In the Apiary - 2003
The bees are now all tucked away for the winter. All the equipment will be cleaned and sorted during the next week and I can then think of plans for next season. I had plenty of honey bottled and wax products made for the bee-day so I can take a short rest from that.
Even though I say it myself the bee-day exhibition was really good. What with my efforts on the exhibition and Bigbrand’s efforts on the lighting and visuals it was quite spectacular. See the open day page and the Bigbrand website.
A shame that we didn’t get more visitors but Uttlesford District Council was supposed to be doing the publicity and they plainly did nothing. At least that’s one lesson we’ve learned. We did two open-hive shows in the afternoon and the bees were very well behaved. It was a bit too cold for them but I don’t think we did them any lasting harm.
My thanks to my beekeeping neighbours who loaned veils or who came for the afternoon to assist
I have had one or two people email
me during the year about starting beekeeping and I have tried to give
helpful advice. From the response it would seem that they have either
started or are serious about taking the plunge so can I wish them every
success in their new venture?
In the Apiary 12th September
I know it's late in the season to restart the apiary diary but I will try and sum up as best I can.
Three queens have had to go during the year. Two were from my own stock who started producing poor tempered offspring and the third was a swarm which arrived in a foul mood, never improved, and were upsetting all the other colonies.
I now have half the apiary about to over-winter with Apis Mellifera mellifera queens all introduced later in the season. The other hives are still running on my self-produced Apis mellifera queens. Next year will be most interesting in trying to prevent any crosses because I have since read in the latest copy of Bee Improvement that whilst A. m. mellifera are very docile, a cross between these and A. m. can produce bad-tempered progeny. Watch this space.
The honey yield was better than last year but not really a bumper crop. Whereas last year was cold and wet, preventing the bees flying, this year was hot and dry and as a consequence, there was little nectar rising in the plants. The slow rate of harvesting meant that I had unripe honey in with the early gathered oil-seed-rape which was of course crystallizing. I must have lost the equivalent of eight supers which was unextractable due to crystallization.
The wet supers went back on to the hives
a few weeks ago for the bees to clean them all down before winter storage.
In the apiary I keep a large garden spray filled simply with water and
in the late evening I take out the crystallized frames, spray them down
and replace them. This gives the bees enough moisture to remove a bit
more of the solid honey and for many years this has been very successful.
This year however nature has thrown a spanner in the works. About two
miles away there is a field of volunteer (self-sown) rape which, because
of the weather, has not only germinated but is actually flowering! The
foragers are just managing to reach it and bring home a minimal amount
of nectar. Instead of cleaning down the season's supers, they are using
them to store this new unripe nectar. Hopefully the chillier weather
will persuade them to do what I expect of them and then I can give them
their autumn dose of Apistan and get the Miller Feeders on.
In the Apiary 16th June
Life has been exciting over the last few weeks
The nectar has continued to come in even though we are supposed to be having the 'June gap'. I can still, in the distance, see rape on flower from a spring sowing and the field beans still have some flowers on them.
I have made four extractions to date and the yield so far is averaging 68lbs a hive. (Sorry to remain imperial but when I bottle in 1 lb. jars I tend to do my bulk weighing in pounds as well). I can remember Clive de Bruyn saying many years ago when he was advertising a course that he could teach us how to regularly get at least 60 lbs. from each hive
The bees have been making queen cells as well as honey. I suppose this is inevitable when all bar one of your queens are the same age. More hives showed indications of swarming so I did a mass cutting out of queen cells. One gave up the idea and other had to be artificially swarmed. Three lovely young queens have now been produced, have mated successfully, and two have been clipped and marked. One has already been united with an older colony which was showing signs of behaviour deterioration and another is being moved slowly day by day across the apiary to position it ready for uniting with hive number 1.
Keeping accurate and detailed records
is absolutely vital now and I am finding my record sheet has just about
reached its design nadir. Only one improvement has had to be incorporated
this season and I feel that I am now storing all the information I need
in a rapid and easy to read fashion.
In the Apiary 23rd May
On Tuesday I must have been stung at least fifty times. Fortunately forty of them were in my clothing. This was the root of the apiary problem and as a consequence, hive 8 is now empty.
My hive record cards have a section on 'behaviour score' and all the hives had been registering a successively lower and lower result. It transpired that it was all the fault of hive number 8. Any approach to the apiary would bring them out aggressively and they went for anybody in the vicinity. It was impossible to see that all the trouble was coming from one source; until Tuesday that is, when I fitted clearer boards. On Wednesday I did my first extraction and having them all cleared down into the brood box I decided to let them know who was boss.
With this colony now gone, the atmosphere in the apiary this morning was positively idyllic. I was able to stroll amongst the hives unprotected and unbothered. What a difference just one hive can make.
Compared to last year, I thought the weather was a vast improvement but comparing the two season's honey extractions so far has not been as good as I expected. Already the oilseed-rape is crystallising. It could be that the lack of rain for nearly two months meant a very low nectar rise. I plan to take the rest of the rape honey off next week and leave them to work the field-beans which are now fully on flower.
Two of the hives have persisted in making queen cells so these have been artificially swarmed. I lose one colony but gain two more.
In the Apiary April 12th
I knew it was too good to last. In all the years that the plum tree illustrated below has been flowering, its blossom has foretold winter weather yet to come. Sure enough it came back with a vengeance and we had snow flurries on two days. This stopped the hive spring-cleaning half way through. Today we are back to glorious sunshine so all the hives have now been done: a clean floor (scraped and scorched with a blowtorch), a clean brood box and a clean crown board. Each 14x12 brood box had two of the old National frames removed and got two new deep frames of foundation instead. Each hive still has five old National frames remaining. In order to stop the little ladies building drone-comb beneath each frame I have stapled on a piece of wood to blank off the space. If they want to spend their time building more comb, they might as well do it on the new foundation! Each hive now has its first super which corresponds time-wise with 2002. The garden is positively humming with activity and foragers are returning laden with deep yellow pollen.
In the Apiary March 22nd
Fine weather for two weeks this early in the year has produced a blossom-loaded plum tree alongside the bee shed. A real bonus for both pollen and nectar. The hives were given their spring Apistan (anti varroa medication) two weeks ago and this will come out next week. An initial inspection shows all hives thriving, with eggs and brood and with plenty of stores. Two colonies already have bees right across the brood box. One of the best starts to the year I've known.
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