December

Hello again, well the end of the years is nearly here but the weather as I am sure you will have noticed does not know if its on its head or its other end , if you will excuse the expression. But the the topsy turvery weather has given me both an opportunity and a worry for my girls in the Cornerfiled Apiary.

On the 23^rd of December it was a lovely sunny winters day and as I drove home with my good lady at the end of the Christmas shopping day The car temperature gauge told me it was eleven degrees.. Ideal for opening the hives for a brief moment to treat them with the Oxalic Acid I talked about in my last Blog..I had already been doing my regular visits though November and the final winter defence I mentioned in the November blog was in place, the mouse guards and insulation.

But the many warm days also worried me because if the the bees were more active because of the balmy winter, but could not collect much nectar or pollen then there was a worry that they may consume much more of their winter stores and run out well before the first spring flowers are coming into bloom and this could cause the swarm to starve!

Fully prepared we headed over to the hives with both the Acid and some fondant to give each swarm an early Christmas present, some fondant. This we put on top of one of the two cutouts provided and cover it with a small plastic cover . The bees can then get to it and if they need the food lick it to their hearts content. When I first used it in my first winter I was amazed how quickly the lump of fondant disappeared!

Georgina came with me as two hands are a lot easier than one when it comes to removing and replacing the wire guards and insulation. The first hive we opening was the Queen Anne swarm, I was hoping and expecting to see most of the girls in a tight ball just under the lid, but no! I could only see a few. Never the less I could not have the top open long so I applied the Acid to the tops of the frames replaced the lid and then put the fondant in place , along with another empty super as a spacer before the roof went on. Not a good start! Where they OK? What else should I or could I do!

No sign of dysentery on the external landing stage , so it was not the killer that befell one of hives last year . If for some reason the swarm had colapsed should I amalgamate it with a healthy one, No was the answer if they had another thus far unidentified disease then I would be spreading to !

So in the end I decided there was little I could do but wish that my Christmas present would be that the swarm is going to be OK!

With trepidation I opened the other hives and one after another they were all fine a, up in the top of the “super” and looked in fine fettle. We treated them all and put some fondant on just in case.

So thats it really now for with regards to they are fully protected and with some emergency food if they need it. |I will of course be doing my normal weekly visits to see they look OK and I have resolved that on the next warm day I will open up “Elinor” again and see if there is any change.

Well the days are lengthening The Christmas festivities are looming and I have started to think about the new the hive that my allotments want me to put down their next year So spring cannot be that far away now!

I hope you are all well and I will write again soon.

Winter is here

Hello again, well winter is well and truly here! Its just 4 degrees as I am writing these lines and with an Arctic wind coming down the the north the temperature is close to zero.

You will recall when I penned my last tales from the Corner Field Apiary that I had just finished all the early winter preparations.

So it seemed a good idea to complete them today. So wrapped up warm from the bitter wind I recruited brother Kens help and drove over to the Corner Field armed with four cut lengths of quilted foil covered insulation.

It was bitter walking down the bees the wind cutting through my three layers of of clothes!

The nursery where our girls live, looked deserted and locked up for the winter. The only sign of life was their small flock of sheep, who as usual bleated their welcome and came over to see if we had any nuts for them, sadly we had to disappoint them!

Once down in our copse it only took a few minutes with my brothers help to slide the insulation in between the hives and the wood pecker guard.

About a week earlier I had put on the mouse guards and as I had a close look, one of the ladies came out out our Elizabeth hive , did an about turn and very quickly went back in!

Nothing else to do now except a weekly visit to see help with my withdrawal symptoms and see that every thing looks OK.

Around Christmas time on a suitably sunny afternoon I will quickly lift the lid on all the hives and dribble some Oxalic Acid from a syringe along the top of the frames over the main swarms.

The acid does not harm the bees, but because the queen has almost or completely stopped laying eggs. It means that all the cells are empty and thus the horrible Varroa bugs have no where to hide

 ( in the summer they get sealed in with wax by the bees and latch onto the developing bee grub). Thus the Oxalic Acid can do its work and severely cut back their numbers.

We that's about it for now, I hope you are all well and I will write again soon.

Hi you will remember in my last tales I had talked about our year and that autumn is upon us. Well it certainly is!. The weather  forecast is that we can expect out first frost tonight. So I hope the girls are all tucked up in the top of their hives in nice tight swarm.

My visit today was simply to check that all was well as there is very little for me to do now . They have their stores for the coming winter. Although I will top them up with some fondant just after Christmas as this is the danger period when they may run out of stores and run the risk of starvation before the first spring flowers pop their heads out next year.

There are still a couple of jobs to do. One is to protect from woodpeckers. When the going gets hard these can go though the sides of a hive in seconds to get at the honey inside.

The bees may well drive them off but the loss in  temperature and the destruction could cause the loss of the swarm if I do not see it soon afterwards.

So I put a wire cage around to prevent this. And just as I arrived what should I hear but the cry of a woodpecker. It made up my mind to do it straight away!

But it was 13 degrees and sunny when I visited and so quite a few of the ladies were out about about having a fly around and even some coming back with pollen.

There are   mouse guards for a little later in the year to stop the blighter,s getting in. and I will drop them in place about the same time I put some insulation on about November time.

I hope you are all well and I will write again soon.

More Tales from the Corner Filed Apiary

Autumn

Tales from the Cornerfield Apiary

Hello every one, I suppose by the time you are reading this, Autumn is upon us.

You will remember that we had lost two hives last winter and thus was down to two to start this season.

By early June it was looking like one of those, “ Queen Anne” was laying thousands of eggs and the bees were making “play cups” a sort of mock building of queen cells. An indication that the hive was getting just tooooo busy and the queen was thinking of leaving with the flying bees to find a new home,.

This would leave the juveniles to look after the new queen when she emerges. What the bee keeper can do in this situation is to artificially swarm the bees by taking some frames with queen cells on them and some flying bees , put them in a new hive thus creating a new swarm and at the same time taking the pressure off the parent hive and the queens desire to fly.

Sure enough another week later a lot of queen cells had been made and some were sealed , and I did the business thus creating my third hive and with a new 2015 Queen! It did mean there would not be a great deal of honey to collect as the season went on because the new queen and her swarm has to be left alone while she goes out, has a good time and gets mated so she can start laying fertile eggs for her new brood.

About the same time I had been invited to attend a Bee Inspectors Course. One of my near by keepers needed a lift to the venue where the course was being held. I was happy to do this , One the way home he said that one of his many hives had swarmed and he had collected the swarm from a nearby bush and had housed them in a “Nuc” a sort of small portable hive. He also said to return the favour I could have it!, so out of the blue I had by four swarms back again!

By now it was mid summer so I knew we was only really going to get a harvest from two of the four swarms, and the harvest even from them two did not look great. So by the end of the season, We had ten pounds of set honey from the early nearby Rape fields and eighteen pounds of runny honey from our local trees and flowers.

Each weekly visit We had been dusting the bees with icing sugar this is a “green method” and causes the bees to clean themselves and thus dislodge some of the horrible Varroa mites that can attach them selves before they emerge. But now at the end of the season it was time to use a more potent method of strips laid on the top of the hives frames and this fumigates and kills thousand of the little horrors. The bees dont like it, but hopefully it has caused massed casualties amonst the Varroa!

Not the best season we have had but as hobby bee keepers Georgina and I are happy to have the Apiary back up to strength all the “girls” well and happy and with enough stores for the coming winter. We have also sold half of our crop to offset the running cost so we am happy too! I will write again soon.

August 7th 2015

.Hello again, well its high summer, but already us bee keepers are thinking of the winter!. The reason being of course that the bees live of the honey they have stored through the summer ( less what the keeper has had of course!), and in August nectar bearing flowers and trees are becoming harder to find.

 We are fortunate in that the our apiary is in a commercial nursery so flowers are still plentiful and its lovely to see our little ladies are all over them!.

But we have to make sure now that we keep an eye on what stores the hives have left and if they look an bit thin on the ground feed the bees with either sugar syrup or fondant to provide them with the raw material to turn in honey.

As for the four hives only one is causing concern because of its small size. You will remember in the July tales that a bee keeper friend had given me a swarm , well the bees are small English black bees and very quite , but there is still only five frames and it is recommended that six is really the minimum to give them a chance to survive e the winter as obviously many die and the swarm contracts considerably.

The other three, Queens  Anne, Elinor and Victoria are all either on six or just over frames of bees. and all four have plenty of sealed broad ( meaning new bees will emerge up to  next 21 days). and there is not much drone broad , This is because the Queens know its late in the season and there is now no need for any more males!!

Last but not least we have a new trolley , kindly donated by Georgina,s sister and this helps the business of carting kit from the car down to the Apiary a lot  Hello again, well its high summer, but already us bee keepers are thinking of the winter!. The reason being of course that the bees live of the honey they have stored through the summer ( less what the keeper has had of course!), and in August nectar bearing flowers and trees are becoming harder to find.

 We are fortunate in that the our apiary is in a commercial nursery so flowers are still plentiful and its lovely to see our little ladies are all over them!.

But we have to make sure now that we keep an eye on what stores the hives have left and if they look an bit thin on the ground feed the bees with either sugar syrup or fondant to provide them with the raw material to turn in honey.

As for the four hives only one is causing concern because of its small size. You will remember in the July tales that a bee keeper friend had given me a swarm , well the bees are small English black bees and very quite , but there is still only five frames and it is recommended that six is really the minimum to give them a chance to survive e the winter as obviously many die and the swarm contracts considerably.

The other three, Queens  Anne, Elinor and Victoria are all either on six or just over frames of bees. and all four have plenty of sealed brood ( meaning new bees will emerge up to  next 21 days). and there is not much drone brood , This is because the Queens know its late in the season and there is now no need for any more males!!

Last but not least we have a new trolley , kindly donated by Georgina,s sister and this helps the business of carting kit from the car down to the Apiary a lot easier, we have also decided to sell half our harvest of honey to cover our running costs at £3.00 per 240 Grms or 1/2 Lb jar.

I nearly forgot to say I have received my certificate for Bee health Advisor's course.

I hope you are all well and I will write again soon

Hi everyone, as its now high summer I thought I should write again to say how the cornerfield is getting on. There has been several developments. First we have harvested more honey since I wrote last, another 7.5Lb this looks to be clear as the local oil seed rape is over and the “girls” are now on to flowers as places to collect their nectar.

We have also had to carry out an artificial swarm on Queen Anne as her hive was becoming very crowded the bees were not happy and had started to making quite a few queen cells. A sure sign that they are thinking of swarming. So we now have a new swarm, and although we have not seen her a new Queen “Elinor”.

Other wise the Queen Anne swarm is strong and with very busy!

On the second of our hives that came through the winter Queen Victoria , looked to be failing , I had been worried for some time, because although the swarm look healthy they were are not expanding, the appearance of three queen cells on the side and middle of a brood frame confirms that the bees agree and she must be dead, or failing and she is in the process of being superseded. Hope fully the next time I visit the queen will have hatched and will be off getting mated! This means probably no more honey from her as the season will be drawing to a close soon, but a new queen to end with is good for next year.

Last but not least I attended a bee inspectors course yesterday and in the process gave a lift to a much more experience keeper who said he had just collected a swarm and I could have it for my last vacant hive. So today I write to you has a very happy bunny!

I hope you are all well and I will write again soon.

The bees get busy!

Hi, since my last blogg from the Cornerfield Apeiry our two hives have massively increased, both our queens are obviously doing well, as the brood boxes ( where the queen lives) are crammed with sealed brood, eggs and grubs in various stages of development.

The landing stages on the front of the hives are busier that London airport!, with our girls coming and going collecting nectar to make honey and feed themselves as well as packing pollen for the juveniles to feed the developing grubs.

Queen Anne's swarm as at least “play” cups this is a precurser to them thinking in about swarming as the next step is to select which grubs are to become to new heirs apparent and make their cells into queen cups. In theory this should be a seven day cycle, but we have seen then do it in three, so I must keep a close eye on them,as I want that swarm for one of our empty hives!

Queen Victoria is much smaller but is still expanding and we hope she will keep doing that for the rest of the short honey season. All together so far we have had 7.5 Lb of the two swarms and after out last visit another 12 frames to spin.

I hope you are all well and I will write again  

Since my last blog my stings are distant memories! And I have visited my bees several times.(with a suit on!).

Sadly the “Mary”swarm that you will remember had had either dysentery or Nosema has perished and there where no bees alive, a sad end to the winter.

But with the weather warming our the surviving two hives are on the move. On my last but one visit we decided to take off the first of two frames of sealed honey. This is almost certainly from our adjacent“Rape” field and this honey sets hard and fast and unless one acts quick it cannot be removed from the frame.

This we did and have our first jar and bit of pretty viscus but sweet honey.

Both “Victoria” and our other survivor “ Queen Mary” are laying well and both have frames of sealed brood so the swarms should ( if they have read the book) rapidly expand over the next couple of weeks.

As usual I could not find my Queens, but I with sealed brood and grubs I know that must be there, they are just fleet of foot and elusive ladies!

I am still feeding them as this is traditionally the time when bees may starve as apart from the spring rape the spring flowers are not out yet in profusion and the last of the swarms stored honey has or is on the point of running out.

But all in all the early signs are that in the two survivors things are going well.

The next things I have to worry about is that have enough room for them to expand and signs that they may soon swarm. I hope that when this happens I can spot it and beat them to it with an artificial swarm and create another swarm for my apiary. ( or even two!).

I will write again soon.

Saturday March the 28 th was a blustery and showery day for us, but after a successfully morning on the allotment, and a very enjoyable "All day breakfast" treat from Georgina I ventured over on my normal weekly winter check at the Corner Field Apiary.

The "Victoria" swarm looked fine  but in the "Anne" swarm" bees  had moved over from under the sugar syrup feeder to emerge from another and many had found there way in where they shouldn't and had drowned!

Urgent attention was needed. The bees were not impressed with me taking their top roof off and started buzzing about a bit. I walked away to decide what to do and this was to block the second exit. I returned thinking I could do this in a quick and easy operation. But the bees had other thoughts and I had my first stings ! three to be precise and this morning.

So I am typing with a fat earlobe, and lip and an itchy wrist!!

Disgression is the better part of valour, so I retreated home to get my suit and kit.

By the time I had returned back they had calmed down and I was able to put things right.

I also had a peek inside the "Mary" swarm, you will remember from my last blog that this one had had Nosema or disentry in the last few weeks, and I had thought they had been lost. but no! I was please to see a small swarm in the front left of the hive. So I was able to put some sugar syrup on and hopefully when the weather warms a little more . If the queen is still alive it will rapidly expand.

I will write again soon.

2015 A New Year and New Season!

I think this early March weekend is the first that the temperature has reached the magic 15 degrees for most of the middle of the day.

It has got to this dizzy height before and when it does some of the bees come out to have a fly around and go to the loo! But today things have made a step change. As I customarily do I called ahead to my Apeiry to say I was coming over and the nursury owner said there out and on my Crocuses!

I assumed she meant the bees and sure enough lots were. A lovely sight and I was thrilled to see two of the hives ( Victoria and Anne) were very busy but the third ( Mary) was less so. These bees had I think suffered a bought of Nosima. This may have taken a toll on there numbers and there was little I could do to help the situation. Bees were about from this hive, but noticeably fewer.

Now is quite a critical time as the queen will start laying, the swarm may start to stir, but at the same time the stores will be running out! To this end I have put some fondant on each hive that they can use until more spring flowers are out on bloom.

I have to start thinking about getting ready for the new season and is quite exciting!!

I will write again soon.