Shaking the bees into the hive
Our local Bee Inspector, Lindsay Sampford, arrived this morning to transfer the new bees into our old hive. The new colony comes from an area that has ‘resistant mites’. These are Varroa mites that are resistant to the older treatments of Bavoral and Apistan strips. This means they have to be treated with Apiguard (available from Thornes) and oxalic acid in the winter (when the queen is not laying). Varroa mites burrow into the eggs and larvae, cause deformed bees to be born and weaken the colony. Lindsay advised us that the best...
read moreNew bees for Easter
We are so lucky. We got a call from Lindsay Sampford, our local Bee Inspector, on Thursday. “Would you like a colony of bees?” I jumped at the opportunity. A colony would have more than a fighting chance of survival through next winter if we got it now. It should be strong by the autumn. A quick call to the owner, who was moving away from a commune in Burwell and we were in business. When we lost our bees a few weeks ago, the single biggest factor that made me sad was that they would not be pollinating our fruit trees and broad...
read moreOur honey bees are dead
Both of our bee colonies have died. They’d been flying on sunny days since January. I was so pleased that they’d survived the winter. Two weeks ago I noticed that they weren’t flying about, even on the best days. Last weekend I was working in the borders near the hives and noticed there was no activity at all. And none in the mornings when I went down to the chickens. Today was mild and warm so I decided to dust off my bee suit and investigate. I opened up the small white hive first. The bees were motionless, clustered...
read moreGuest Spot: The First Honey Harvest by Robert Altham (part two)
I took the fames up to the GPs house in the next village and learnt about the honey extraction process. First the de-capping. This is the removal of the wax cap on the comb. We did it with a bread knife, sawing along each side of the frame. It is a seriously messy job if you are not careful, and it is quite hard work too. Next year I shall try using a hot air gun and melt the wax caps off. Each de-capped frame is put into the centrifuge. This is a large cylindrical device that holds the frames of honey for spinning. When the centrifuge is full...
read moreGuest Spot: The First Honey Harvest by Robert Altham (part one)
Robert Altham is in his first year of beekeeping and successfully collected over thirty pounds of honey from his bees. He has kindly written this article for us, describing the experience and the process. Follow the link at the bottom of the page to view his own blog. The First Honey Harvest I am a complete beginner at bee keeping. I bought a hive on Ebay in May. I collected it from Lowestoft and drove back with the have and a full colony of bees in the back of my car. My hive comprised of the brood chamber where the queen lays her eggs and...
read moreOur first honey harvest
All summer long we’ve dreamt about the first honey harvest from our very own bees. We live in the centre of a large rural village. As bees fly in a 1.5 mile radius from their hive, we reckoned that our autumn honey harvest would largely come from spring and summer garden flowers, flowering trees and clover. And of course, our honey would be exceptional.We spent hours looking at the colour of the pollen in the tiny baskets that bees have on their legs. You can match it to the pollen colours on a little colour card that indicates where...
read moreAngry bees chased me down the garden
We want to harvest our honey. Honey is stored by the bees in the part of the hive called a super. There is at least one super on every hive and often two or three more. In the photo of our smaller hive alongside, the super is the top white box. It sits above the deeper brood box. The usual hive set up is floor, brood box, queen excluder, super(s), crown board and roof. The simplest method of clearing bees from the honey supers is to fit tiny metal sprung one way doorways that will allow bees to leave the supers and not return. These doors are...
read moreBirthday beekeeping
It’s Danny’s birthday today. As requested, I gave him a very smart pair of washable beekeeping gloves and a hive tool. It was quite hard buying gloves for him when he was working away from home and not available to try them on. I buy most of my beekeeping supplies from John, at the Springwell Apiary in Little Chesterford, near Saffron Walden. You need to ring him before visiting so contact me for his phone number and email address (through our contact us page). John explained that there are basically two types of hands, those with...
read moreThe role of Beekeeper’s Assistant is now a permanent position
When Danny asked for a pair of beekeeping gloves and a hive tool for his birthday, I realised that he was finally hooked. He’d been very keen for me to keep bees but assured me that he would not be involved in anything except eating the honey. That was fine with me, I was happy to attend the courses of the Cambridgeshire Beekeepers Association. The empty hive looked great beside the pond and it looked even better when the new colony was installed and bees were drifting in and out. It was only when I bought home the nucleus colony that I...
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Recent Comments
{ I was thinking the same as Magic Cochin but then like you I don't have my phone attached by an umbilical cord wherever I go.... } – Wed 8 :47 pm
{ Good point but I don't tend to take it about with me everywhere 
} – Wed 7 :25 pm
{ Doesn't your mobile phone have an alarm setting? C x } – Wed 6 :32 pm
{ I would put it towards a bbq, it's just a shame you can't purchase some sunshine from b&q } – Wed 12 :04 am- { Hi Lesley The clucking means that she is brrody also plucking her own feathers is a sign too. } – Tue 11 :58 pm
- { Hi Lesley They have to stay in the broody coop 24/7. Could you put in a garden shed or garage? } – Tue 11 :57 pm
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