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!!