More queens than Henry!!!

ok these have to be the most demanding ladies ever! They surely can't bee looking for another queen already? Found a few queen cups which are early warning signals that the little ladies, surely they won't swarm this late in the season?

And if you look closely just below the two queen cups are some larvae in cells waiting to be capped off, will they be some of the last offspring from what could be the shortest reign ever!

Honey and pollen

I was hoping that this mornings inspection would show me honey ready for harvesting, but not quite ready yet the stored honey needs to be capped off with wax, if not then it will be too watery and no good. This photo shows some cells capped but most almost full and waiting to be capped.

The next photo shows pollen being stored ready for feeding the young larvae, it is all sorts of colours, the bees seem to store pollen from different plants in different cells!

Entrance block or not?

Read an article in Beecraft earlier and now think I know why the bees took offence to me cutting the grass the other day and had never before.

A couple of weeks ago I was watching the bees going in and out and could see there was a bit of a bottle neck going through the reduced entrance that the entrance block creates, I thought if they could go in and out quicker I would get more honey?

But I think what happened was that the bees got uncomfortable with the wider entrance to guard. They have to guard the entrance because other bees and wasps will rob honey from other colonies, I have often seen bees fighting with wasps at the entrance. Bees are also creatures of habit and they don't like change. The end result is that I think I made them a bit more aggressive and the lawn mower tipped them over the edge.

Yesterday evening I popped out and put the entrance block back in, hopefully they will feel a bit better and I can cut the grass again at a reasonable hour of the day! Time will tell.

PS Just noticed that I have posted over 100 posts, so a little bit of a milestone :-)

Bees and Borage

The little ladies have been busy today dodging the showers and collecting nectar and pollen from the Borage Plants that I grew from seed this year.

They are pretty vigorous plants so if you do ever get the urge to grow some give them plenty of space or they will crowd out other plants!

That said they are versatile if you can be bothered to deep fry the leaves or use the flowers in drinks and salads, I tried eating a flower today it wasn't that remarkable, but I can see why might be nice in a pimms :-)

PS Hand has recovered from last weekends sting.

The one armed naked beekeeper!! Ouch :(

OK after an afternoon in A&E I am questioning if I do love those bees! That sting last night has developed a bit to say the least, first photo is about an hour after the sting, second was in the A&E waiting room.

Looks is if somebody has just blown up a washing up glove!

So I now have cellulitis, a big dose of antibiotics and penicillin and arm in a sling for two days, if swelling keeps moving up arm it's into hospital and onto a drip!

Googled cellulitis, wish I hadn't!

So does this spell the end of my rather short journey into beekeeping? I hope not, but not keen to test out another bee sting too soon!

Thanks to Sue from beesnbeans who forwarded a month or so ago, an email about beekeepers reporting very bad bee stings this year which have lead to cellulitis, I wonder why, is there some new bee disease lurking around the corner?

Without Sue's email would I have bothered to go to the hospital?

I like my bees, Not!!!!

Ok, did I really say they were calm ladies? Well like all ladies they like to keep you guessing.

Decided to cut the grass earlier, have done it plenty of times before, this time they decided they didn't like me cutting the grass, they attacked!

End result, I ran over the lawn mower lead as I retreated and cut it into pieces, got a bee sting on my hand, not sure what my hand looks like now, a pretty impressive swelling! And finally got chased back into the house. Whoever said stand still and they will ignore you was gravely mistaken! :-)

Anyway on the good side, took delivery of a honey extractor yesterday, my birthday prezzie to myself. Jars are on their way, all I need now are some labels.

Does anybody have any idea what I should call my honey, "Whyteleafe Honey" sounds a bit boring?

Ok it all looks quiet outside now, going to get that grass finished!!

My ladies are pretty calm

Forgot to mention in last post that when I had finished inspecting the hive yesterday I went to unzip my suit and realised had left the veil completely undone!!! I'm very very glad the ladies were in a nice easy going mood:-)

Can any body spot the proud mum of all my lovely ladies?

Looks like honey this year after all :-)

Checked on how my ladies were doing yesterday, they have been busy, many were flying in laden with pollen, so much they were crash landing.

Opened hive and was so pleased to see for the first time ever the girls were building honey comb in the super, a quick check showed the frames being filled with honey:-)

So time to add another super, this time one for honey comb.