks ago. That hive is so exciting – lots of stores already and frames full of eggs & larvae. If only I could find that queen…

Next week’s mission is to find all my queens, and clip them so that they can’t get away!

Just need it to cool down a bit first…

And then there were five

Another hive added to the Lush apiary

There was a time when, in my innocence, I thought that keeping bees meant I would get a nice little hive, check it once a week just to make sure it was coasting along nicely, and then at the end of the summer, I’d harvest a nice load of honey and all would be well until the following spring.

Yeah, right.

Last Friday was supposed to be a normal inspection, although I had enlisted the help of my lovely mentor because I was hoping to identify a couple of new queens – one from the swarm we picked up the previous week, and one in the original hive, which we had split earlier in June.

Another beautiful queen

Well, Patrick had other ideas, and I now have five hives, including a beautiful big swarm from a rather disturbed old couple in a nearby village. Not only do I have a fifth hive, but the swarm has already, in just four days, drawn out 11 frames of comb and presented me with a beautiful new queen.

So the adventure began at lunchtime when, instead of looking through my hives, Patrick got a call asking him to collect said swarm. As we were about to start on mine, he offered to take me along, and said I could keep the swarm as well. So off we went and arrived to find a very anxious old man waiting to show us the offending bees.

All those bees, sitting in the apple tree

The swarm was indeed very big, and sitting in a lovely little apple tree neighbouring the local school playground.

I can’t take credit for getting the swarm out of the tree, or indeed, getting it into a hive back at mine, but it was fascinating to watch how one shake of the branch dropped the whole lot of bees into the swarm box (within 15 minutes any stragglers were contained as well).

Once back at mine, we set up a brood box with 11 frames of wired foundation, along with a floor and a crown board and I watched as Patrick tipped the box on to a sheet, and with a sharp shake, they all dropped out. With a bit of encouragement, they all marched nicely into their new home.

Of course, at that point we didn’t know if there was a queen (although it was highly likely) or what state the colony was in.

Another milestone

One of the best parts for me, as a novice, was the moment when I put my hands in the bees and got a handful crawling over me. It’s something that I’ve watched people do and wanted to do for ages but never had a) the opportunity, or b) the balls to do. But as I crouched next to the sheet of bees and watched as Patrick ushered them in, I just wanted a go myself. I wasn’t feeling particularly brave, but as I felt them all crawling over my hands, it felt almost euphoric. And suddenly I realised how warm they feel as well. Like, almost hot.

So yesterday I went back to have a look and see what’s happening in the hive and bingo! there she is, a beautiful queen, with several frames of drawn comb already filled with the honey the bees brought with them. And possibly some evidence of her getting ready to lay.

The next job will be to get her clipped so that she can’t fly away. Then maybe a super, so that her workers have got enough room to store all that lovely pollen they’re bringing in.

And maybe I’ll branch out and start collecting swarms as well. Nothing like running before you can walk!!!

 

Three hives became four

So this morning saw another episode of bee excitement! The result is that I now have four hives, I’ve seen a beautiful swarm and I know that there are two new queens in the original hive.

I had absolutely no plans to look at the hives today, having had a quick look at the hive #2 on Monday, with the original Green Queen in it. All was well, and I thought that I had new queens in both the new hives, having seen one last Thursday, and thinking I’d seen a mating flight from the other one on Saturday.

But, as it happens I was at home (unexpectedly) and happened to glance out over the ‘apiary’ to see what I thought could have been a swarm, or could have been a mating flight. The action stopped after 20 minutes or so and I thought I saw them heading over the hedge into the scrub behind. So I got my wellies on and went to have a look, see if I could find them.

Not seeing anything in the hedge, I headed back in order to walk around the back and look in the trees and hedges there. I needn’t have bothered. As I was walking back along the ‘orchard’ I jumped out of my skin!! There was the most beautiful swarm, resting on one of Mr Lush’s tree protectors:

I wasn’t really sure what to do. I was really hoping to tackle any further issues that arose without any help, but the angle and placement of this little lot meant that I definitely couldn’t do it without help. I called Patrick, and he was ready, as always, to come along and help.

It wasn’t the easiest swarm to manage, being stuck on a stake and resting on both sides of the protective wire. But Patrick managed to shake most of the bees on to the ground, before putting a box over them. Then we just had to hope for the best – that they would march their way into the box.

In the meantime, we went to have a look at the other hives. First, the original hive, hive #1, which was the one that I thought the swarm had come from. (Patrick was still wondering if it was a swarm from somewhere totally different at this point). What we found here was amazing. There were two queens hatching as we watched! (maybe with a little bit of help). So eventually we threw them both in and closed the hive, leaving them to fight it out. May the best woman win, and I hope that will be the end of it – I just want to get on with proper beekeeping, ie, regular inspections, watching the colony grow, seeing a lot of nice honey being stored, etc, etc.

Once we’d inspected all the hives (the others were unremarkable), we took the nuc off the now-empty hive and set the hive to one side.

Gone are the days of neat paving slabs, set with a spirit level and dug nicely into the ground – today’s hive was just rested on the grass. It’s a bit wobbly, but it should be ok. For now.

We got the swarm, which had marched rather nicely into the box, and shook it into the hive. We quickly filled it with new frames fitted with waxed foundation and shut them up. They can get used to their new home for a few days before I feed them and have a little look at what is going on in there. You see, there was a dead one on the ground, so I’m not entirely sure that there was a queen, although they were hugging that stake rather tightly, so I’d like to think that there was a good reason for that!

So there you have it. One original hive, with two new queens battling it out for supremacy, one nuc box with an old Green Queen, one new hive with a new queen doing quite nicely, and one new hive with a swarm in it  – unknown and as yet undiscovered.

In other news…

A couple of weeks ago it occurred to me that I really, really miss the chickens. They’re so funny pecking around and I’ve never seen anything funnier than when they would run at full speed towards me when I come out to feed them.

And, of course, I realised I had to go out and buy eggs. That was hard.

So we’ve decided to build a fox-proof chicken fortress and try again.

All warm and snug for the next week or so

This time, though, is even more exciting, because we’re incubating the chicks ourselves and, if they all hatch, we’ll have another brood to look after and feed. It’s going to be so cute and great for the girls to see as well.

And, hopefully, we’ll be back to getting lots of eggs .

And I’ll go out every morning to get them out and feed them and I won’t miss them anymore.

I just hope that they hatch successfully and that we don’t get too many boys!!