Apiary inspection 15/08/2011

I've finally managed to get caught up with my blog posting with this post. 10 days ago me and Steph did an inspection, however this time she was really brave and did most of it. In fact the only things I did were light the smoker, open the hive, remove the first frame and any heavy lifting. She enjoyed it so much that she has agreed that a hive in our back garden is a strong possibility but is likely to be a top bar hive; a top bar hive would mean less heavy lifting and looks a lot nicer than just a wooden box not to mention a top bar hive will be cheaper!

Steph all suited up

The smoker ready to go

If you look almost in the centre there is a Bee emerging from it's cell!

Steph looking very professionally 

Queen Bee-atrix and plenty of brood

This is the frame nearest the entrance, I think they put the holes there for extra ventilation

Beekeepers together!

I also took the debris from the varroa board and later that day counted the mites. I found 37 mites and that was over 14 days. Using the calculator on the Beebase website I got the following result:

Average Daily Mite Fall = 2.6 varroa mites
Estimated number of adult varroa mites in the colony = 110Treatment is recommended in about 9 month(s) time (counting from day of first monitoring).

Although the results are again fairly low I intend to treat the hive as soon as I've removed the honey, which hopefully will be next Monday or Tuesday. I will then contact my local Beekeeping club who offer a extractor for hire. With any luck I should have some honey in the next few weeks.

The Great Yorkshire Show 2011

This Tuesday just gone me and Steph went to the Great Yorkshire Show. Steph's Aunt had kindly offered to baby sit all day so we didn't have a 7 month old to contend with. We set off fairly early from York, waving the still asleep baby goodbye and wishing Steph's aunt good luck for the day. We travelled along the A59 hoping this way would have less traffic but unfortunately we were wrong. We got about 8 miles from where the A59 crosses over the A1(M) and hit the traffic. We were stuck in a tailback for quite some time but once we got past the A1(M) junction it started to speed up and we then made good time and got parked up.

Upon entering the show we bought a programme so we had a map. Prior to setting off we had printed out a list of things we would like to see at the show to avoid just wondering around aimlessly, however we did just end up wondering but saw most things on the list. The first part we went to was where the horses, cows, pigs, sheep and goats where being shown.

After seeing all the farm animals we went a little bit further and saw the hounds. So many dogs in the same place at the same time was rather noisy and I did feel for the people who had a stall right next to them! We then had a look at our map to try to find where the Beekeeping related area was and found that it was a short walk up a hill through the army demonstration area so we made our way over.

When we arrived at the area for Beekeeping we got talking to a guy who was representing Bees Abroad which is a charity that helps provide Bee hives and equipment for people in Africa. This is a fantastic charity that works with the people providing them with the means to help themselves; by providing hives they can then keep Bees rather than having to climb trees to take honey from feral colonies, this way they will be able to harvest honey and wax without destroying the colony setting them up for many years. The guy we were talking to said that through donations they provide plans for them to make their own hives and then the top bars are bought for them from local suppliers. The suits that they were using were made from old mosquito nets and maize bags, all in all the suit costs approx £1.

Next we talked to Dohn, who was one of the people running the course I have just taken. I mentioned to him that my Bees haven't started working the supers yet; he said one way of encouraging the Bees up into the supers was to smear some honey or syrup onto one of the frames. We also got talking to another guy called Malcolm who is a member of Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers, I have met him before but never had a chance to talk to him. He gave me his card and showed me a nucleus hive he has made himself from plywood; he did say that there is no need to get the expensive cedar hives and that the hives he has made himself work just as well. He gave me his card and I will probably contact him for a price list and to see what products he does.

Outside there was a guy repairing a skep; a skep is a old Beehive made of reeds and is the traditional image people have when thinking of Beehives. Although they are not used so much for keeping Bees nowadays they are still useful for collecting swarms. The reason they are not used any more for keeping Bees is that there is no way of managing them and to harvest the honey the colony has to be killed.

We then moved onto the honey room but they were judging at the time. There was a small section of the room open with about 10 different honeys available to sample. We tasted a few each and was surprised at how different they tasted. We later returned after the judging had finished and had a look at the various different classes of honey, wax and mead that were on display.

Outside there were 3 hives behind mesh, a very similar set up to what I have but with more hives. There was also a observation hive; this is a hive with a glass front so you can see the inner workings of the hive.

Throughout the rest of the day we visited as many areas as we could. We spent a good while in the food hall trying loads of samples; these included cheeses, curry pastes, sausages, oils with bread, pickles, chutneys, jams, alcoholic goodies and a lot more! We did end up buying some cheeses and sausages. If we had bought everything that we liked we would have needed a new mortgage! All in all we had a excellent day and hope to go again next year but with the baby next time!

Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers: Summer Apiary Visit

Yesterday was the third Summer apiary meeting, but only the first I have managed to attend due to work commitments. It started at 3pm, but I arrived a little early. It was held at Judy's house; she is a member of WPBKA. As we waited for everyone to arrive, I was chatting to a few other members. One thing I seem to be asked regularly is "how are your bees?". Unfortunately they don't exist yet, which is a shame for a Beekeeper! Hopefully, the next time I am asked that question I will have a better answer! Fingers crossed.

When everyone arrived, we suited up and headed off for the apiary, which was a bit of an adventure. We walked to the back of the garden, through an orchard and past the vegetable plot and into dense trees. After that we made our way through a patch of ferns, then up a path to the concealed apiary which was in a clearing in another patch of woodland. It must have looked strange to the group of kids that were playing in the area, as 20 ish fully suited Beekeepers walked past.

When we got to the apiary we all gathered around the first hive which is one I've not seen before called a Dartington Long Deep Hive but this one is unoccupied at the moment. This, to me, seemed like a cross between a Top Bar Hive and a British National Hive; to access the brood you lift the lid and then all the frames are in one long row like a TBH but they are made from frames with wax foundation like a British National. Due to the length of the hive it is possible to split it into 2 hives when the Bees are wanting to swarm. The supers in this hive are half the size of standard supers, therefore half the weight, which is why Judy is trying this design.


The next hive was a British National Hive that had a frame of wireless foundation in one of the brood frames to encourage the Bees to make queen cells. The method they were using was a little complex for me at the moment and I won't try to fully explain it but will mention the basics. To start with you use half a sheet of wireless foundation put into a full size brood frame; when the Bees have made the foundation into cells and the queen has filled it with eggs the next step was to move it into a nuc hive without the queen. This will make the Bees left on the frame make queen cells by feeding the young larva royal jelly. Then the queen cells can be cut from the frame and placed in to queen-less hives to save them. That's basically how the method was done. This method would be easier described with photos so if I try this in the future I'll take some. Unfortunately reading the description I've just written makes it sound more complex than it actually was!


The third hive we looked at was again a British National and again involved a process that I will make sound complex when I try to explain! When the hive was opened up there were queen cells found at different stages of development; one was capped and the others weren't. The queen was also found in this hive along with a large amount of Bees. Due to all these factors it was decided that there could be a possibility the hive was ready to swarm. To try to stop the hive swarming a nucleus hive was taken out of this hive. The frame with the capped queen cell and also the frame with the uncapped cells were removed and put into the nucleus hive. The capped queen cell was removed; this is done to stop the Bees creating a mini swarm or cast swarm. The uncapped queen cells were left; they are left because you know that by the time the queen cell has been capped and the queen has developed, then finally hatched there will be no more eggs left so the queen will stay and hopefully start laying. Also placed in the nucleus hive were a couple of frames of food. With this nucleus hive removed from the main hive there is now more room in the main hive so their urge to swarm will be lessened. Also if there is a problem with the original queen then there is a spare in the nucleus hive.


After the apiary visit we returned to the house and had refreshments. Judy had made lots of sandwiches and other snacks including home made cakes. It was good to sit and relax with cake and a cup of tea after all the complex hive manipulation that had been going on! I got talking to a few of the more experienced Beekeepers and a couple of people who were still on their first hive. All in all it was a good day and I was surprised that it lasted 3 hours as it seemed to pass so quickly. I look forward to trying some of the techniques seen at the apiary. I will include my own pictures where possible to try to make things make more sense!

Natural or National

After doing lots of research into becoming a Beekeeper I have come across an alternative to the national hive that I have already posted details about. The hive I talk about is The Top Bar Hive or TBH. Unfortunately I started reading about this hive design after I had purchased my National hive or I would have strongly considered the TBH option.

For the hobbyist beekeeper the TBH has lots of advantages over the National standard option.

•  The first obvious one is the cost. My National hive was a budget option that I had to construct myself and was over £100 (£190 including suit, smoker etc), while a TBH can be constructed using spare wooden boards or the timber can be purchased relatively cheap, even as flat pack they can be bought for £60 or there about.
• The second major advantage for the hobbyist is lack of heavy lifting involved. With a National hive if you want to inspect the brood body you have to lift off the supers above and if there is a large amount of honey in them they can be heavy, also by removing a large section of the hive you have a risk of annoying the bees more than needed. With the TBH there is little to no heavy lifting, once the lid is taken off you can lift each individual bar one at a time to inspect the colony, the only weight being lifted is the weight of the bar and the weight of the comb (plus any bees that stay on the comb).
• The third reason is ease of harvest. With the TBH all you need to do to harvest is to remove the comb that has honey stored in it and cut the wax away from the top bar then place the bar back in place for the bees to remake the honey comb, you then can mash up the honey comb and strain to separate the honey from the wax, this also gives you more beeswax than a national hive and removes the need for expensive equipment to spin the honey from frames like in a National hive.
• The fourth reason is probably the most important reason and that is the Bees health. A TBH seems designed to be healthier for the Bees. The Bees make their own comb with a TBH so you don't have to buy wax foundation, further decreasing the cost. Bought comb can contain residual traces of disease or pesticides that shouldn't be put in a hive and when the honey is released from a National hive frame you put the comb back in. This apparently has the advantage to the Bees in that they have already got their comb built so can concentrate on collecting honey thus giving a higher yield, though I have read somewhere that there isn't a great difference in yield. With a National hive the tendency is to remove large quantities of honey at a time by taking off full honey supers and with TBH you take it as it's ready, 1 or 2 combs at a time. By taking it in small quantities at a time you a leaving the Bees with more of their natural food, honey, thus keeping them healthier. Also due to Bees making their own comb in a TBH they make it to their own size that they require unlike National where the foundation is already pressed out to a size defined by the manufacturer of the foundation. The Bees that make their own size comb are usually healthier and manage pests, such as Varroa, better.

There are other advantages and disadvantages but these are the main ones from my point of view. As I already have my National hive I will be sticking with that for the first year but come the next one will be looking into building my own TBH and putting Bees from my National hive into the TBH. I will post photos of the TBH when I start making it. For now I have a couple of photo's obtained from The Natural Beekeeping Forum.

These pictures have been kindly supplied by user tonybloke from The Natural Beekeeping Forum.

The picture on the right is a unoccupied TBH. This image is lifted straight from Phil Chandlers Natural Beekeepers site. The main page for Natural Beekeeping is here and includes free plans to build your own TBH.