Beekeeping in the Long Hot Summer of 2018

Well, it was a bit boring really.

The limitations of wifi temperature gauges became apparent.

If you read my last blog you will know how pleased I was that I could see activity in the hives without opening them up during the Beast from the East and Beast from the East Two storms.  When the weather was eventually clement enough for the first inspection, the limitations of wifi temperature gauges became apparent.  While the G Bees were building up as expected, the newest colony had no queen.  I had observed that there was a difference between the two colonies from the behaviour of the bees on the landing board.    Clearly something must have happened to her in the Spring and that's one thing you can't put down to bad beekeeping because I hadn't opened the hive.   Normally, the bees would just create a new queen but there was no guarantee there had been any eggs for them to create a queen from, no signs of queen cells and worse, evidence of laying workers.

When worker bees lay, the brood is not in a neat, circular pattern but more like ribbons.  This was a completely new experience for me and I consulted all the usual sources, eventually deciding to follow the Ted Hooper advice and dismantle the colony leaving the bees to find new homes (most likely with the G Bees).   When I started to carry out the process, P spotted a Queen.  (He's very good at that; much better than I am still.)   Where I think I may have made a mistake is that I carried on with the dismantling plan and perhaps I should have taken time to reconsider.  Anyway, I started the season with one colony in the home apiary.  The colony in the out apiary appeared to have absconded.

I took off honey at the end of May just as the oil seed rape flowers were fading......but it seems the bees weren't working oil seed rape!   There were beans flowering, there's a hint of hawthorn in the flavour and it has set like rock.  As usual, the bees won't say where they had been.

Dad inspected the hive in the out apiary, confirming there were no residents and got it ready to take a nucleus or split if one became available.  

It was so hot that experienced beekeepers were wondering whether the wax inside the hive would melt.   

From the middle of May until now, in October, we've had an exceptionally warm season.   For most of the summer, it was also windy.  The warm wind stopped the heat feeling oppressive but the bees don't like to be disturbed when it's windy and I left them to it simply giving them more space regularly.   Eventually the hive was taller than I am.   In early August it was so hot that experienced beekeepers were wondering whether the wax inside the hive would melt.   The thought had crossed my mind but I reasoned that bees are kept in much hotter places than here so I tried not to worry.   

A swarm took up residence in the out apiary and built up nicely over the season.

I had to wait for a not quite so windy day and for a cricket game to be cancelled so P could help my lift the supers off the G Bee hive because they were so heavy.   

At the local honey show, Lot 9 from last year, now set and nicely marbled, came second in the set honey class.  The Long Hot Summer of 2018 in a jar, Lot 11, didn't win a prize although lots of people kindly pointed out it was indistinguishable from Sally's clear honey that won second prize in that class.  My honey fruit cake came third :)

The 29th September was one of the loveliest days this year.  The temperature was 23C, there was absolutely no wind, it was sunny but not scorching and that's the day I sorted the G Bees out for the Winter.  As usual, they have a new floor, new brood box, a full super of honey and the frames in the 14 x 12 brood chamber are wall to wall honey.   I turned over the entrance blocks to the Winter setting.   There are nine narrow holes which are too narrow for a mouse to pass through.  This stops any mice from setting up home in the warm hive on a cold night.  The G Bees were not happy about that.  They were clearly still foraging in large numbers and they couldn't get in an out fast enough.  They've got used to the entrance now and I've set up the wifi temperature gauge again.

It is challenging to get the timing right for setting the hive up for Winter.  It seems too early judging by the plants that are flowering but any day now we could see temperatures returning to their normal range for this time of year.

Bee Weather 2018

How my friends in Finland laughed when I told them we were experiencing an extreme weather event with temperatures of -4.5 Celsius and wind chill making it feel like -9.

The Beast from the East was sweeping across Finland too and they sent me their weather forecast for the week:  temperatures weren’t forecast to exceed -19 Celsius.

My Christmas Present Thermpro TP60 (see the Winter Beekeeping 2017-2018 blog ) has turned out to be vastly more useful than I expected.  I had thought it would be interesting to monitor temperatures in my hives:  I didn’t appreciate how truly useful it would be to be able to observe activity in the hives without opening them up.

The unusual-for-us-cold weather, (let’s not call it extreme), has had beekeepers all over the country worrying whether their colonies have survived.  Some have resorted to peeking inside.  That’s tempting but a sure way to chill the bees.  Apparently, in freezing temperatures, some bees can enter a state of torpor and bees in this state are sometimes presumed dead even when they aren't.

With the aid of the Thermpro and without leaving my kitchen, I have been able to see that there are bees alive in the hives.

To be honest, when I first set up the devices I thought they were just measuring the ambient temperature.   I considered that the small difference between observed temperatures in the hives and the ambient temperature was probably accounted for by the devices being sheltered from wind chill and the worst of the weather by being inside the hive on the crown board just under the roof.   

After a few weeks, the variance from ambient temperature grew noticeably.  By the time the Beast from the East struck, I was confident that the in hive devices were measuring bee colony activity, albeit I can’t tell whether temperature changes reflect an increase in the number of bees or how close the colony is to the sensor.

The following graph shows the ambient temperature compared with the temperature in each hive.   The trend lines clearly indicate increasing activity in the beehives.

This second graph shows how the variance from the ambient temperature is growing.

It's still too cold too open up the hives for the first inspection this year but both colonies are flying and bringing back pollen when the sun shines or the wind drops.    They still have fondant as an emergency food supply but trees are starting to flower now so it looks as though both colonies in the garden apiary have survived the Beast from the East 1 and 2 and Winter 2017/2018.   Phew!

Winter Beekeeping 2017 - 2018

The 2017 Honey Lots

This weekend we had the local beekeepers' branch Annual General Meeting so it's time to report on that and to note what is flowering in the garden now for comparison with previous years.

Regular readers will know that the main reason for belonging to the local beekeepers' branch is the outstanding quality of refreshments at any gathering of members.  This year's AGM and dinner were no different, literally.  The menu was exactly the same as last year but nobody complained.  It's an inspired idea to hold the dinner immediately after the AGM to maximise the number of members who attend the AGM.   The branch is doing well and no new catering equipment had to be purchased.  

Prizes were awarded for winning entries in the local honey show back in August.  No cup for me this year.  My entries were limited to a jar of clear honey and a jar of set honey because we had to deliver our entries a week in advance due to travel plans.  Lot number 6, the first honey extracted in 2017 won 2nd prize in the set honey class.   Lot number 7 was unplaced in the clear honey class.   In terms of taste this year, Lot number 8 is my favourite.   It's just beginning to crystallise; the texture is creamy and the flavour is full and rounded but we didn't extract lots 8 and 9 until after the show.  It's the first year we've had such dark honey.  We don't know where the bees were foraging.  They won't say, however, we have sent a sample off to the National Botanic Gardens in Wales and they have promised us an insight in due course based on their DNA Barcoding.

https://botanicgarden.wales/science/saving-pollinators/honey-bee-foraging/

I am the only person who had a Thermpro TP60 Digital Wireless remote Thermo-hugrometer for Christmas. 

As always, the dinner is an opportunity to pick the brains of experienced beekeepers and to compare notes.   Honey yields were average;  experience with wasps varied.   I am the only person who had a Thermpro TP60 Digital Wireless remote Thermo-hygrometer for Christmas.  With this I can monitor the temperature and humidity of the two hives in the garden apiary from inside the house.  I have placed the sensors on the crown board above the brood chamber so they are inside the outer casing of the hive.  

Initially, I thought the sensors were just reading the ambient temperature.   The sensors show a temperature approximately 2 deg Celsius above the ambient temperature and one hive is consistently about 0.2 deg celsius warmer than the other.  However, in the last week we've had some warmer temperatures and then there is  sometimes a greater differential between the hive sensor readings and the ambient temperature.  The temperatures in the hive also seem to stay warmer for a while after the ambient temperature starts to drop down in the evening.  The reading will be affected by heat generated by bee activity but also by the location of the cluster within the hive but nobody can tell me what temperature I should expect to see - as for humidity.....!

G Bees Varroa tray after 1 week January 2017

Originally, I hoped to be able to tell whether the colonies are alive by using the sensors.  I know they are alive anyway because I can see chewed wax cappings on the varroa trays where they are using their stores.   Now I think I may be able to observe when the Queens start laying more and activity levels  increase towards the end of next month and in to March without opening the hives.

This picture shows the G Bees Varroa tray.  The pale debris is wax cappings from honey stores;  the darker debris is wax  from the brood chamber.  A week earlier, the pale wax debris was at the right front of the hive.  Now it's very central so they are moving around.  The bees do have fondant too just in case they run our of their own stores.

Flowers on bloom

This Winter we've had a few days of snow and some milder weather.  It's been quite wet and very windy.  The following flowers were on bloom this weekend:  aconites (well there were buds), the first snowdrops, winter flowering honeysuckle, cyclamen coum, winter box (sarcocca) and the daphne odora is just coming out.