Apples, Plums and Wine Tasting

The last few weeks have been a bit hectic for me and Steph. For one reason or another we have had a lot of time together and have kept ourselves busy. One thing we've been making will have to wait a while (until after Christmas) before I do a post about it, sounds intriguing! I will write about what I've been doing this week in reverse order.

Earlier today I dropped Steph off at work, we are down to one car at the moment due to a faulty clutch, and then headed over to one of my good friends house with the intention of going for a walk. I took my foraging bag with me just in case I saw any elderberries or sloes for making wine. We did see plenty of elderberries but they were generally a little too high to reach or through some brambles so we didn't collect any. I was keeping an eye out for the sloes but 3 1/2 miles into the walk and we hadn't seen any. I was starting to feel hungry at this point and as I was walking I saw some windfall apples on the floor. At the side of the path was an apple tree with small red shiny apples. Me and my friend tried one and they were nice and sweet so we started to fill our bags. When I worked my way to the back of the tree I saw that there was another apple tree... And another, and another! In fact there were around seven trees altogether, not all had apples on them but most did. Within about 15 minutes I'd picked enough to fill my bag and eaten about 4 different varieties! My intention is to have a go at making some cider with this 5kg of apples. My friend who supplied me with the Bees earlier  in the year is going to lend me a cider press, if you're reading this I thank you again in advance!

Last night I had a different friend around my house and we did some wine tasting. We started on some elderberry wine that was bottled a long while ago. The last time I tasted this wine it was a little rough but now it seems to have matured nicely and in a few more months I think it will be lovely, if it lasts that long! It's a shame I haven't had time to pick any elderberries this year. Next we moved onto some rhubarb wine that I made this year. It hasn't had ages to mature but was still lovely and also rocket fuel! I only had a few glasses and I could really feel the effects, especially the following morning!

The last section is all about plums! Again I have to thank my friend for this; my dad's plum tree didn't survive moving allotments so we didn't have any this year but Mark let me take as many as I wanted. Within half an hour picking them I'd filled a carrier bag to the point of breaking! I had enough to make a batch of wine and several jars of jam. The best thing about the plums was that there wasn't even a single grub in any of them, when we have made plum jam before we usually see a grub in at least every 10. One thing I noticed when picking the fruit was that there were a lot of Bees on the fruit. At first I thought they were wasps but looking at them they were defiantly Bees. I've not come across Bees on fruit before. 

Apiary Inspection's August 2013

Though the main body of this post is about the inspection I did on Wednesday 14th I will mention quickly that me and Steph did an inspection a couple of weeks ago. At this inspection all went well in the hives. The small hive is building up nicely and the new colony created using the snelgrove board seems to be thriving though I still haven't done a full inspection on that one. When packing up the hives some of the Bees started getting rather persistent so we left the apiary and walked far enough away so they wouldn't follow.... or so we thought; we had just taken our suits off and a bee started going for my face so I quickly went in the opposite direction to get away. Steph wasn't quick enough and received her first ever sting, on the forehead! Luckily she didn't have a reaction. She was literately saying 5 seconds before how she had never been stung!

The next inspection I did solo and that went well. All 3 colonies seem to be doing well, plenty of brood, eggs and stores in each. There were loads of flying Bees about especially from the colony that has been created most recently with the snelgrove board. The smallest hive is still progressing nicely though I would like it to be a bit stronger going into winter; I think that starting next week I will start feeding that colony to give it a boost.

When I was packing up the last hive I felt a scratch on my ankle so looked down to see the culprit...To my horror as I looked there were 3 or 4 Bees going to town on the same spot on my ankle. At first there wasn't much pain and shortly after there was an intense itching. I finished packing up quickly and got away from the Bees in case any more decided to have a go. When my suit was off and I was safely back in the car I rolled my trouser leg up and had a look at the damage; my ankle was sore but not swelling too bad. By the time I got home it had started to swell and by the next day my work shoes felt quite tight. Luckily that's the only reaction I had and now, a week later, my ankle is back to normal!

Since that inspection I have made and painted another hive stand. Yesterday (23/08/2013) I went down to the Bees and separated the colonies that were on top of one another with the snelgrove board separating them. The top hive was moved about 15 foot away and placed on my new stand; this went off without a hitch (and thankfully without any stings). My apiary looks good now with all 3 hives in it but will look better if they all make it through the winter strong. As mentioned earlier I have started feeding my smallest hive. It has a half gallon of syrup in a feeder above the colony and with any luck they will use it to build up a little faster; we'll see.

At the moment there is loads of Himalayan Balsam in flower all around the apiary. This is an excellent source of nectar and pollen for the Bees. I did try to take a good photo of the Bees in the flowers. I wasn't very successful; the Bees were being too busy and moved before the picture was taken. Below is one of the better ones although it's still not great!

 

Emley Show 2013

A couple of weeks ago was the Emley show. Last year I managed to win a class in the honey section but this year I was unable to enter the same class; it was for novices and can only be entered once. This year I had to go up against the people who have been keeping Bees for much longer. I'll cut straight to the chase and say that this year I didn't win anything in the honey class. One of my friends did enter and he was a lot more successful getting 3 awards and it was his first time showing honey. Comparing his honey and mine it was clear his was superior. My honey is clear but his is super clear; he used a much finer filter than I did so next year I will try to get hold of one myself.

My Dad had good results in the horticulture section winning in the cucumber and broad bean section and getting various 2nd's and 3rd's elsewhere. The full results are here. I entered a couple of exhibits in the flower section and got a 2nd and a 3rd. Next year my Dad will probably enter even more.

I didn't take as many photos as last year but the ones I did take are below. There seem to be more chicken pictures than anything else!

Honey Bottled!

After my last post I had to wait a few days for my honey labels to arrive but they finally did. Below are a couple of pictures of the honey bottled and then finally with labels as well. I managed to get 20 jars for sale and bottled 6 up for show and personal consumption. The 20 jars sold faster than I expected and a few people who wanted it have missed out. With so few jars and so many customers it was inevitable that some would be disappointed. I'm hoping that once I've increased my hives up to a reasonable number then I will be able to satisfy demand a little more. The money I've made from honey sales will go straight to funding more Bees.

Honey Extraction

In the last post I did me and Steph collected several frames of honey for extraction. I was at work the next day and on my break I called the guy who rents out the extractor for our local association. Unfortunately I was not successful in getting through to him so had a bit of a panic; lots of honey in the comb and no way of extracting it! I had a brainwave to call my friend who supplied me with my current Bees and see if he had an extractor I could borrow. I was in luck, not only did he have one, the one he had was excellent! When I have bottled up all my current wines I have on the go at the moment I will have to give him a couple of bottles to say thanks.

The first step was to take the cappings off the honey comb. This was simply done with a sharp knife and a steady hand. Once that was done the frames were put in the extractor then all that was required was to spin it to get the honey out. This is a manual extractor but required minimal effort to get to speed. The next videos show my daughter managing to turn the handle and extract some honey!

 If video doesn't work click here

 If video doesn't work click here

If video doesn't work click here

Apiary Inspection and Honey Collection 25/07/2013

While my daughter was at the childminders on Thursday me and Steph did an inspection and honey harvest. It was another glorious day and the Bees were coming and going being a busy as Bees are famous for being! The first hive checked was the smaller hive that was recently in a nucleus hive. Steph led the inspection on this one and within a few minutes we had found the Queen. She was still small but I think she was a slight bit larger than last time. I think when we go down to see them next time I will add some syrup to try to get them to build up faster. Here are a few pictures of Steph doing the inspection.

The Bees have started to build the comb up here.

The white capped area is stored honey. As this is a new hive we won't be taking any from them this year.

The main hive was quickly checked now. This hive was split into 2 a short while ago using the snelgrove method. The way I had split it was to have the Queen in the bottom hive and all the brood at the top ready to make a new Queen. Within minutes of checking the top hive I realised I had made a mistake somewhere as there where still eggs visible meaning the Queen was still there! Sure enough, in a few frames I found her. Although this is not what I intended it still will be OK as it just means that the new Queen will be raised in the bottom brood box rather than the top. Oh well, another lesson learnt! After that I decided not to check the bottom box as I didn't want to disturb any new Queen there could be. 

The next thing to do was take some honey! In the frames within the hive there was an abundance of honey stored so I don't think they'll mind me taking some. This basically consisted of taking the frames out and shaking and blowing the Bees away from the comb and then taking them home!

This box is almost full of honey!

Below are a couple of videos of me and Steph shaking and blowing the frames to get the Bees off (I worded that to avoid saying "blowing the Bees off" as some may think that rude!)

Click here if you can't see the video

Click here if you can't see the video

Apiary Visit 18/07/2013

Another scorching day in the area I live and also the day I went to check on the Bees. Prior to my inspection I had made a few new frames up ready to be put in the Nucleus hive with a newly mated Queen I had seen last time I went. I'd also arranged to meet with my Brother-In-Laws Dad, Mick, as he has an interest in insects and Bees. He has several colonies of ants that he keeps. I may at some point get the pleasure of seeing them and writing about them.

We met at the land and got the smoker lit and suited up ready to look in the hives. It was sweltering heat and before long I had sweat pouring off me. We started with the Nucleus hive that had the newly mated Queen in it and I began transferring the frames to a full sized hive so they had room to expand. We did manage to see the Queen although she is slightly small at the moment, hopefully she will get a little bigger than she is now or I may have to replace her. There was also plenty of eggs and larva present so I'm hoping that she has bred well and will not need replacing. Due to her currrent size I decided not to mark her yet.

The next hive was my main hive and we found the Queen fairly easy in there as well. As I am trying to increase my hives I used something called a snelgrove board which I have made earlier in the year. The board is used to manipulate the Bees and can be used as either a swarm control method or for making increases while at the same time not interferring with honey production. It works by seperating the brood and the Queen making them think they have swarmed and reducing the tendancy for them to want to leave. The seperated brood, with its young Bees, will then create a new Queen effectively making 2 colonies altogether. From there you can either split the 2 brood chambers or unite them back to one, although you need to get rid of one of the Queens to do this. The method is easier to explain when you're at the apiary then in writing so will leave it at that! I will probably do a more detailed post when I can describe it better.

While we were checking the brood box I noticed that the Bees had created a full comb of honey where I'd left a gap. I managed to pry this out without damaging this too much and shared the comb with Mick. He was more than impressed to be taking some honey home with him! When I checked the super that I had above the brood chamber I was excited to feel how heavy it was and my next post will probably be about honey extraction!

Mick with the honey comb.

We couldn't find anything to put the comb in so it is wrapped in a couple of latex gloves!

The snelgrove board. This is a picture of it unfinished. The finished version has a hole in the middle with a fine wire mesh over it.

Allotment, Bugs and Bumbles - A Photo Update

Some large raised beds that my Dad and Brother-In-Law have been working hard at. Can't take much credit myself for this but will help with filling them and obviously eating the produce!

Another set of raised beds.

Thornless blackberry plant.

Peas, not ready for picking yet.

A nice picture of a ladybird captured using the macro setting on my phone.

Bumble bee on thyme flowers.

Now that it's white bum can be seen it can be identified as bombus hypnorum.

A bumble on a fox glove.

Another picture of the bumble.

Bees, Berries and Outdoor Cooking

I've decided to put a few updates in one post again. This week the weather has been absolutely belting and after work on Friday I went to do my inspection of the Bees. Upon arriving at the land my Dad and Brother-in-law were just leaving for a pint over the road. Not wanting to miss the opportunity of a free pint I tagged along! After a swift drink I returned to the land and got on with my inspection.

Not a lot to say on the inspection so I'll keep it brief. The main colony have loads of supplies and the supers are starting to get some stored in them too so with any luck I may have some honey for myself and some to sell this year. Fingers crossed! The nucleus hive wasn't checked as there should be a newly hatched Queen in there and I don't want to disturb her until she has done her mating flight and started laying.

After checking the Bees I decided to take a few strawberries as there are a few ready for the picking and it would be a shame to leave them for the birds to decimate!

And finally as the weather was good I decided to do a spot of outdoor cooking. We have recently had some conifers cut down and trimmed in my back garden and all the wood was lying around so I wanted to get rid of it. What better way then having a fire. There was lots of very dry bits and they set fire with no effort at all. I had a nice long branch that looked ideal for suspending my dutch oven from so I dug a hole and placed one end of the branch in the ground then propped another branch up to the side of it over the fire. I now only had to attach the cooking pot to the branch to suspend it above the flames. The photos below hopefully show this better. I cooked some chilli in the pot and using the lid cooked some sweetcorn as well. It was lovely!

Beer, food and fire, no wonder I'm smiling!