Where are all the bees?

Still haven't seen a Honey Bee flying yet, a couple of Bumble Bees but that's it!
Was chatting with a beekeeper at work when making tea this morning, his hive is almost dead, just 50 bees left, he keeps it in an aipary in, Wood Green, with about 100 hives, 50% of which didn't survive the winter!
Quite scary really, no bees, no pollenation, no farming, no food, no civilisation!
We'll all be sitting in caves in the not too distant future flint knapping, well not all of us, only those that survive the food riots!
Sorry to sound a bit gloomy, but...............

wow clever

Ok absolutely nothing to do with bees, but really clever a combined wc and basin, the water from the basin is used to flush the loo. OK a bit chicken and the egg, like who goes first a pee or washing your hands?:)

Urinals?

OK this is off the track a bit but years ago at college I read a book on the history of toilets, (yes this can be an interesting subject).
It went on about a Victorian urinal manufacturer that used a honey bee as their logo, (ok they weren't logo's in those days).
These urinals went down to the floor, they worked out the optimum spot to aim for so that you didn't splash on your shoes, to mark this they put their logo on the urinal. As all good beekeepers know the latin for honey bee is apis, wouldn't it be great to think that this is where "going for a p..s" originates:-).
This all started me looking for a picture to insert, wow there are some strange urinals about, couldn't find a urinal with a honey bee in but....

and I'm not going to even comment on this one!!!

Week 8 of course

Last session of beekeeping course, a sort of wrap up of the previous 7 weeks and learning a bit about the use of wax. Beeswax polish sounds like fun and possibly profitable, I wonder if any of those French Polishers are still in business who used to repair all those damaged Sapele doors in those houses I built, not to mention an abslolutely wicked finish to the staircase handrails, ok drifting off the beeten track a bit!
EPS (an Early PS) by know you may have guessed there is no spell check on this blogging site!!
Mike, one half of the course presenters, is even less pc than me, I can't remember now what he was drawing but it ended up looking vaguely ponographic much to his amusement and the classes'.
Useful tip of the week is don't use Silver Spoon sugar to make the syrup feed for the bees, it must be cane sugar and Silver Spoon is beet sugar.
Despite signing up my local bee society I still haven't got my BBKA memebership no. and I'm told will need this to get a "Bookers" card so I can buy cheap sugar, I think these bees are going to get through a few lbs a year!
Thank you Mike and Sue for a great course
http://www.beesnbeans.co.uk/home

Week 7.5 of course

An extra day yesterday, a presentation by a local Bee Inspector, all about diseases that bees can get, all a bit depressing but I suppose it's like going for a job interview, they tell you all the things you will need to do and you say to yourself "bloody hell I'll never be able to do that", but once you start it all falls into place and you never end up coming across some of the things spoken about, well fingers crossed it works out that way with the bees :).
Saw a bee today on the footbridge over the railway line, only problem was it looked half dead, had the train hit it or was this some local disease, ok ok I'm getting paranoid. Not going to count this as a bee spotting.
Ever wondered about little reddy brown spots on your washing when hung outside? Sorry but it's bee pooh, knowing this will you now but it back in the washing machine or say sod it and put it in the ironing pile? :).
Last lesson tomorrow and then it's a couple of practicals, bring on the bees.

Week 7 of course

Well the course is nearly over just one more week to go and then a couple of practical sessions in a few weeks time when the bees are active, speaking of which the bad winter seems to have put the bee clock back a bit, won't got my nuc of bees until end of May earliest:(. Has anybody seen any bees flying about, I haven't.
This week all about the process of opening the hive (did you know bees make noise in the hive and just putting your ear to the hive can tell you what mood they are in! If they are really roaring then the Queen is dead and they aren't to impressed). Think I will need a few practice runs on opening up the hive, 2-3 puffs from smoker in entrance then wait 2mins, take off roof, lift crown board 1/2" and then 3 more puffs and wait 2mins, theory has it should then be able to get stuck in to checking out the bees. Useful to know is to wash bee suit every 2weeks as the bees will sting it and if they smell a build up if stings they could attack in numbers, that should be fun!
Had a quick session on Queen rearing which was quite interesting, pretty sure won't need to try this year but might be fun to try next year and in process end up with another hive. He did warn us that this bee thing is addictive and one or two hives won't bee enough! Hmm time will tell.
Oh forgot, have an extra session next Tuesday when we meet the Bee Inspector.

Weeks 5 and 6 of beekeeping course

Week 5 was the beekeepers year, about now if I had bees I would be checking for signs of swarming as the hives begins to get more active. A useful and easy way to know if Queen is active is to look for pollen laden bees returning to the hive.
Watched a programme a few days ago on More 4 about American commercial beekeepers chasing the pollen crops across the states, very depressing, imagine starting out in South Carolina with 2000 hives on an huge lorry and then driving all the way to California to pollinate the Almond trees and the wondering why hundreds of hives are dead when you get there! Some serious problems looming there I think.
Week 6 strangley was all about bee diseases and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Icing sugar is a key treatment to get the bees to groom and knock off the Varroa, double bubble they then convert the icing sugar into honey!
There is no cure for varroa, so if anybody can come up with a natural preditor of this mite they will be quids in, surely something must like nibbling on varroa?