Hive Products

No! Not More Honey.

This afternoon I made pure beeswax creamed polish for use on leather or furniture.  The kitchen smells warm like my grandparents' drawing room, the room only used at Christmas and when they had important guests as opposed to the sitting room that they used every day and which didn't have any distinctive fragrance.   It's only now that I realise their best room smelled of beeswax and turpentine furniture polish!

I tried to get Great Grandfather's recipe for Bionic Polish.  I recall Mum making it and I know it was a very soft polish made with beeswax and turpentine but I don't know the proportions or whether there were any additional ingredients.  She used to put it into bottles rather than jars.   Great Grandfather's (only) other recipe is for "Embrocation" a magic lotion used to treat both people and horses for sprains and strains.    Mum made both and famously rubbed Dad's back with Bionic Polish by mistake when the labels fell off all the bottles in a damp cupboard.   The Bionic Polish recipe appears lost for the time being so I resorted to Mrs Beeton's recipe:

Shred 8.5 oz beeswax into a large jar.

Stand in boiling water until melted

Add 1.5 pints of turpentine slowly.

Stir rapidly to mix well.

Pour into wide-mouthed jars or tins to set.

I had exactly 8.5 oz of beeswax from the cappings removed in the last honey extraction.   In the absence of a suitable jar, I used an old coffee pot which has lost its lid.  Coffee pots don't seem to be useful anymore so what a great way to use it.

Shredding the wax with a box grater took a long time but it was a satisfying task and Friday afternoon radio kept me entertained.  I carefully poured in the pure gum turpentine off the heat and stirred  rapidly, then the jug came in to its own, making it really easy to pour the liquid polish into the jars and the electronic scales made it relatively easy to get the weight right in each jar.  

I visited Bob at the Bee Shop last week and bought the jars and labels.  He only had labels saying "at least 90g", which is technically correct as the jars hold 250g.   For some reason, I like the warning labels more than the polish labels.   Perhaps it's the bold black cross on a bright orange background.

I wonder whether I will write another blog to report how the polish works?  To do so, I'd have to do some polishing.  Hmmm.   Don't hold your breath!

Honey Shows

Read on to find out why I have posted a picture of a handsome silver cup!

After the great experience of the County Honey show last year, when I found out that the local beekeepers were going to have a gazebo at the local country show, I had to take part.

The number of classes was minimised but all of us were encouraged to enter as many classes as possible.

1. Clear Honey
2. Creamed Honey
3. Set Honey
4. Honey Fruit Cake
5. A pair of candles

Luckily, the bees produced clear honey as well as set honey this year but we don't process our honey to produce a creamy set, so that limited me to two honey classes.   Notwithstanding my poor attempt to win acclaim at the County Honey Show with my honey sponge last year, I decided to attempt the Honey Fruit Cake.    I have been developing my efforts to melt down wax but I haven't progressed to candle making yet; maybe I'll try that next year.   

Knowing some of my fellow beekeepers, I was in no doubt that I would have to put effort in to have any chance of a prize.  Sally sent me guidance on how to prepare honey for showing from an old beekeeping magazine- 3 pages of closely typed instructions!    Given that the honey was already in jars, all I could do was select nice examples and polish the outsides of the jars, then pack it so there were no finger prints to be seen.

As usual, I practised making the cake and as last year, this involved buying 2 new cake tins because I didn't have any the right size and the recipe said, make two cakes, enter the best one in the show and eat the other.   My first attempt was pretty good and the cakes were quickly eaten.   The second attempt, which included the cake I took to work for my colleagues to judge, produced crumbly cakes with a bit of a depression in the centre.  As you can see, my final cake also sank a little in the centre.

Anyway, you can see from the photo below that the Honey section of the Horticultural marquee looked splendid.

The gazebo was nearby and included an observation hive, a model bee hive, lots of books and photographs and a table for children to have a go at making candles from coloured wax foundation.

P and I had guests for the weekend and they enjoyed their afternoon at the show, especially the dog show, while I was volunteering in the gazebo and P played cricket several miles away (!)

As soon as I arrived, Sally asked if I could come back the following day to collect my trophy.  It transpired that both jars of honey had been awarded 2nd place in their respective classes and two 2nds trump a 1st, so I had won the trophy for the beginner with the most points at the show.

It was only later that I discovered that the clear honey (Lot No 5 if you read the previous blog) was 2nd in the beginner's class and the set honey (Lot No 3) was 2nd in the grown up beekeepers' class!

    

I am very proud of my bees!

If you are wondering why there's no photograph of me being awarded the trophy at the awards ceremony, it's because on the second day of the show, P and I, along with Kim and Tim and about 30 friends were on our annual 20 mile bike ride.  We never know the route until the day itself but we were riding through the village where the show was taking place so Kim, Tim, P and I diverted off the ride to try to pick up the trophy.   This was not allowed!  This meant I had to cycle home as fast as possible in order to jump in the car and drive back in time for the awards ceremony.   This was not without some risk as I had a blow out on the back tyre earlier in the day.   Fortunately, my cup was the penultimate one to be awarded.  I did have time to brush my hair but I was still wearing my cycling gear and I had been wearing a cycling helmet all day.  I haven't attempted to get a copy of the official photograph!

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.