Speed bumps and bees!

After searching for a temporary home for my colony while I move house my sister-in-law Sue came up trumps and my bees are now neighbours to a couple of dozen other hives at the Croydon Beekeepers apiary at Hartley Down allotment.

Secured and ready to go, or so I thought!

I had to wait until they had tucked up in bed in the evening, then strap the hive together and tape up the entrance. Then just a case of carrying them to the car, for once I was glad they weren't a thriving colony with several supers full of honey, honey is dammed heavy!, once in the car I had a serious panic attack, bees were coming out of the back of the hive, the mesh floor had come adrift while I was carrying it, all that had stopped them coming out was my groin!! Bloody hell, that would have taken some explaining in A&E:-), anyway some more tape and the bees where secured, well fingers crossed.

So off to the apiary, why does Sat Nav take me over every speed hump in South London! There ought to be a mode that avoids speed humps! :-) Sat Nav even tried to take me down a road that a horse would have struggled on!

Temporary home and near neighbours

Once at their new home it was pretty straight forward, in fact all to easy, tape off. mesh floor re-pinned and bees were mingling with their new neighbours.

Their next journey will be to their new home in my new garden, lets hope the effort will be worth it and they survive the winter.

PS How do I get grass stains out of my best linen trousers?

ConfusedPeter.com!

Well queen no 63 is out of her travelling cage, but doesn't look like she's a prospective mum yet! In fact I'm seriously confused, when I last looked when I put her in there were no larvae or brood, (wax capped larvae, bees in the making), now there is larvae and drone brood, (male bees), definitely nowhere near enough time for her to lay eggs that develop that much!

So maybe there is a drone laying queen or bee in there somewhere! Hopefully they have had a fight and the drone layer is now history! So next time I look I need to see serious amount of larvae and worker bee brood, without that the colony is doomed to fail, it's late in the season and they need bee numbers up high.

Just to confuse me more I decided to destroy all the old empty queen bee cells, only to find two larvae developing in them! Won't be developing now!

The bee world is complicated, I wonder what is going through their minds? Who really knows, they've been here for 60 million years so they must know what they are doing, guess need to sit back and trust nature.

Come on girls.

Royal Femail delivery

Well queenie arrived in CityWest Home's reception this morning, care of Royal Femail, got a call, your bees are here, they are buzzing.

It then took thirty minutes to get back to desk, think this must have been one of most popular deliveries to the office, so now the proud owner of a new queen, No 63, and a small entourage of workers to keep her company.

Best name, ok only name, Beeyonce! :-), 1st Prize a jar of honey, the downside it won't be until August 2013! :-(

They spent rest of day sitting in my filing tray, then into my pocket for train journey home. Suited up I had to get the six workers out of the queen travelling cage so that just she went into the hive in it. She then will stay in it until the worker bees in the hive have eaten their way past a barrier of food, by which time they should have accepted her smell and won't kill her by suffocation!

So now will have to wait a week to see if they accept her and she has started laying eggs, it's a race against time now, she has to lay a lot of eggs so that the colony can build up strength for the long winter ahead. Seems strange to talk about winter when we haven't had a summer yet! But for bees August is honey harvesting time and then they have to start getting ready to survive winter, the queen will stop laying in September, so for this colony it will be touch and go this winter! Fingers crossed, have given them an outside chance with this new queen.

In hive ready for her new team to eat their way in to rescue her

New queen bee in the post!

All very exciting, ordered a new queen bee and she's in the post to me, should arrive at work tomorrow, not sure who is more excited me or my colleagues! Talk of a naming competition on line and a little CityWest Homes t shirt for her!!:-), also been concerns, ranging from have I written a risk assessment to what food  and drink should they get in for her!:-)

Moving house

Ok forgot to mention the other big event coming up, I am moving house, not too far and that is the problem, it's less than three miles, so technically it means that my bees might be visiting the new garden already, but I can't believe that it just seems too far for a bee to fly!


So I need to find somewhere to put the hive for a week or so, that is over three miles from here and over three miles from new house, any volunteers? :-) email me, peter.armfield1@btinternet.com


As to actually moving a full hive, that should be fun in my car, not just once but twice! Really not looking forward to that, but hey ho all part of the fun of keeping bees.

Hope they will like there new home, looking forward to filling the garden with bee friendly plants and perhaps another colony or two!

No Queen again!

Well it seems like there will be no honey this year, this new colony has struggled a bit, and now there is no Queen, can only think she swarmed when I was on holiday, they say beekeepers should never go away in swarming season, but bugger that, I needed some sun :-).
I looked last weekend and there were some empty queen cells which should mean that there would be a new queen, but no sign, was too early for her to start laying eggs, there were also three queen cells unopened. Today all queen cells are open and still no queen, will give it one more week and then I will order a new queen online and get her posted to work. £35, but it's the only way the colony stands an outside chance of surviving.
That should be fun, hope nobody opens my post in error that day!

Queen cups, bees, Tunisia, lawn mowers and popeye! :)

Not the best looking Popeye!

A strange mix I hear you say? Well they are a bit interlinked, I'm off for a week in the sun in Tunisia next weekend, never a good time to leave your bees in the height of summer, what summer I hear you say? Well it has been a lovely day today so had a few aims in the garden, cut grass, check bees and top up tan, am concerned my legs might be construed as a aviation hazard and may well be seen from outer space!

I digress, back to the bees, needed to check that they would be ok while I was away, last time I looked I couldn't find the queen, no joy this time either, and wow upon wow some queen cups too, that means the colony is beginning to think about swarming, well possibly and if that happens while I am away bang goes any chance of a honey crop this year!:-(, hey ho not much I can do about other than leave an empty hive out and hope that if they do swarm they go in there. The check done had to leave them alone for a couple of hours, valuable tanning time wasted! :-)

This is the right way up

But did manage to catch a few rays before grass cutting time, these new bees really don't like my lawn mower, had to take drastic action and wear my bee suit, saw a few neighbours looking, gathered quite a crowd really! They must think I am mad, that wasn't a question, so don't answer it :-). You can see how hacked off they looked in first photo which also has me making a good impersonation of Popeye, how photo genic!!! I'm glad I didn't go with auto spell check on that word! :-)

Mission accomplished, grass cut, bees checked and the faintest of tan lines, I think I am going to suffer in Tunisia, pool here I come:-)

Bumblebee relocation

Had a message on Facebook over jubilee weekend from an ex colleague, Chris, whose parents had some bees causing a worry just outside their back door in a bird box, could I help. Thought they would be Bumblebees, but a bee's a bee and don't like to see any of them destroyed, not that I think Chris's parents would do that.

Nice and peaceful, just before I really hacked them off

I arranged to remove them late last Thursday evening, so they would mostly be tucked up in the bird box, got there a bit early and after a nice cuppa set to, initially I approached the bird box and started to remove the ivy around it without my bee suit on, big mistake, they may look cuddly, but they can be pretty angry buggers when disturbed, perhaps I should have bunged up the box entrance first!! So a small delay while they calmed down and went back indoors and then suited up I bunged up the entrance and too down the box.

Anybody following me home must have wondered what I was doing driving so slowly especially over all those sleeping policemen! :-), well would they trust a very old bird box full of bees in the boot wouldn't fall apart? Anyway once home I had decided would temporarily fix them on outside of my garden fence, my intention being to ask my uncle if he wouldn't mind having them in his garden, well it's more a woodland.

Their temporary home

These bees eat wood, can you see damage to entrance?

He was ok with the idea so I arranged to drop them over earlyish on Sunday morning, the best laid plans of mice and men and bees! I had a late night on the wine, did remember to block up entrance before bed, overslept a bit and when I went to move them they had managed to create a new entrance at the back by eating out of the box! Thank god that didn't happen in my car! I couldn't move them now, too many bees would be out flying, even the Queen Bumblebee forages, she's like a flying mouse:-)

So what type of Bumblebee are they, can you work it out from this photo and link?

http://bumblebeeconservation.org/

Pimms o'clock garden party

Well maybe not Pimms, a pint of orange squash, with a generous portion of ice cubes. And garden party? h
Hmm, the guest was probably me, my little ladies allowing me to join them as they sipped some of the old purple nectar. Me, well a few pages of the kindle and a little David Attenborough cameo :-)

Bee's been beelocated

Bee beelocation finished and it felt really good on the last lift to feel how much heavier the hive was compared to the first lift, the colony has been growing fast in this good weather, there are loads of bees inside, although a long way from full strength of 50,000 bees, they are also struggling to get enough stores of honey in, consuming all the nectar they are collecting.

That might not bode well for the "June gap", the time when historically few flowers are in bloom in England, mind you I suspect that all this strange weather will mean that the plants are pretty confused too!

Waste not want not I have added a super and put the granulated honey stores from the old hive in there in the hope that the bees can salvage some to help them out, I put the frames in the freezer first to kill anything off and then scratched open the cells to help them on their way. In the video you will see that I have let the home forlorn looking hive open and put some brood frames in a black plastic box, will let them rob those for a few days and then will dispose of comb and foundation, ready to start again with a second colony, hopefully will collect that in a couple of weeks time.

But first up need to scorch the old hive to kill off any nasties and must remember to order some brood foundation.

PS my neighbours must think I am mad filming bees in just a pair of shorts, could feel the bees flying into my back as they were returning to the hive, no stings so far this year, amazingly! :-)

Three feet or three miles

Well eventually the old hive has passed, well almost, the queen lies dead in the bottom of the hive and there are perhaps 10 bees still alive.

The new colony is struggling along, although they seem active, they have no stores, (honey), and they are not building more comb so that the colony can increase in size, I have tried feeding them with sugar solution but they won't take it, so now decided that perhaps I can use the surplus stores from the old colony, I've broken the wax capping on a few frames and left them out for the new colony to take into their hive, a bit risky because it can encourage other bees to rob the honey.

The short video shows the old and the new hive, the new hive is much to close to the house and will need moving to the position of the old hive, there is an old law of bee keeping about moving hives three feet or three miles, anything in between and the bees will get confused and return to the original location and get lost, so guess it will take three moves over a few weeks to move them down the garden.

Can you find my new Queen Bee?

Pollen in bound

Today has been the only day in last week forecast for sun and the next five days look like rain too, well according to my I Phone!

I took this film earlier this morning it was showing 6 degs, so bang goes that story about bees only flying when it's warmer than 10 degs

If you look closely you can see the bees flying in pollen, I wonder what plant is giving them that bright orange pollen?

Anyway they seem a bit happier with me, as you can see they let me up close to the hive without seeming to notice me, maybe just maybe they will let me cut the grass! :-), well they might but the weather won't it's raining again, I make that everyday bar one since the hose pipe ban started!

Umbrella beekeeping

I was rather hoping that I might get some good weather over the weekend so that I could transfer the new colony into their new home, but no joy, in the end today I decided that come what may I would need to transfer them, Aman's cricket match for Surrey 2nd XI was cancelled so he volunteered to help.
So armed with that vital piece of beekeeping equipment, an umbrella, we set to, the smoker then decided to go out with the lid off the nuc, had to move a bit quick as the bees were less than impressed, no detailed checking of the frames, just get them in the hive and close up quick. But couldn't help but see what looked like queen cells, will have to be on my guard, this was a swarm last year so the queen may well be past her sell by date, can ill afford them to swarm again, now caught between the devil and the deep blue sea, I shouldn't really disturb them again and looking at the weeks weather forecast it seems to be rain and more rain, but I really need to get in there and look!
Later I did take a quick peek in the other old colony two, didn't take any frames out but could see the bees were limited to just one bee space, time is running out for this colony, so if I have got some queen cells in the new colony them just maybe I can kick start another colony?
I wonder if I can wait until next Saturday to check out the colonies for real?
What I do know though is that the new bees looked pretty hacked off with me, hope they have short memories!

Bees all belted up

I think I have been here before, an early morning drive from Gillingham with a colony of bees sitting beside me in the car, this time though the lid wasn't secured, is no sharp breaking! Journey home successfully negotiated, but decided as such a miserable day will leave them in the nuc and keep fingers crossed that better weather is here on Sunday or Monday so I can transfer them into a hive, at the same time can check up on the old colony, not that I am expecting to see much in there.

These bees seem a lot darker in colour, they are a swarm that was caught late on last year so they may not survive through to summer either, Clive the supplier refused to take any money for them which is a sign surely that he's not 100% convinced they will make it through! Oh well nothing ventured nothing gained. On opening the door they were soon out and about checking out the local area, one even decided that perhaps she need a lift back to Gillingham, either that or she has good taste in cars :-)

Still no sign of brood!

Inspected the bees again this morning, a glorious day out, plenty of activity, amazing how busy so few bees can look! 

Lots of pollen loaded bees flying in, but on opening hive still no sign of any brood or larvae and as for eggs, well my eyes have never been able to see them! On the plus side the queen seems bigger, but maybe that's just wishful thinking.

If she doesn't start laying soon there will be no replacements for all those flying bees, their expected life in the air is only two weeks, so numbers will start dropping drastically!

I have ordered another colony, dropped off my nuc box last Saturday and should be able to pick it up next weekend.

If this colony does die out then will have to sterilize the hive ready to accept another nuc that I have also ordered which should be ready sometime in May. Must remember to buy some more wax foundation so I can recondition the old frames.

  

She bee back!!!

Here she is, you can also see dead brood and hatching bees

Ok a bit like Arnie, except this isn't the same queen bee that's back! The little ladies continue to surprise me, when their backs are up against the wall they come up trumps, seems they created a new queen out of nothing, just how did they do that I certainly can't see any sign of queen cells! The will to survive is a powerful force.

Not all plain sailing now though, the new queen isn't laying, so hasn't had her virgin flight yet, which is probably just as well because there are no drones in my hive, understandably! Just hope there are some in other hives locally at this time of the year, otherwise she is going to end up like Queen Elizabeth I and rather than it being the end of the royal line it will be the end of the hive with no new bees to take the colony forward into the new season :(

I doubt the mixed up weather is helping her cause much either, two mornings of frost interspersed with great flying weather!

On top of which the hive is full of granulated honey which the bes will have to work ten times harder at to convert into wax to create new breeding cells. Perhaps time to give them a helping hand put in some new foundation and feed them up with sugar solution?

Finally what to do with all that surplus granulated honey in the brood cells! Perhaps a call to the bee mentors is on the cards.

OMG, the unthinkable is happening!!

The unthinkable is happening, my bees are dying!!!!

"One of the Few", RIP

I was watching them on Saturday morning busy flying to and fro, even flying in pollen, so as the afternoon was nice decided I would have a quick look inside, to my horror hardly any bees, maybe a thousand, but where are all the dead bodies! Looked twice through the frames and no sign of the queen, very little brood cells, what there was were dotted about, but many bees seemed dead hatching from cells, see the black spots on photo.

The hive was full of honey and pollen stores so they can't have starved, I think perhaps are this changeable weather confused them, if you recall they were flying on new years day. The over wintering bees aren't supposed to fly much so that they live through the winter, unlike summer bees that only live 5 weeks, think mine just flew too much, wore themselves out and died, meaning numbers went down and when cold snaps happened, not enough bees to keep the colony warm and then more died including the queen!

So much for my plans of colony expansion this summer! I will have to start all over again.

Hopefully I have managed to secure an over wintered nuc which will give me a good start and just maybe I will get some honey this year. Have also booked another nuc for May time, I need two colonies as a minimum in future

What do bee keepers do when bees are snow bound?

Answer, well of course they clean their fish tank, ok absolutely nothing to do with bees, but it's been a slow old day, not ventured outside other than to get a puncture fixed, ok a new tyre! And this was my therapy, pre clean and post clean.

The devils brew :)

The mix has been taken, one tea spoon each of the black molasses sugar, aspinals organic cider vinegar and lastly but not least my honey, it looks a strangely disconcerting mix in the bottom of my mug.

Adding half a cup of boiled water and it's looking like that old football half time favourite of bovril, I can't remember the last time I drank that, but I do know this tastes nothing like it! The rich smell of honey hits the senses first, followed by the sweetest tasting hot drink I have ever had, no sign of the cider vinegar in that!

I first gave the tonic ingredients to Paul back in the summer as we walked around the boundary of "The Field of Dreams" one Saturday afternoon, four days later his text read something along the lines of, "your cure, f*****g awesome", so fingers crossed will be back later in week with a positive update :)

Another first I'm sitting on train doing my first mobile update! Photos won't load, that will have to be later.

Molasses, cider vinegar and honey

Some might remember my cure for gout, well don't think I have it, but big toe on right foot playing up so decided time to test it out.

Didn't find dark molasses but have it on good advice from Paul Miller that the sugar version does the trick.

So first dose tomorrow morning, all is ready on the kitchen side to remind me.

Watch this space, who knows it might just work.

Bee Rescue

Well another snow storm and the bees are covered up, popped out and uncovered the entrance so could fit the snow porch. Plenty of dead bees inside, but will leave them bee until weather improves, never good to open hive when it's like this, they are usually ok, they can keep hive at 25 deg, so can do without me opening it up and letting all that heat out.

Maybe their energy can be harnessed to solve world's energy problem? :)

One kamakazi bee did decide to fly in -1 deg but she just flew into a snow drift, tried to get her to go back into the hive, but you know what these women are like! :)

Snow again

Just gone midnight and the snow is falling heavy, was it only a year ago that the same was happening and I was making igloo entrances for my ladies and when it thawed out all those dead bees with me thinking that I had lost my colony! A bit more relaxed this time around, they will be fine, but will pop out in morning and fit the snow canopy, too late now, bedtime for me and not the weather for creeping out into the garden in my boxers either!

Pollen on 1st of Jan!!!

Happy New Year and what a strange start, the bees were busy on New Years Day much as they are today.

Nothing really unusual about that, because when the temperature tops 10 deg the ladies will pop out for a toilet trip.

However it looks like they've been to the January sales because they were coming back with pollen on their legs, if you look closely at photo you can see it. Where the hell are they finding pollen on 1st January! Maybe they are visiting the cut flowers at Whyteleafe Church's graveyard which is about half a mile away, they certainly seem to be coming from that direction.

Well the weather's all a bit strange this year, my bonsai are beginning to bud, bulbs have leaves a foot tall and a colleague at work says her dad's apple trees have blossom on!

It's not just the bees that are confused!