Found in Dad's Shed

Dad has given me this delightful cross stitch that he found when he was cleaning out his shed.  

Kittie was a well known beekeeper in the village and she gave Dad some of her equipment when she down-sized from her house with a very large garden on the outskirts of the village to a bungalow in the village centre about 30 years ago.    

We guess that Sheila was the vicar's wife.

The verse is the first stanza from a poem by Isaac Watts (1674 - 1748).

How doth the little busy bee

Improve each shining hour,

And gather all the day

From every opening flower!

How skilfully she builds her cell!

How neat she spreads the wax!

And labors hard to store it well

With the sweet food she makes.

In works of labor or of skill,

I would be busy too;

For Satan finds some mischief still

For idle hands to do.

In books, or work, or healthful play,

Let my first years be passed,

That I may give for every day

Some good account at last.

What makes this particularly touching for us is that both Kittie and Sheila were guests at our wedding 24 years ago.   Kitty has since passed away and Sheila and her husband moved away when he retired.

I have arranged a suitable frame and will be hanging this in the barn where we do the honey extraction.

2016 Lot Number Notes

So much honey we have to make notes about each batch

This year the bees have been extraordinarily productive.   Each colony has its own honey for the Winter and we will supplement that with Winter feed to get a better idea of the quantity and quality of stores that they have going in to the Winter.  We have removed the surplus honey over the season in 5 separate batches which are identified with separate lot numbers on the honey jar  labels.

This is raw honey, not pasteurised, heat treated, blended  or mechanically stirred.   Each lot is manually extracted by centrifugal force, filtered to remove bits of wax and put straight into jars.  

All honey will eventually crystallise and set.  The time this takes depends on how long it is stored and at what temperature.   White frosting on the surface occurs naturally on crystallisation as air escapes from the honey and the honey may shrink a little from the shoulders of the jar.   Ideally, honey should be stored in airtight containers, ideally below 10℃.   Set honey can be made runny by gently warming it.

Lot Number 1

This honey was extracted from Colony 1, the Rubettes on 14th May 2016.   Made predominantly from oil seed rape, this honey had to be extracted before it set solid in the frames.   Oil seed rape honey is notorious for setting so hard that the bees struggle to use it themselves.   Originally pale and runny, it took on a stiff consistency within a week and set solid within two weeks.  You can feel the large crystals on the tongue.   Commercial honey is heat treated or mechanically stirred to produce uniform small crystals so you don’t experience different crystal sizes which result from the flowers the bees visited.  

Lot Number 2

Extracted from the Rubettes  on 28th May 2016.   The oil seed rape flowers were fading to green so this was the last of the predominantly oil seed rape honey.   Noticeably darker in its runny state than Lot Number 1 and taking three weeks to set softly, this honey has a subtle note of hawthorn in its flavour.  The texture is also relatively coarse.

Lot Number 3

Extracted on 16th July 2016, 50% from the Rubettes and 50% from the G Bees, this honey is a rich amber colour.   Slightly opaque and initially a thick syrupy consistency it has since set and has a pleasant flavour which is slightly stronger than Lot Number 2, possibly still with a hint of hawthorn.   Alex thinks it has some Horse Chestnut in it - and given the huge tree by the apiary, he is almost certainly correct.

Lot Number 4

This Lot was extracted on 24th July 2016.  50% from the G Bees was pale, clear honey with a light floral taste entirely made in the week since Lot 3 was extracted.  The other 50% came from the Rubettes and having been made before 16th July it resembles Lot Number 3.   Some jars are thick honey, others are runnier, presumably depending on the relative amount of honey from each hive that has ended up in each jar.

Lot Number 5

Extracted on 7th August, this late summer honey has a delicate taste with the slightest hint of citrus.  It is a  translucent amber colour and the runniest honey this year.    

National Bee Unit Husbandry Questionnaire

Reflecting on the changes in the apiary in the last year

In the post this week I received a survey from the National Bee Unit who monitor husbandry practices, colony losses and bee health.   The questionnaire covered 2015 and last Winter and as I answered it I realised what a lot has changed in our apiary!

We had 2 colonies back in April 2015, both in the home apiary, then Dad collected the Sue Bees swarm which was set up in the out apiary.   These bees built up  nicely but they got a bad reputation.  Dad took 18lb of oil seed rape honey off them in May and since then they have been chasing anyone nearby.   They joined Dee in the cab of his digger; they stung dad through his veil and they also got between his glove and bee suit...ouch!   They also subsequently swarmed although no sign of preparation for swarming had been noticed.   Dad is happy with the remaining Sue Bees and rather hopes they are calmer and less swarmy.  So far, so good.

The G Bees were almost lost to wasps and they overwintered in a nucleus box

By the end of last Summer, the two colonies in the home apiary were being predated by wasps.   In August we packed the remaining bees up and transported them to the out apiary where they overwintered in a  nucleus box (i.e. a VERY small hive).   

In late Winter, we took them back to the home apiary and set them up alongside the Rubettes, a robust new colony we acquired late last Summer, thinking we had lost the G Bees.   Answering the NBU survey according to their guidelines, the G Bees colony did qualify as a "lost" colony.   However, the G Bees built up well in the Spring, quickly occupying a 14 x 12 brood chamber and by mid-May we were able to take 2 full supers of oil seed rape honey off of the Rubettes and one off the G Bees.   

By Mid July, the Rubettes had 3 supers and I knew the bottom 2 were full.  The G Bees, still dubbed "the small colony" had 2 supers.   

Last weekend, I opened up the G Bees and realised they needed a third super too.  They were cramming wax and honey in every nook and cranny.    As I didn't have any frames ready, I emptied a super and put it back on wet.  Then I did the same for the Rubettes.  I could tell the Rubettes had more space, i.e. 3 supers already, because their hive was neat and orderly with no odd wax comb sproutings.   Both colonies were producing beautiful even sealed frames (see the photograph at the top).

I am in total awe of the G Bees!

So, imagine my surprise this weekend when I checked on the G Bees.   This, my colony that was almost predated to extinction last year; the colony that over wintered in a nucleus because it was so small had filled and capped a super in a week!   Where are they getting the nectar? No idea.  Everyone tells me it's too late for the bees to be making so much honey but the G Bees have never listened to convention.

The Rubettes, my fabulously strong and slightly grumpy colony had pretty much filled their wet super too but they haven't sealed the frames yet.

Both colonies now have an empty super to fill plus 2 full supers.   I have run out of honey buckets and jars.  I am in total awe of the G Bees.   There is nowhere on the NBU questionnaire to explain how my lost colony is now the strongest one!

First Honey Extraction 2016

 

This is oilseed rape, the main crop growing around us this year.  This rogue plant popped up conveniently by a blue hoarding so the acid yellow colour really shows up and you can see that this plant is a brassica.   It is farmed for the oil its seeds produce.   Originally used primarily as a lubricant, modern oilseed rape oil has been developed to be safe and palatable for human consumption and the "cake" left over after processing is used as an animal feed.   It is also grown for biodiesel.  We love the nutty flavour and use it a lot.

For the beekeeper, the most noteworthy property of oilseed rape is how quickly honey made from it crystallises.  It has to be extracted even before the bees have sealed it over with wax otherwise it doesn't spin out.  I learnt from experience last year that oilseed rape honey left in the frames is even hard for bees to use once it's set.  Hence, this week we extracted the first honey of the season.                                                                               At the out apiary, the Sue Bees are just a few feet from a large field of oilseed rape.   On Monday Dad extracted 18lb of honey, a record for us from a single super (the box of frames where the bees only store honey as opposed to the larger brood chamber box where they have the nest and honey and pollen stores).

At the weekend, we extracted about 24lb from 2 supers on the Rubettes.  We don't know exactly how much honey there is because we ran out of jars after 14lb and the rest is sitting in a honey bucket.

Normally, we simply double filter our honey:   we don't heat treat it or blend it.  We had no choice but to use the honey bucket, however,  the likelihood is that the honey will crystallise before we get more honey jars so we will probably have to heat the honey to get it out of the bucket.

One less wasp nest to torment our bees this year.....

This Queen Wasp was found trying to get out of our bedroom window on a sunny day.

Ted Hooper (1918 - 2010) Memorial Lecture

Well, actually 2 lectures.....

The Garden planted for pollinators at The Coach House, Marks Hall

P is away, so Dad and I thought we would go to the inaugural Ted Hooper Memorial Lecture on 18th April 2016.  We weren't sure what to expect but as it was the inaugural lecture, nobody else knew what to expect either.  

The venue was the lovely Coach House at Marks Hall.   More usually  a venue for wedding receptions (we went to one there and it was great), the Coach House and its intimate walled garden are situated in a deer park and arboretum.    Now run by a trust that seeks to implement the wishes of the last owner, for hundreds of years Marks Hall belonged to the Honeywood family whose coat of arms included an oak tree with a wild bee nest in it.

So who was Ted Hooper?

Ted wrote the fantastic "Guide to Bees and Honey" ("the Bible") which is still recommended to novice beekeepers as one of the best books on the subject.    Ted, we learnt, worked for a bee farmer in Hampshire before moving to Essex in 1962 as County Bee Inspector.  As CBI he taught hundreds of beekeepers, not just in the County, but all round the country and even overseas.  He looked after 700 hives and taught commercial beekeepers and amateurs everything related to bees from anatomy to carpentry.   He was actively involved in the BBKA and in setting the syllabus for beekeeping qualifications.   We could tell by the size of the audience that he must have inspired a great many people, hence the inaugural lecture(s).  There were really two of them.

The two lecturers both knew Ted well.  Margaret Thomas described how Ted encouraged her and her husband to develop their interest in beekeeping and nudged her to write and lecture herself.  A forthright and engaging speaker, Margaret told us about her own memories of Ted.  She was honoured to be asked by Ted to update the diseases section of the Bible and more recently to edit Ted's lost book, see below.

Clive de Bruyn was taught beekeeping by Ted and eventually succeeded him as CBI in 1984 building on Ted's achievements.   Clive was wearing a rather old fashioned jacket - think Roger Moore, 1970s safari style - and it immediately became apparent that this was just to demonstrate that he could still fit in it after he showed us his first slide, a photograph of him with Ted from the 1970's in which Clive was wearing the same jacket!

It transpired that Ted wrote a book in the 1980s for new beekeepers in the belief that there was a need for a simpler guide than the Bible.  He sent it to his publishers who went bust.  The book was "lost" but came to light while Ted was still alive and he asked Margaret and Clive to update it for a modern audience.  I was able to get my copy of "The Beginner's Bee Book" signed by Margaret and Clive to go with the signed copy of the Guide to Bees & Honey that I was given when we first got our bees.  

To learn far more about this revered beekeeper, see the link below to the BBKA obituary.

http://www.bbka.org.uk/local/bigmedium/obituaries/ted-hooper-1918-2010.shtml

Nucleus Update

We discover what the G Bees have been doing over the Winter

The temperature in the shade hit 15C briefly; there was a lot of coming and going at the nucleus; all the gear was ready in the shed and the weather forecast for next weekend doesn't look as though I will be able to open up the nucleus then so I decided to open up the nucleus and move the G Bees into a proper hive to make sure they have enough space for the queen to lay and for stores.  The willows are flowering and I hear rumours that the oilseed rape is not far off flowering.    If bees run out of space, they will think about swarming and the nucleus only has 4 14x12 inch frames in it.

Frame Number 1 was very clean and completely empty with a couple of bees on it.  Reflecting on this discovery later, perhaps I should have stopped the planned move at that point and just continued with an inspection visit but the excitement of planning the operation took over and I continued.

Frame Number 2 was hard to get out.  I had to lever it away from frame 3 and up with my hive tool which is like a cross between a huge screwdriver and a scraper.   A big piece of brace comb fell into the dark of the nucleus.   This frame had something shiny on one side.  I thought it looked like uncapped honey but I couldn't really believe my eyes and there weren't many bees on that frame.  I was wondering where all the bees were - well the foragers were out in the sunshine - but where were the house bees?  I was half way through the nucleus which I expected to be in danger of being over-crowded and I hadn't seen many bees.      The other side of this frame had dark brown, almost black shiny stuff in it.  Pollen comes in all sorts of colours and although the dark pollens look sinister, I'm sure that's what it was and that's a good sign because bees need pollen to feed baby bees.

Frame Number 3 was tricky.  It became apparent that the big piece of brace comb that fell off of Frame 2 had been wedged between Frames 2 and 3 and was, in fact, a lovely, almost circular piece of comb built by the G Bees in between the frames.   Frame 3 had sealed honey in a circular pattern on both sides - hardly any bees.

Frame Number 4 was like Frame  Number 1 and also had no bees on it.  Oh dear!

I had gone past the point of no return....

Where were the bees?  There had been so much activity at the entrance of the nucleus, I was convinced there must be some bees somewhere.     I picked up the piece of brace comb and there they were - a big "beard" of bees hanging on the underside of the brace comb in the dark of the nucleus AND there was a lovely pattern of sealed brood on the both sides of the brace comb!   So, I had 3 frames in the hive and a large circular piece of brace comb in the nucleus with sealed brood and all the house bees on it.  I couldn't put the frames back in the nucleus without squashing the brace comb.

I needed to find a way to put the brace comb into a frame so I could reassemble the colony.   Luckily, I had some old 14 x 12 frames that had had the wax stripped out and been washed in washing soda.  I was intending to properly remove the wires (from the old foundation) then boil them in washing soda so that they would be properly hygienic and ready to be used again but I don't have anything suitably large enough (yet) to boil them in.  This was an emergency and I think the frames came out of the G Bee hive last year anyway so I found the one with the most intact wires and carefully laid the brace comb on the wires inside the frame and closed the wires around the brace comb fixing them in place with a cable tie.   This enabled me to suspend the brace comb in the hive in between frames 2 and 3.

The G Bees therefore now occupy half a bee hive.  They have a couple of extra frames (which I now realise they don't need yet - let's hope they are too busy to play sculpting with them).  The other half of the beehive is blocked off but assuming I haven't damaged the Queen and she continues to lay, it will now be easy to give them more space as they need it.    

G Bees coming and going from their new home

The weather is typical for April; cold mornings and evenings but warm and sunny in the middle of the day and lots of showers.    I gave the G Bees some syrup to supplement their stores in case they are confined to the hive by the weather.   I don't need to disturb them for a couple of weeks.

So, I didn't see the Queen at all but judging by the way the bees behaved when I shut up their new hive, she's definitely in there.  There was absolutely no evidence of any disease; the sealed brood was a good sign but I don't recall seeing eggs or larvae.   Thinking about that, if they were there, they must have been under the beard of bees which I tried hard not to disturb - and I wasn't wearing my glasses.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed and leaving it to the bees now.