Compost Corner

The recent wet weather has meant we have been unable to get on the ground at the allotment so we are pleased that the compost bays were complete before a stream began to flow through the middle of the plot.

There are four bays allowing for rotation and turning, leaves are delivered to the allotments in the autumn and these along with layers of manure compost down in about a year or so. Leaves on their own give good soil conditioner but not much nutrition so mixing them with manure gives a good all round finished compost.

In to the other bays and 2 black bins go annual weeds, trimmings and prunings and some of the compostable rubbish from home. Along with the wormery we are doing fairly well in cutting down what we ahve to throw away!

Mead

Unlike some bee-keepers this year we had a reasonable crop of honey, especially considering the bees didn't settle to any normal pattern of behaviour. But some of the honey we had taken off late this year was still 20% water, usually we hope the water content goes down to around 18%. The higher the water content the honey does not always keep so well and may ferment- we have had a couple of jars look a bit doubtful so decided to check out the others and use them before they went the same way- the obvious thing to use them for was to make mead!

Like many people our age (!) we had gone through a home brewing stage and at the back of the cupboard under the stairs we have a cluster of demijohns and a box of wine making equipment. So really there was nothing to lose! Out they came and were sterilised- new wine yeast and yeast nutrient were bought and a simple recipe found.

After reading a lot of recipes I decide to just try a really simple, basic one:-

1.5 kg honey
1 tspn yeast nutrient
1 tspn wine yeast
Water

Heating the honey with cinnamon and cloves

I heated the honey with a litre of boiling water until it reached 140 F and kept it there for about 25 mins- this was to kill the natural yeast which can be unpredictable flavour-wise. Then I left it to cool down, added the nutrient and yeast, gave it a good shake, poured it into the demijohn and topped up with filtered water. I made 2 batches, one of them I put a cinnamon stick and a few cloves in as I heated it- just out of interest to see if it would pick up the flavours.
 Just in case the fermentation got too vigorous I put the demijohns in the bath so it wouldn't make too much mess!
After about half an hour they were both bubbling away and today- after 24 hours , not overflowing but steady and strong! It seems that it is now just a matter of time to wait while the fermentation stops, then letting the wine clear and racking it off - all of which will probably take a few months- I need to find somewhere else for the bottles to go for now though!

New Shed

Once the old shed had been demolished the tricky bit of levelling the site remained. Luckily Mike and Eileen were there to help - a big thank you to them both for their help in taking down the new shed from its old plot, moving and re-assembling it on Plot 87!

It makes a big difference- there is potentially more space at the top of the allotment- we hope to open it out and move the blackberry and tayberry to have a bit of standing ground for plants and maybe a potting bench- all plans for the future. We have already started work on the new compost area at the bottom of the allotment and hope to get the new cordon fruit trees in before too long. 

On the bee front - all the hives seem busy whenever we see them, I am not completely happy that the supplies they have taken in are going to be enough, we have hefted the hives to gauge the weight and will keep a close eye on them to see if or when feeding will be necessary. Some of the colonies were very small which is an added concern, we shall just have to wait and see! I have had my 2nd dose of venom in the de-sensitisation program and so far no problems!

Shed Demolition

So this week the shed demolition began- it looks old, rotten and ready to go -but whoever put it up had made a good job, using 6 inch nails all over the place!

Windows gone and stripped out.

The corrugated tin roof did not want to come off - but we hope to use it in a new compost area.

Just missed the greenhouse, but mostly down!

It took nearly 2 days to get to the cutting up stage- luckily the association was having a tidy up of other gardens and a fire was planned and we were able to burn all the bits that were rotten or couldn't be used again. The next step though is probably hardest- clearing the ground and levelling for the new shed- watch this space!!

Autumn on the Allotment

Over the past few weeks we have been fairly busy - a relaxing holiday in the Cotswolds with Gemma, followed by a lovely  visit from Rebecca, Adam and our Grandsons.

Another Cotswold village!

Sherwood Forest

The bees have been treated for varroa and fed until they seem like they're full- oddly the hives we have experimentally tried feeding with their own honey don't seem to have taken much down and we are not sure why. Some of the colonies were quite small as they had decided to re-queen late in the year- they have taken stores down but still have space to keep warm with fewer bees- it remains to be seen how they will fair over winter. The weather has been mild and every time we have visited them they are busy flying- lots of ivy is flowering nearby so they will have been collecting this to add to what we have fed them.

When we took over our allotment plot about 7 years ago there was a resident shed- slightly at an angle and the sort of arrangement often seen on allotments - 2 sheds cobbled together!  The general consensus was that it wouldn't last long! Over the years though it had settled and stood it's ground. This autumn though it was leaking, our seed had been eaten and we decided to replace it. to look at you'd think it could be pushed down but the shed wasn't going to go without a fight!

Moorgreen Show

August Bank holiday must see lots of local agricultural and horticultural shows around the country- in Notts the Moorgreen Show is the popular one.

Usually we are away visiting family, but this year we were at home so we had the chance to enter the honey show and we were keen to have a go at wax. We had good results earlier in the year with our solar wax extractor- recently the weather has not been as sunny so results have been a bit hit and miss, but there was enough wax to try and make the 6 one ounce bars needed to show.

Results - we entered the Light Honey, Set Honey and Wax classes , first prize for wax, and thirds for both honeys. The next show is Lowdham at the beginning of October- I am hoping to enter honey, wax and cake!

(Note   : I wrote this post and scheduled it on the 24th August so not sure what happened here, but this post seems to be out of the timeline!!)

Bee Holiday

Today the weather is awful- rain and windy- so we can't get out to work in the allotment or garden, it's a baking day, as well as spinning the last of the honey this year and melting down the wax.

In preparing the bees for winter we had taken off the last super and started Apiguard treatment to combat Varroa - this takes a month to complete and then it's time to make sure the bees have enough stores to see them through the winter, so usually this means feeding to top up the stores. Last year we didn't have to feed the bees in the garden they managed fine to fill the hive- urban bees have the luxury of lots of late garden forage. Bees in the countryside often struggle unless there is Himalayan Balsam or ivy flowering nearby. Feelings are mixed about ivy as forage- it can set very hard in the comb meaning that the bees may have trouble accessing it when needed.

Himalayan Balsam

We had begun to unite our hives and our intention was to go into winter with only 4 as last year. Unfortunately - as the saying goes sh** happens- and while working with the bees about 6 weeks ago I got stung. Not unusual you may think for a beekeeper, but this time I had an anaphalaxic reaction and ended up in hospital, with a 'don't go near bees' and an EpiPen from the doctor.

So Trev, along with some fantastic people from the Notts BKA have taken over looking after the bees in preparation for winter. Ultimately it means that we will have to have a holiday from the bees - I am hopeful that venom immunology will work for me and that it will not be too long before I can work with the bees again, but it will be at least a year from what I understand so we are looking for new homes for them in the spring.

Bake Off!

It is that time of year again- The Great British Bake Off is on TV! As a family we like to bake- Trev bakes the bread, so the episode about bread always raises new possibilities and this time was no exception- bagels!!

So out came the recipes and we had a go- I have to say with great results- Trev produced not only bagels but plaited (OK only three plaits but why get complicated?) walnut and Stilton loaf for tea, as well as our everyday loaf- what a baker!

Uniting Colonies

Earlier in the month I talked about the newspaper method often used to unite colonies of bees. Basically to give the bees time to get used to each other they are separated by a sheet of newspaper with a few holes punched in. One colony has a queen (queen right) the other does not- opinion varies which should go on top but this time we put the colony with the queen on the bottom, then newspaper then the brood box with no queen on top of that. That colony had supers with stores so we also put those on top.

The bees are then given time to chew through the newspaper- by the time they have they are all used to each other and should get on! 

The bees eat away the newspaper.

Time has to be given for any brood in the top brood box to hatch and then it can be cleared and taken away leaving just one brood box with the queen and new brood.

The bits of newspaper are thrown out of the hive - it looks just like dust!

Venetian Carrot Cake

For the recent Allotment Show refreshments were provided and I made some carrot cake- I used the Hummingbird Bakery recipe (http://hummingbirdbakery.com/)  it was delicious and moist, but I also came across a recipe from Nigella for a gluten free carrot cake- and decided to give this a try as well , (http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/gluten-free_and_11807 ) as it has no flour there are lots of ground almonds alongside the carrots and sultanas in rum! Instead of butter the cake also uses olive oil- it specifies regular olive oil, as I only had extra virgin oil I thought I would give some cold pressed rape seed oil a try- on the bottle it suggests using in place of butter in baking.

The results were delicious- not a light sponge but a fairly dense and rich cake- I would make it again for the right occasion , but the Hummingbird recipe is lovely as an everyday easy carrot cake - I made it as a tray bake with a small amount of the cream cheese frosting on top which worked brilliantly and was much easier to eat outdoors than the layered cake in the book.

Bees in the Hive?

When I began to think about bee keeping and took a course I was given a little laminated card with the 5 questions to answer when you do a hive inspection.

Earlier in the year after a family get together when we had to deal with a swarm we found our 5 questions had been made 6! 

Well this week the answer most definitely was no, some of them were under the hive! The last colony we have this year with a white queen had decided they wanted a new queen- they began making queen cells. We removed the queen and left just one strong cell. All seemed well until it seemed obvious there was no laying queen in the hive. We decided to unite it with the hive nearest which had a good laying queen, ultimately we want to go into the winter with 4 hives again and after artificial swarms this year we have 8 so it seemed logical to begin uniting now while there is a good nectar flow on. The hive with no queen has filled the brood box and 2 supers with stores and seemed very calm, so preparations were made. Gradually we moved the hives closer and it was then that I noticed a huddle of bees between the hive floor and the varroa slide. 

Thinking the queen may somehow have ended up under the hive I tried to brush them out and them emptied them back in the hive. Next day they were back, so we decided to leave them and deal with them after we merged the hive and could get to them under the floor. It took about 3 days to get the 2 hives gradually close enough to merge and on Saturday evening we united the 2 hives with the newspaper method- I will explain this another time!

It became obvious in those 3 days the bees had made themselves at home- they had begun to make comb! 

We had taken a nucleus box with us and emptied the bees into this and as I emptied them in I saw the queen- a beautiful big plump queen! The comb they had made was lovely new wax and it clearly shows how bees make their own bee space as they build. As I looked through the comb I could also see new eggs- so the queen had mated - quite how she had ended up under the hive is a mystery- we have had some awful weather and it may be that she had somehow not made the entrance as she came back from her mating flight and had just crawled up underneath and taken up residence there. The bees inside the hive must have sensed  her there and just kept on doing what they should.

After 24 hours the merged hive looked busy- no signs of newspaper outside yet, but lots of bees going in the nuc box as well. So although we have merged 2 hives we now have ended up with another nucleus to deal with, and one with what looks like a lovely queen at that!

Wormery

I have long promised myself a wormery and as the compost bin in the garden was on the verge of collapse it seemed the perfect time to get a wormery to put in the garden to cope with the waste we produce in the kitchen. So I ordered a wormery from Wiggly Wigglers (www.wigglywigglers.co.uk) and this week I have set it up! It fits neatly next to the recycling bins, is easy to to set up and the worms are fascinating. Most of the things that we would put on the compost can go in, as well as things like dust from the vacuum cleaner.

Adding worms!

When the worms have settled in it is OK to start adding waste. Not too much to start with, the worms need a chance to get going - but to keep the wormery fresh it is a good idea to add crushed egg shells or lime mix regularly to stop everything getting too acid. We keep a caddy in the kitchen to collect the waste so it is more convenient to go to the wormery when that is full. An important spin off to getting lovely compost to use in the garden or allotment is that the worms produce liquid feed that can be drained off and diluted to water on the fruit and veg!

Worm Cafe in use

Preserving

Having arrived back from our holidays to find the weather had not improved we were surprised to find loads of strawberries- we picked 8 punnets of lovely ripe fruit!
As there were too many to eat fresh I decided to make some strawberry conserve- I used fresh redcurrant juice from some redcurrants that I had in the freezer to help with setting and the jam set beautifully and I also found a use for some of the many redcurrants that I still have stored!

As well as the strawberries the cherries were starting to ripen on the tree- and the birds were having a feast. We decided to pick as any as we could - again a really good crop. I love the idea of preserving - a row of jars,  tins or bags full of things ready to store to eat later gives me a real sense of satisfaction. (Simple pleasures!!) So, something I have never done before- cherries in brandy- I followed an age old recipe by Mrs Beeton, basically pack the cherries in to jars with layers of sugar and top up with brandy. Very easy but after a couple of weeks the cherries have gone an anaemic colour- the recipe says to leave them a couple of months - I was hoping to use them at Christmas. We will just have to wait and see if the bottle of brandy was worth the expense!!

Coll and Tiree

Summer holidays? OK so we have had a great holiday on the Hebridean island of Coll, with a visit to Tiree thrown in, but I'm not sure about whether I can call it a summer holiday because the weather throughout the UK does not seem to realise that it is July!!

Beautiful scenery and some of the best beaches in the UK, we saw basking sharks, heard Corncrakes, had regular visits from a male Hen Harrier, saw Red Throated divers with their chicks and practised 'strolling' and kite flying!

Fantastic beaches 

Coll has some of the rarest Bumblebees in Britain- the Great Yellow Bumblebee is found here and although we didn't spot it we did see the Moss Carder Bumblebee on the machair. In Coll the RSPB manage areas of the machair for the Corncrake population and as the bees are found in similar areas it could be supposed that the management techniques are beneficial to both.

Moss Carder Bumblebee working the white clover

Elderflower Cordial Again

It's that time of year again- the elderflowers are blooming and we have been foraging! This year we have collected the flowers early enough to make a couple of batches, I have tried using a small amount of campden tablet in the finished cordial to help with the problem of fermentation, apparently this will mean that it can be kept almost indefinitely!

Elderflowers ready to collect.

I have used more or less the same recipe as before (June 2010) using limes and lemons- I would like to try using honey but am not sure if the flavour of the flowers will be overpowered by the honey flavour. The local shops have sold out of citric acid so I have ordered some on-line- it just means that I will have to wait and hope there are still some flowers left when it comes to make more!

First Strawberries

Marshmallow strawberries- hopefully the first of many.

With the summer getting off to such an unpredictable start it's not wonder that our crops on the allotment  are all over the place- the asparagus seems to have completely given up and we have just picked the first few strawberries!

Only a few spears of asparagus have shown themselves so far this year!

The greengage tree in the garden has lost all its fruit in the storms and late cold spell, although it looks as if the Victoria plum may have some fruit to come later in the season. The Stella cherry has fruit, a reasonable crop if we can get it- I've just realised we have booked to go away just at the time we picked last year- hopefully with the season being so out of sorts they will still be there when we get back!

New Nucs

This year I decided to have a go at raising a nucleus to sell to a new beekeeper. In fact because the bees have done so well we have two beautiful 5 frame nuc boxes ready to move on- unfortunately it seems that everyone who wants bees have them so we needed to find them a new home.

 So one nucleus found a new home in the hive we got from Caddon Hives; to help them build up even more we put a frame of capped brood from the other nuc in with them and gave that nuc a new frame of foundation to keep them busy and give them more room.

The frame we moved shows a classic pattern of capped brood , pollen and honey arch - we use wired foundation and this frame shows how the queen has avoided laying in the cells where the wire runs through the wax base.

 The other hives seem to be going ok, the brood halves of the artificial swarms now have new laying queens, these will hopefully build up and be strong enough to store some honey from the late summer( if it comes!) flow. The 3 hives we have from the other half of the artificial swarms - one still has the white queen, but the other two have insisted on requeening and we are waiting to see evidence of their success in raising a new mated queen. Meanwhile we have taken nearly 80 lbs of honey from the early honey flow- some of this honey is now showing signs of granulating but has a fine texture and is delicious.

Trevor's Honey!

This week we have been harvesting more honey! For last weeks batch we finished off our 12oz jars labelled as Cordwood Apiary Honey, as we had decided to focus on the 1lb or 454g packaging from now, especially as we had the labelling and website designed for us by Simon of Cubic.  http://www.cubicstudio.co.uk/

We are still not sure if this has some Oil Seed Rape honey along side the early tree and wildflower forage, other beekeepers we have spoken to say theirs has already begun to granulate but ours is still runny, although it is cloudier than last years later crop - maybe this is an indication that it will be set honey. It is interesting to hear which honey people prefer- we have honey and lemon/lime everyday and it doesn't matter whether it is set or not, set is certainly easier to spread as the runny can get messy, but to drizzle on porridge and fruit and yoghurt the runny is best!
Honey is a saturated solution of mainly glucose and fructose, if there is a higher percentage of glucose then it tends to crystallise or set more quickly. When there is more fructose the honey will take much longer to granulate- it all depends on the nectar that the bees collect! To help liquidise set honey it can be warmed through by standing in hot water for a while and giving it a stir- also I have heard people say it is OK to remove the lid and put in the microwave for a few seconds before stirring to help it go runny.
Trevor's Honey website-www.trevorshoney.com

Honey in May

Although the bees have been keeping us on our toes this month they have also been doing what they should. On Monday we put clearer boards ( boards that will let the bees go out of a super but not go back in) on 2 hives- the hive we had moved from garden had 3 supers on! On Tuesday evening we went back to bring them home and yesterday we spun the honey from them. The frames had a lot of pollen in them- earlier in the year the bees were finding plenty of pollen but not much nectar- hence the worry about starving bees with some beekeepers having to feed their bees.

Pollen filling lots of the cells in the frames.

We kept the two supers separate- the super taken from the garden hive was filled before we moved it to Cordwood so will be from different forage sources than the one from Cordwood. We can see Oil Seed Rape fields on the farm from the hives and although most of this super was also filled while the weather was fairly poor it could be Rape Honey which will granulate quickly- we will have to wait and see.
In total we filled 44 X 12 oz jars from the 2 supers- about 33lbs- not bad when lots of pollen was left behind to go back to the bees- hopefully they will still use this and clear the frames for more honey!

Solar Wax Extractor

Over a period of time doing inspections and extracting honey a pile of dirty wax begins to grow- reluctant to waste anything beekeepers tend to keep it in boxes until it can't be ignored. Cleaned wax can be used for lots of things- candles, lotions and potions as well as being swapped for new wax foundation. The problem is cleaning the wax- solar wax extractors are used by lots of beekeepers but they are expensive to buy for what the average beekeeper would need it for.
So, a search on one of the beekeeping blogs http://beekeeperlinda.blogspot.co.uk/  I follow produced a home made verion- something of a Heath Robinson afair but well within my means!

Step one was to gather the equipment needed- a polystryene box ( used to transport broccoli to the school kitchen)- this was painted black and lined with foil. All these things easy enough to find. Then a tub with a couple of inches of water covered with kitchen roll held in place by an elastic band is placed inside. The wax is scrunched into balls and placed on top of the kitchen paper. A piece of glass is put over the top of the box and the whole things put in the sunniest spot you can find - usually a tricky thing to do in Nottingham but with the recent hot weather , no problem!

Black paint on the outside to absorb the heat.

Water in the tub covered with kitchen paper



Wax - brace comb, capping etc.




Ready for the sun!

We could see results within an hour, the wax melts and drips through the paper leaving the gunge behind.





 

The results are amazing - I separated the types of wax- the cappings gave the paler wax and the brace comb a rich butter colour. The only thing now is to decide what to use the wax for!



Pollinators

At this time of year the strawberries are beginning to flower, the blueberries are waiting to be pollinated, broad beans bursting with blooms- but on Monday on the allotment, not a sign of any pollinators flying. The weather (again) cold for the time of year. The forcast for this week is for sun and heat so hopefully there will be evidence of those insects we rely on doing their jobs!!


Strawberries- beautiful pink flowers!



Blueberries- lots of flowers, lets hope for a good crop!

This year we have planted a whole bed of strawberries, some Marshmellow, some of the everbearing varieties such as Albion and a late harvester called Florence- a delicious variety we tasted last year. Later in the year I hope to say which is the best after having tasted lots!!

Absconding Bees

To house the beautiful prime swarm we caught at Cordwood I bought a new hive- delivery was promised in 48 hours, which seemed fine- time to build it and get the swarm settled in before they began to feel the pinch. However, it was not to be- Yodel's 48 hour delivery turned into a week and although the suppliers kindly sent another (which arrived by TNT before the Yodel) the bees had had enough of being cramped in and set off to find a new home. Most annoying of all is that it was only a day too late! Better news of the little cluster of bees I collected from under the hive and the cast that came from the same hive as the prime swarm- both have settled in the nucs - one already laying, the other hopefully with the weather turning fair not far behind. The 3 hives we have artificially swarmed are doing well, but the other halves of these with the virgin queens have yet to start laying- the bad weather will probably have delayed them taking a mating flight so slightly anxious times until we know what is happening there.

Beeing Busy

Well the weather doesn't know what to do- it's cold and wet and it looks like the bees don't know what to do either!
We thought that we had them under control- but life finds a way to show you it has a mind of it's own.
We knew that because of circumstance 2 hives had not been rechecked to ensure the bees had not tried to make emergency queen cells from larvae that is too old, but hoped that they would raise the one cell we had left and knock down the others. But no- too much to ask - they had obviously raised more because last Wednesday we had a swarm- a beauty, which luckily Rob spotted and tracked and we were able to collect.

What I don't understand though is why the bees in our garden hive raised a queen cell on the frame of egg and brood we had put in with the old queen when we did the artificial swarm- this had been checked and seemed fine, not drawing the comb very vigorously even though they had plenty of stores and there were lots of bees in the hive. They capped the queen cell and the old queen swarmed., in the garden the bees don't seem to go far- they were easy to catch, but made us realise that maybe the garden is not the place for them.

All equipment having been used, these bees went back in the hive they came from with a queen excluder under the brood box after knocking out the queen cell and checking there were no more. We will see what they do now- they are filling the 2 supers up, hopefully they put some effort into developing a strong colony as well.

Dad, Grandad and Great Grandad

Not a happy post but something that can't be ignored- after being ill for a while Dad finally couldn't fight off a bout of pneumonia and died in the early hours of the 30th April. He had managed to see his 97th birthday. The loss we feel at the moment is immense and although I'm sure time will make it easier at the moment the whole family is struggling with the gap his loss has left in our lives.

26th April 1915- 30th April 2012

Hive City!!

Well, Thursday the weather held off enough for us to inspect Hive 3 at Cordwood- and yes there were swarm cells- some lovely cells with royal jelly and larvae, fairly well developed. So back into artificial swarm mode we went- we are getting fairly slick at this now. I am so pleased we took the time to get equipment ready during the winter and early spring. As the weather held off long enough we also went through the brood hive we had moved to Cordwood and knocked down all but one sealed queen cell. This frame we marked with a drawing pin to make it easy to keep track of. I have also realised just how important record keeping is- the more hives you have it's not so easy to remember what you have done, it needs to be written down.



Hive City- six hives and a nuc at Cordwood!

 So now we have seven hives to look after and the tiny nuc which amazingly is feeding and were flying well on Thursday. Since then weather has been awful- there has been an email from FERA to warn about bees starving because they can't get out to forage.
The weather looks fair for Monday and jobs for that day will include-
* a check on the garden hive to see if the queen is laying and they are getting on OK.
* going through the old brood of Hive 1 (1B)to knock down any emergency queen cells the bees have made since the artificial swarm.
* a quick look in the now Hive 1A to see if the old queen in there is laying and the bees are getting on OK.
Also possibly going through Hive 3- the old brood and the box with the original queen in- this is where timings get crucial. This artificial swarm was done on Thursday- the queen cell is open (egg and larvae) for 8 days then sealed for 8 days so when to check and knock off extra cells is important. If you check too soon the bees could still try to make a queen cell from an  egg or larvae that in theory is too old. Hopefully in this case though, the successful queen will destroy these when she hatches, but there is just the possibility that the bees will decide to swarm with her instead. Decisions, decisions!!
In the back ground of the picture you may be able to make out the diggers which have now moved in and made a serious start on the preparations for the building at Corwood- you can follow the progress on Rob's blog at http://sustainablegarden.blogspot.co.uk/
Exciting times all round!

Update - Artificial Swarms

A quick update on the small cluster of bees that insisted on staying under the hive- after I had scooped them into the nucleus box and left them overnight, they were still there the next day! I put a feeder over them and dribbled a bit of syrup over them to encourage them - after all these bees had been out in the rain and wind for quite a while. They were clustered in the top corner of the nuc- not much bigger than a tennis ball and probably will come to nothing because I can't imagine a queen is in there with them, but I don't like to just abandon them. The weather has been awful- a yellow warning of heavy rain - so we are still trying to check the last hive at Cordwood , the others had shown signs of swarming so we are prepared with plenty of equipment, hopefully the weather will hold them back so we will be able to sort them out. We still also have to check the old brood boxes from the artificial swarms to make sure they only have one good queen cell, otherwise they may be tempted to cast with the virgin queens. So, plenty to do but we are waiting for the weather to give us an opening!

Artificial Swarm

So after the hive at Cordwood showed us what can happen when you can't get into a hive regularly, I was particularly keen to get into the Garden Hive. The weather gave us a break on Saturday afternoon and we took the opportunity to inspect them. And there indeed were some small queen cups containing tiny larvae and royal jelly. So, an artificial swarm was the course of action. The only problem was in a very full brood box we had to find the queen- and she wasn't going to make it easy for us.Once through the hive and no luck so back through the frames again- this time I decided to check a frame and put it into a nuc box as I did. On the third frame there she was so I put her in the nuc on her frame. Then text book artificial swarm - new brood box on the original site and old brood with frames and nurse bees moved to one side so the flying bees go back to the old queen. The idea is to persuade the bees they have already swarmed. The frame left with the old queen has to be free of queen cells and I was pretty ruthless in knocking out anything suspicious! Today, Sunday and the hive looks fine, there are bees already taking in pollen and the old brood box now with no flying bees has been moved and given a feed of syrup. Hopefully these bees will raise one of the queen cups, she will hatch and mate. I will leave this hive alone now for probably 3 to 4 weeks unless there is a problem to give the new queen time to get established.


Old hive with brood to one side and new brood box with old queen and flying bees.

 The old hive - the brood with the queen cups and non flying bees will find a temporary home at Cordwood- I am thinking that maybe if successful this hive may be passed on to a new beekeeper as a whole colony. It should have built up well by the time of the summer flow and produce honey later this year.

What's going on?

OK so I wonder is anyone else having blog problems- I have written posts and scheduled them but either they are not appearing or only the title! My last post about the little pile of dead bees outside the hive seems to be lost and I haven't the heart to go back and write it again- especially as the weather is conspiring against us getting into the hives.
Yesterday- after a gap of 9 days we went to Cordwood and one of the hives had a swarm under it!! The weather since we last went in has been been cold, frosts over night and certainly not the sort of weather for opening up a hive, but the bees obviously have been busy inside. The queen had decided it was too cold to go far and just snuck in under the hive where it was warm. We brushed all the bees we could (and hopefully the queen) into a box and emptied them into a nuc just next to the hive, in the hope that they would think it was a suitable home and move in. Today we will go back and see. Because there was a gap in the rain we had a quick look inside and found 3 lovely queen cups on one frame- must have just been capped and the break in the rain had made the bees decide to go for it! This year we have prepared equipment ready to perform artifical swarms and maybe raise some nucs but we have learnt again that the weather just does not work with us!!

Birthdays

This weekend was our Grandson Albert's 3rd birthday- earlier in the year Rowan celebrated his 1st birthday. Although they live in Portsmouth we are lucky enough to visit and be visited by our family often. This weekend we spent a day at Marwell Wildlife Park with Rebecca, Adam, Albert and Rowan and Gemma as well as Grandma and Frank, a lovely family get together!
Rebecca had made an awesome birthday cake which came along too!


Kwasi the octonaut






It was freezing and trying to get all the family together for a picture is impossible!!