Bedding Down

This is the time of year we prepare the bees for winter- we have been feeding the bees with sugar syrup prior to treating for Varroa mite so the bees stand a good chance of coming through the winter as a strong colony. It is reccommended that a colony has about 60 lbs of stores to survive the winter, although we can feed with fondant during the winter if necessary, it is best to have a good amount of strores to set out with. After putting  the varroa floor in the hive we have monitored the drop for the past few weeks- the weekly count has been about 20- apparently not too bad for this time of year. Nevertheless we will be putting Apiguard on at the next check to get rid of some of the mites before evrything settles down for winter.

Where do they go?

We have planted our garden with a range of plants that are insect friendly- at different times of the year they provide nectar and pollen. So, at the top of the garden live our bees- the garden is full of butterflies, bumble bees ,hover flies and other ,mostly welcome insects. But hardly ever have we seen honey bees foraging around the garden, just the odd one on the buddlea or golden rod. So where do they go? Maybe the answer as Rob (picture courtesy of sustainablegarden.blogspot.com) suggests is the allotment. The borage, lavender and other herbs have recently been visited by honeybees in abundance-in theory the distance is within range; so maybe this is where they are doing their good work!!

Filling Frames

The weekly inspection went well today- the frames are filling up with loads of capped brood, eggs, larvae and stores. The bees are on 8 frames and drawing out one of the others, hopefully getting stronger and stronger all the time. There is no real honey forage crop at the moment so not much chance of a crop of honey this year,which we didn't expect, but you can always hope! Today we sprinkled icing sugar between the frames and put the tray under the mesh floor to gauge if  or how many varroa mites there may be in the hive. We will inspect this later in the week. I have been slightly worried about the wasps which seem to be thriving in the fruit trees at the back of the hive- they are attracted by the honeydew left by an infestation of greenfly on the trees. I am not usually vindictive, but these wasps may be a threat to our bees!!So we have put up wasp catchers baited by medlar jelly- this seems to be the most attractive to the wasps! Loads have been lured to a sticky death but they still keep coming!! Any suggestions to get rid of wasps will be welcome.

Bees After 3 Weeks

After a week of watching and wondering it was time to check out the bees again!

This weekend Adam helped out - the ladies had been really busy moving on to and drawing out more of the new frames- so much so that I took out the twelfth frame I had originally put in to fill space in the brood box. They had moved on to the one sided frame I had been concerned about and Birgit was dashing around. It was quite hot so we were fairly quick but even so we could see new eggs, larvae and a lot of capped brood. Today it is raining, which is good for the garden but hopefully there is still plenty of summer to come so the frames will keep filling to build up a strong colony!!

Foraging

Last Friday we decided to have a day of picking and storing- so off we went to the allotment for gooseberries, up the garden for cherries, the PYO for strawberries- we have had a steady supply but not enough to store- and armed with secateurs to the hedgerows for elderflowers.
On the list were- strawberry and gooseberry jam, cherry tart and elderflower cordial.

 Elderflower Cordial
20-25 heads of elderflowers

3 lemons sliced

2 oranges sliced

900gms sugar

3 litres boiling water

50gm citric acid

Pour the boiling water over the sugar and stir-allow to cool slightly,then stir in everything else. Stand for 24 hours an stir every time you think about it!

Then strain through a fine seive and bottle. I used plastic bottles that had been rinsed out with milton. 

The citric acid supposedly helps to stop the cordial fermenting and prolongs storage life. 

We have tried it with chilled sparkling water and still; it is lovely and refreshing- it does need diluting quite a bit!

Red Potatoes

Rob has suggested a taste test of new potatoes at the forthcoming Allotment Soiree - so far we have dug samples of Vale's Emerald, International Kidney(Jersey Royals) ,Nicola and Red Duke of York. These Red Duke of York look lovely and do keep the red skin when cooked, although they go dull-they are much more floury than the others- very tasty, but not as satisfying as a new potato. So far Vale's Emerald are the favourite, unhappily however we have eaten them all so none left for the Soiree!!

Busy Birgit

Finally got to inspect the hive for the second time. We had put it off for a day because of the very high winds on Sunday, much better today- calm and sunny. A little smoke but all seemed extremely calm as we took of the roof and crown board. Had everything ready and there were a lot more bees than last week- as I took out each frame I made notes so I know exactly how things were progressing. Birgit had started laying on one of the new frames and the bees were begining to draw out a further two, but were leaving one side of the frames that they came on. I can only think that maybe that frame was originally too close to the others as it is not a self spacing frame and the bee space must have been a bit close. But Trev managed  to get good pictures- there was good capped brood, new eggs, stores and pollen. Birgit was easy to spot on one of the original frames but she had obviously been busy. It was exciting to look in and see what is happening- we have spent lots of time in this fantastic sunny spell just watching the comings and goings, its reassuring to feel that all looks well inside!