Happy New Year

Today - the 2nd of January we spent an hour or two tidying up the asparagus bed at the allotment. Amazingly there were a couple of spears that are edible! The bed was given a good weed, all the old plants were cleared and then everything was given a good top dressing with the two year old leaf compost. Although it was cold, the sun was out and it was really satisfying to get the bed into shape. There is plenty to do on the allotment but the ground is very wet underfoot, this is when the bed system comes into it's own. The rotted leaf mould is beautifully friable now- Trev was able to clear a space ready for some more manure when it is available, as they say it's all in the muck! We also came back with rocket, beetroot and some leeks. There is also some purple sprouting broccoli almost ready for cutting and some rainbow chard that I need to give some thought to cooking. Exciting times on the allotment!!

Happy Christmas

This year we have had an early Christmas- it's odd knowing that we have had our celebrations when everyone else is still preparing for the big day. It's Cristmas Eve and I have just cleared the fridge and frozen leftovers! We had a great time with all our family ,including a trip to the Nottingham Playhouse panto- highly recommended! So Happy Christmas to everyone and a brilliant 2012!!

Winter Beekeeping



November Bees!!!



What do beekeepers do in the winter?

Plenty of beekeeping jobs- cleaning and storing equipment, checking the bees for stores and keeping an eye on varroa counts. This year the worry is the weather has been so mild the bees are active and using stores too quickly. So making sure we have some fondant ready for feeding has been a priority. Last year I made my own but this year with not so much spare time I have resorted to buying in bulk- just in case!!

This year as well I have had a go at making candles- not my own wax this year but hopefully next year I will have enough to clean up to use.

These candles are made with sheets of what looks like foundation in different colours- very easy to make and just right for beekeepers to give as Christmas presents!

Woodpecker Protection

The varroa treatment is done, the stores are up to strength, reduced entrance blocks in- almost ready for the winter! One thing left to be done- to protect the hives from woodpeckers!!
In the garden there should be no problem, we have never seen or heard woodpeckers; but on the Cordwood site they may be a problem. Hives can sit for years and never be bothered by woodpeckers, but once found it appears they pass on the knowledge about the presence of easy winter food. Beekeepers don't seem sure whether it is the honey, comb or bees and larvae that are the attraction but it is not worth taking the risk when we hear green woodpeckers regularly on site. The hives can be damaged or destroyed, resulting in the colony left open to the elements to die. So many thanks to Rob and Jim who joined us and made a fantastic job of constructing protective cages for the hives. Let's hope the bees appreciate it !!!

Honey Show

Those of you who know us and have followed the saga of our bees this year will be aware of the angst we had trying to get the bees to go up into the supers to store honey in May and June.  We had swarms and our original hive has now ended up being four hives. So the bees had to build up their strength before they could get out there and collect surplus honey. We tried smearing honey on the frames, changing queen excluders and Mary kindly gave us drawn frames to try and encourage reluctant bees to give us some of their bounty!
So, at the end of the honey season we have been very proud of the bees efforts this year- we collected about 50 lbs of honey in total from the 2 Cordwood hives and the Garden hive. From the Cordwood bees there was light and very dark honey; taken in July and August. The garden bees gave us about 19lbs in August- classed as light honey but a richer colour than that earlier in the year. Maybe not the most prolific harvest but nevertheless we were happy.
This week was the Notts Beekeepers Honey Show and we decided to have a go with our three types of honey- I thought they would be light, medium and dark- but in fact when it came to it we had 2 light and a dark. So I entered the garden honey in the beginner's class and  the Cordwood honey in the light and dark classes.

Well done bees!!!

Going into Autumn

Stores for the winter!

As the days shorten the bees are getting ready for the winter and to help them this is the time of year that we have a targeted offensive against the varroa mite. As the bees slow down for winter and form a cluster the varroa mite just keeps going, so if they go into winter with a big population they can overwhelm the bees and they won't make it through the winter. This year we have used 2 forms of control- Apiguard on the bees on the Cordwood site and ApiLife Var on the hive in the garden- nothing really scientific about it as the hives and sites are so different. The bees in the garden have not had a very big drop as the treatment went on and the concern must be is the treatment doing it's job or were there not that many varroa? This hive was a very small nucleus and has become active and very busy. It has produced about 15lbs of honey and seems to be collecting enough stores to sustain the bees over the winter without any help from us.
The bees on the Cordwood site have produced about 35lbs of honey from 2 of the hives- the third hive wasn't very big and we didn't take any honey from them this year. The drop of Varroa has tailed off over the treatment but there were still a few on the floor when we took off the tray of Apiguard- something to keep a watch on over the next few months and maybe consider further treatment during the winter.
These three hives have a moderate amount of stores but just to be sure over the next week or so we will put on some 2:1 syrup to build them up for the winter, although with the recent record temperatures I wonder what the reaction will be!!

ApiGaurd tray on top of the frames.

Figs

I was given a recipe recently for Fig, Honey and Thyme Tart- it looked tasty and being keen to try my honey in recipes I decided to give it a try. However, I could not get my hands on any figs, I made the tart with blackberries as we have been picking them for some weeks. The tart was lovely. At the top of our garden we have had a Brown Turkey fig tree for a few years- it often tempts us with some tiny,green figs- but they never come to anything, dropping off way before they are ready.

So, imagine how suprised I was when I was checking on the bees and whether the apples were ready to pick,when I spied not one but two brown figs!!

They were soon eaten and were absolutely delicious!

Honey Harvest

Earlier this year when the bees were swarming and all we seemed to be doing was collecting bees and trying to build up new colonies, honey seemed a bit of a dream. But now at the end of the season we are pleased to say that we are happy with our harvest of honey. We have been able to take small amounts from the woodland apiary at Waxwings/Cordwood in both July and August and even some from the very smallest colony in the garden which has built up brilliantly and has lots of stores for the winter already.
The season has been incredibly dry and the woodland nectar appears to have slowed down much earlier than normal- where we had expected the bees to build up stores for themselves we have had to feed these colonies before the varroa treatments went on. However the farmer has given them a bit of a bonus- we have noticed a field boundary of sunflowers all in flower now, well within reach of the bees!

What has intrigued me more than anything is the difference in the honey we have collected- the July honey a beautiful pale amber with a mild flavour, but the August honey from the same bees as dark almost as Guiness and tasting of much more complex flavours!

August

I can't believe nearly a whole month has gone by without updating the blog- it has been a busy and enjoyable time with holidays and visiting family.

Had a great time on Colonsay - the weather was mostly fine and sunny. We spent time walking, bird watching and identifying wildflowers!! Colonsay House gardens was a special afternoon with great views of Apis Mellifera Mellifera, the original  British black bee that dissappeared from Britain after the mainland population was wiped out earlier last century.

Clean Frames

After the honey has been taken out of the frames they are still very sticky with delicious honey that just can't be got out- at least by us! The frames are traditionally put back on the hive for the bees to 'lick' clean. 



Before- sticky!!



After- clean and dry!

 It's amazing how pristine the frames are- all clean, ready to store or fill again!!

Honey in Jars

The next day the honey was ready to put into jars- we used a mixture of 12oz and 1lb jars. There was still quite a bit of air in the honey but with standing that should settle out and the honey should be clearer. We collected just over 20 lbs from the super. Not to waste any I collected the honey from the cappings and took a jar out without filtering to see what it would be like.

The honey has gradually cleared over a period of days and although I don't think it will go crystal clear it tastes delicious!!

Honey at Last!!

At last, the time came to take off our first super of honey. The extractor, jars, strainer and so on were all clean and ready to go. The super had been cleared using porter bee escapes left on for just over 24 hours.
We collected the super on Thursday afternoon, covered it and took it home ready to remove the cappings and spin the honey off. Nine frames were beautifully capped- I used a sharp serrated knife to remove the cappings, this seemed to work fine- the cappings fell into a tray. Not to bee wasted, I later emptied them into a sieve and they filled a 12oz jar!!!


Capped honey



Removing the cappings






















Ready for extraction


The uncapped frames were then placed in the extractor ready for spinning. Lid closed and away we went- at first it was hard to know how hard to turn the handle but gradually it became clear that it needed a fair bit of effort and then you could hear the honey pattering on the sides of the drum.

We only had one lot of frames to spin so there was enough room at the bottom of the extractor to let the honey collect before we needed to take any out, so we finished the extraction and let the honey drain down before opening the honey tap to let the honey flow into the double sieve to filter out all the bits of wax.



Draining into the settling tank

It took quite a while for the honey to drain through in to the settling tank, so we just left it to pour through, put the lid on the tank and allowed some of the air bubbles to begin to settle out ready to put into jars.

Three Supers!!!

Before

Today we decided to put a new super on WW 1 to give them more space- we moved the full super to the top, the next one down and an empty super in between.
The full super was too heavy for me to lift on top of the whole lot by myself- luckily Trev was there to help get everything back together.

After !

Looks impressive with all those supers- they may not fill the empty one with honey , but if they draw some of the foundation that would be a great help for encouraging the bees to get started next year. Our plan is to clear the top super this week and extract the honey- another new experience and one we are looking forward to!!!

Bee Update

Its been a while since I updated the bee news so here goes - forgot camera again, but now we have made a check list so it may get better!!
Home Hive is picking up brilliantly- have not seen a queen but she's there with lots of stores- I think this hive should build up beautifully now to over winter. There is a super on the hive with a couple of frames being used but will probably leave these stores for the bees unless the forage is fantastic in the next few weeks.
Waxwings Apiary is looking good- 3 hives now doing well.
WW 1 now has 2 supers , 1 almost full of capped stores and the bees thriving. However by the end of the last inspection the bees did seem fussy- these have been good natured bees so far so we are wondering if anything is not right here. Perhaps giving them a new super and removing the full one might be a good idea, so next time we may try that and see how they go.
WW 2, again building up beautifully- the brood box full of brood in all stages and moved up into the super on about 4 frames.
WW 3 is the last hive to be moved on site and I was concerned this was a small nucleus, but again they have been expanding and are using all but the last sides of the end frames. There won't be honey from these bees this year but I'm hoping they will be strong enough to go into over wintering preparation without worry.
The forage at the moment is good- the limes about finished but the smell of the Sweet Chestnut has been almost overpowering on site sometimes recently - way too early;  however there is still plenty of Rosebay Willow Herb and Brambles around so will not worry about forage for a couple of weeks yet!

Hampton Court Flower Show

Last weekend the family visited Hampton Court Flower Show- a long held ambition that proved to be as good as we hoped. People who know us well know that we are rubbish at remembering to take our camera when we go places- this was no exception, the camera was ready but left on the back seat of the car. Luckily our children are better in this respect so we do have some photos!


I am because of who we are

 The gardens were great- I particularly liked the planting in the World Vision garden where I was able to buy some of my favourites- a Verbena Lavender Spires, Gaura Whirling Butterflies and Salvia- all pollinator friendly!
The best show garden- I am, beacause of who we are- was beautiful, with a combination planting of silver birches, white foxgloves, grasses and fine textured foliage the overall effect was lovely.
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Shows-Events/Hampton-Court-Palace-Flower-Show/2011/Video/Video


World Vision



 However there was far too much to see in the time we had- the show gardens are not as big as they look on TV, but the floral marquee was well worth a tour and the Lewis Carroll theme was great to get the kids involved.

Leaf Cutter Bee

Fascinating behaviour from this little bee today- looks remarkably like a honey bee, the leaf cutter is a solitary bee. She kept returning to the same spot with her piece of leaf. We couldn't see where she was making her home though!

Honey At Last!!

On Saturday we inspected all 3 hive at Waxwings, Jill and Rob donned the suits and joined us. The hive we had moved- now W3- looked good, brood in all stages and plenty of stores. The move did not seem to have done any harm and they have settled well on the new site. We put a super on as there were bees on 10 frames in the brood box and the forage at the moment looks fine.
The other 2 hives were also looking great, especially W1 which had a super added last week- and today there was honey being stored on 5 frames, very satisfying!!

Rebecca phoned to tell me that she had spoken to beekeepers in Portsmouth at an Eco event- there they were having similar problems to Notts Beekeepers in that they had more swarming than normal, colonies that appeared queenless and also worries that the nectar flow had been badly affected by the dry weather.

Cherry Clafoutis

With a crop of about 3 and a half kilos of cherries this year I have looked for recipes to use them, as well as enjoying them as they come- they must be one of my favourite fruits! Clafoutis is an old favourite and this year I used a recipe from the Nigel Slater book-Tender 2. This book is excellent, organised in sections for each fruit alphabetically!
His recipe wasn't so different from others I have tried, it was delicious warm with a little drizzle of maple syrup.

Summer Fruit

I have not been able to get to the allotment in about a week- our youngest daughter had her 30th birthday this weekend so we had a great visit to Portsmouth to see the family and have lots of cake!!!
However the summer fruits have been cropping beautifully- the cherry tree in the garden has the biggest crop so far- have the bees made a difference to pollination? There have been strawberries for about 3 weeks now and yesterday Trev came home with raspberries and tayberries.


The broad beans are cropping and Trev made a lovely broad bean and bacon salad to go with the salad leaves for tea, alongside his homemade stilton and walnut rolls- what a treasure!!




Today's haul!

 

Moving Hives

We have been uncertain whether the two hives in the garden had laying queens for a while, but had already decided that we would like to move one of them to Waxwings. We decided the Newark hive was the one so about a week ago we inspected and prepared the hive for moving. Another new beekeeping experience! It became obvious as the inspection began that we did have a laying queen in this hive- we didn't see her, but there were very small larvae and lots of egg on the frames. As we were only going to be in the car for about 20 minutes we decided that with the open mesh floor there would be enough ventilation so we put 2 straps each way round the hive and left them until later in the day.
Bees have to be moved over 3 miles to a new home as they can 'remember' where they live. If they are not moved far enough they just come back from where they came from! So we were moving to Judith's garden about 5 miles away for a few days then up to Waxwings as their new home. We had to wait until the evening as bees will keep flying as long as they can on long summer evenings and although it was raining when we went up to block the entrance with foam there were still a few flying . I'm hoping these bees were allowed in to the remaining hive!
The journey was great- none of the horror stories about bees getting out or hives coming open and when we pulled out the foam a few intrepid bees had a peek out to see what was going on. On Tuesday back we went and repeated the process taking the hive up to the site at Waxwings.
Trevor had worked hard to clear a little space for the hive. This time we took the hive in the morning before the bees had started flying. We placed the hive on the slabs and pulled the foam out - and stood back. The bees began to fly out, another new place to explore! Later that day we went back to remove the straps, there were lots of bees busily flying in and out- they had obviously settled in. On Saturday we will inspect the hive when we check out W1 and W2, hopefully they will not have found the moving about too traumatic and the queen will still be getting on with building up the brood.

Elderflowers

It's that time of year again- the elderflowers are blooming and my thoughts turned to making cordial. I used the same recipe as last June, but this time I tried one batch with oranges as last time but made another batch with limes instead. I haven't yet tried both so can't express an opinion, but I'm hoping the limes will give the cordial a fresh edge.


Elderflower Cordial



Waxwings 1 and 2

Weekly inspection of W1 and W2 showed a laying queen busy in both hives. A welcome sight; we were concerned about the amount of stores so gave both hives a feed to give them a boost during this cooler, damp weather when the forage is a bit sparse- the lime trees should be out in a week or so to provide some natural nourishment, let's hope it gets a bit warmer!

Heligan

During our recent visit to Cornwall we visited The Lost Gardens of Heligan- a lovely garden where you can easily spend the day exploring. The gardens have been restored over a period of time and have areas of jungle, wild gardens as well as walled kitchen gardens and the Lost Valley to wander in. The weather wasn't the best for our visit but nevertheless I would recommend a visit to the gardens at any time of the year.



Bee Boles

These bee boles at Heligan show how people kept bees before the idea of hives were developed- the bees were kept in the skeps which each had a place in the wall protected by the wooden doors. You can just see a gap at the bottom of the door where the bees could go in and out to forage.

Four Hives

If you are following carefully you will know that we had to take a prime swarm up to the out apiary at Waxwings and leave them in a travelling box for want of any more equipment. This prompted a phone call about the nuc boxes that still hadn't arrived and a call, then a trip to Thorne's in Rand to collect a new hive. Thorne's kindly responded to my desperation and put together a flat pack hive for us- so there was hammering into the night to get brood box, frames etc finished for the next day.

Later on Thursday saw us with Jill and Rob ready to transfer the bees into a lovely new hive- and they were fantastic, they were crammed in the box and drawn all 5 frames of the foundation they had been given.There must have been a sigh of relief as we gave them another 6 frames and the room of a brood box. As an added incentive to stay we gave them a pint of syrup in a contact feeder and left them alone.

So now we have four hives- two at home and two at Waxwings and to simplify things we will call the hives at Waxwings 1 and 2 from now on!!
A quick update on Waxwings 1- brood, egg and stores on 8/9 frames so a super was put on today. There will be lots of forage on site, unseasonably early brambles and lime trees, so we are hopeful that this colony will thrive.

New Recipes

For my birthday I was lucky enough to have books- including the two new Nigel Slater books on Fruit and Vegetables. I had wanted to try a seasonal recipe using Rhubarb and polenta. This cake had flour in and as I needed something gluten free for a visit to Jen's I opted for his Elderflower, Honey and Polenta dessert. (Still a link to bees!!) He serves his cake with baked gooseberries, but our crop at the allotment was still little sour so seasonal strawberries have been chosen to go with it- oh- and having been teased about the yoghurt when we last had strawberries I have opted for full fat cream from Jersey cows to go on the side!!

The holes are where I drizzled the syrup made from honey, elderflower cordial and lemon  over the top- it looks very moist , can't wait to try it!

Another Cast

The swarm in the tree wasn't the last this week- a cast issued from the same hive 2 days later! These bees had nowhere to go- so they were collected and put back into the hive they had come out of to sort them selves out! I removed the queen excluder to give them more room, checked through to try and find if there were any queen cup and then emptied them straight in the top. Some didn't make it so I put up a ramp and shook them on to it so they could all march in- and they did!!

Eden

I have long wanted to visit the Eden Project and the Lost Gardens of Heligan in Cornwall, spring seemed the best time to view gardens so a visit was planned. Tim Smit has been instrumental in developing both these gardens. It is ten years since Eden opened and our first visit- obviously much has changed but the philosophy remains the same- education about the planet and the impact we are having with the way we live our lives.

The biomes are impressive- no doubt- it was interesting to see how some of the everyday products we take for granted are grown and how they impact on the earth. It made me think even more about what we grow at home and how that can be made not only sustainable but more effective in our use of space and the plants we grow. Radio's 4 Food Programme recently talked about the Forest Garden, growing more perennial plants that we can eat, how they are more likely to withstand extremes of weather as the climates changes. Rob on his blog http://sustainablegarden.blogspot.com/  recently referred  to how this principle is close to his heart as he developes his new site with his family. Definately a programme worth listening to and giving consideration to when planning for the future.


Cashews



Viewing Platform



Is That a Swarm in That Tree?

After a lovely break in Cornwall, confident that the bees should be fine, it was great to come back and see how things had progressed in the garden and allotment. I had thought of the posts I could write about the Lost Gardens of Heligan and the Eden Project ( and these will be written!). Sunday was a day to catch up with those jobs that always need doing when you have been away- including checking the bees at Waxwings but the others needed leaving a bit longer to give the new queen time to hatch and mate.
During the afternoon I decided to do some tidying up in the garden- around 5.30 my back started to complain so I began to tidy up. Mmm, quite a few bees round the pond I thought and looked up into the Viburnam that hangs over the water. There, fairly high up in the bush was a lovely, calm swarm of bees just hanging there- the odd one flying out and back. Were they ours? Probably, I had thought the hive didn't seem quite right but we had been VERY careful about only leaving one good queen cell. Had they tried to make an emergency queen cell from a larva that was too old? One thing I have learnt from these bees- they like to swarm, whatever I do!
So, feeling a sense of responsibilty and wondering just how long they had been there- out came the nappy box and white sheet again- a branch loped off and the swarm collected. The only problem, no more equipment, I had ordered nucleus boxes before we went away for just this eventuality but had been let down. After a phone call on Saturday I had been promised delivery on Wednesday, not much good now with a swarm to find a home for. The only thing available was a travelling box made of Correlex, luckily I had got 5 brood frames to put in it, so that was it.
The bees took a while to get in the box, so I had time to make up the frames and we got ready to take them straight up to Waxwings. Hopefully the neighbours up there were not too concerned that as it was just starting to get dark 2 people dressed in full beekeeping gear were wandering around. The travelling box was surrounded by bricks to keep it secure and the bees shaken in- alot of them didn't make it, so we fashioned a little ramp out of wood and shook them onto that and left them walking up. After about half a hour they were all more or less settled. We left them to it- today it is cool and raining, so maybe they will stay for a bit rather than get wet, we will just have to wait and see- hopefully those wooden nucs will arrive in time for them to make a home for another colony of our swarmed bees !

It was a lovely evening, there were bats flying around as we left Waxwings, but at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night we were wondering- what had we done before bees?!

Makeshift ramp and home for bees!



Rainy Monday and they're still there!!



Garden Orchids

In common with the rest of my family I like to grow orchids- both more exotic ones in the house and hardy ones in the garden. This year I wasn't sure how they would respond after having been moved and disturbed during our garden redesign. But they don't seem to have been too badly affected, although the dry weather is probably having an effect which may reveal itself as the year progresses.

The Trilliums in the garden have also done well despite the transplanting- I particularly like the way this Grandiflora changes to a dark pink before it fades away.