New for Old

Spring is a time of rebirth, renewal, and regrowth in Nature, and this of course includes the honeybee.
Having survived the winter, bee colonies are now increasing in size, with queens typically ramping-up their laying rate to 1500-2000 eggs a day. At this time of year, some of these will be drones, the males produced to mate with virgin queens from other colonies. It’s also the beginning of the swarm season, when colonies make the decision to split with up to 40% of the bees plus the queen flying out to a new home.

April was an extremely busy month; the weather was perfect, and forage for pollinating insects was plentiful, so we received several calls to collect swarms.

The Three E's

Easy, effective, and economical…what’s not to like when talking about swarm control methods?! For a couple of years now we have used the Demaree method (I agree, it should be Demareee!) to manage the swarming behaviour of our bees with the added benefit of increasing the honey production of the colony in question. The
knock-on advantage too is that colonies that have been managed in this way seem to survive the winter months more successfully.

Beekeeping and Occam’s Razor

Looking back on bee-related articles that I’ve written during the summer months, it’s no surprise to me that they all deal with similar themes: honey, queen bees, and swarms. This year is no different in that the work is the same as ever; we are marking new queens (blue this year), checking that the foraging bees are bringing in plenty of varied pollen for the ever-increasing amounts of brood, and dealing with swarms. We have been pro-active with our swarm control methods this season, especially with the colonies we are raising in Dadant hives – read on to find out about the bees in the Warré hives! It seems to us that there are more swarms around this year, or perhaps the general public is more aware of them, as we and other beekeepers have been contacted a lot more than usual with requests for help where unwanted bees are concerned. Sadly, we haven’t been called to any ‘easy’ swarm captures. Instead the calls are usually from homeowners who have bees in the chimney or under the eaves which makes removal very difficult. However, recently we did enjoy doing a good old-fashioned ‘cut-out’ of a nest that had been built between a window and the shutters, and we managed to not only find the queen but re-hive the colony back at base.

New Bees and Newbies

It’s summer already, although I don’t know why this surprises me as every year I exclaim at how quickly time passes. The winter months seem interminable but as soon as spring is here it’s practically summer! I recently read a piece about how, in countries in south and south-east Asia, the New Year is celebrated in mid-April instead of January. This makes sense to me as January is a difficult month with limited hours of daylight and miserable weather; far better to celebrate new beginnings when everything is springing to life, the sun is shining and we can hope that things will turn out well.

Off We Go Again!

Winter is almost behind us, the Spring equinox approaches, and the extra hours of daylight quicken our pulses as we look forward to warmer days. March is a nervous month for beekeepers as we are close to being able to carry out gentle hive inspections and discovering quite how our bees have fared since we last saw them in autumn. If we are lucky we’ll have some balmy weather with ambient temperatures in the early teens, just enough to allow the bees to take cleansing flights and begin foraging for early pollen and nectar.

Don't Panic!

 ‘Melissaphobia’ is an intense fear of bees, which can be overwhelming and cause great anxiety. One
way to combat this panic is to learn more about these insects and hopefully come to manage feelings of stress when encountering them. We often meet people who have attended our afternoon taster sessions because they’re not sure how they will react when surrounded by thousands of bees. Maybe they have always liked the idea of keeping bees but before they commit to the expense of buying the equipment and taking on the care of living creatures, they want to experience being near a hive. In turn, we don’t want our bees to be disturbed by scared students, so we take good care to explain what is going to take place and what to expect. The students get a similar briefing…! It’s much easier to be brave when wearing protective clothing and often people will say “Oh, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, it was so fascinating I forgot to be scared”, a win-win by our reckoning.

When Plan A actually works!

Earlier in the summer we collected a few swarms of bees that did not make for easy work!  We might share a few of the stories once the scars have healed but for now we'd love to share a positive story (it helps with our therapy 😂😂😂).  Last month, on a sunny morning, we received a call from a couple who had noticed a large group of bees in one of their plum trees. We asked them to send a photo so we could assess it and yes, they were right, a swarm cluster had formed on a branch. It was almost text-book in its size, shape, and position, perfect for collecting and re-homing in a hive.

A Surprise Visitor!

At this time of year we are usually very busy running our beekeeping taster sessions and other courses but, due to the current lock-down situation, we have had to postpone those. Our work as beekeepers doesn’t stop though, and we still have the challenges of ‘swarm season’ to face, as well as ensuring our colonies are healthy. We also keep an eye out for predators and pests, and have the perennial debate over the issue of whether or not to put out hornet traps. 

While Asian hornets are an acknowledged threat to honeybees, and in our experience a very real problem, we also are keen to avoid killing any ‘innocent bystanders’

Hello and Goodbye!

Thanks to the current virus pandemic, 2020 is turning out to be quite a different year from the one we had planned, but our bees are carrying on as if nothing has changed. Lockdown caused by adverse weather is the only thing they are experiencing and, like us, when they can get out, they do!

Spring is always an exciting time of year; we’ve got our colonies through the winter, we’ve found the queens and checked that they are laying, and we’ve seen pollen being brought in by the foragers. We’ve noted how rapidly the numbers of bees are increasing – it’s still amazing to see a baby bee hatching, pushing its way out of a wax cell, and to see newly-emerged fluffy pale drones wandering around on the frames. It’s now that we have to pay attention to what the bees’ plans are, and to keep an eye open for queen cells, and if the bees are planning to swarm and propagate the colony, or replace the queen without dividing the colony.

Honeybee swarm hanging 5 metres up!

Typically, if we judge the bees are planning to swarm, we try to beat them to it, and split the colony so that we don’t lose the majority of them. I swear our bees wait until our backs are turned and then they’re off! There they are, quietly getting on with the business of constructing comb, storing nectar, generally moseying around – we say ‘hello’, don’t spot the queen cell (usually covered in bees) and the next thing we know, they’re cheerily waving ‘goodbye’ as they thrum up into the air. Well, this year we were ready for them, and within a matter of days we went from six colonies to ten. During the current situation, beekeepers are allowed ‘out’ with the correct paperwork, and in the past fortnight we have been asked to collect four more swarms. We’ve seen queens in all of the swarms we captured, so now we just have to check that they are laying in their new homes….wish us luck!

Stay safe and enjoy your beekeeping. If you have any questions about bees, please call us or email us and we’ll try out best to help.

You know when your bees have been ‘tanged’!

Firstly, Happy New Year to all!  We hope you had a chance for some relaxation recently and are as keen as we are to embrace 2020 with gusto :-)  To get the ball rolling, here's a first blog which was inspired by our swarm planning for this year... it's amazing what you can find!
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Winter is almost behind us, so we’re now looking forward to the challenges of the new beekeeping season. In no time at all the bees will be flying and, if all goes well, swarming. Despite careful checks and the utmost vigilance, everyone who has ever kept bees will have, at some point, missed a swarm. The noise bees make when swarming is incredible and unmistakeable, a large thrumming dark cloud, growing bigger and bigger as more bees leave the hive.