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.