Bumble Bee on Daffodil

This is a photo I took earlier in the year in my back garden. I don't profess to being good at taking pictures but sometimes I take one that really appeals to me. This is one of them and I am considering printing it and entering it in the upcoming Emley Show. I doubt it will win but who knows unless you enter!

Apiary Inspection - 14/08/2012

The weather was nice, Steph was at work, I wasn't and Lauren was at the child minders so the time was right to do my inspection. I went up to the allotment and had a walk over to the apiary where there were loads of Bees coming and going from 2 of my hives, and absolutely none coming from the other. The one that didn't have activity has been getting worse each time I've visited so I wasn't surprised to see no activity. The borage that is growing next to the apiay is doing extremely well, almost to the point where it is overtaking any weeds in the area! Below is the first video I took of my Bees foraging on borage.

Once I'd finished with my borage video I got suited up and entered the apiary and started working on my first hive; the hive with no Bees coming out of it. Once opened I was gutted, but not surprised, to find there were no Bees at all in the hive and all the stores were empty. Some of the comb had been damaged which probably means wasps have been and robbed the hive. There still were a few wasps  flying about trying to get a sugary treat. I moved as much of the hive out of the apiary with the wasps following me and placed it a short distance away to be delt with later.

The next hive was a lot better but still not perfect. There were plenty of Bees and brood, and I saw the Queen (Bee-atrix) but there is still an awful lot of comb that they just haven't drawn out yet. I believe this to be down to the bad weather we've had all year; it takes a lot of carbohydrates or sugars to make wax. I decided that I will heavily feed them from now to give them a better chance of building up before winter.

The last hive was very very similar to the last, the only differance was that there was slightly more stores and it was Queen Bee-linda who was on show. Again I will give them a good amount of feed before winter and again hope they survive. I didn't know what to do with the first hive I removed from the apiary that had all the drawn out comb in it. I finally decided to make my surviving hives bigger; now I have one hive with a double brood chamber and the other has 2 supers. This may have been the wrong thing to do but if I feed them lots from now hopefully they will fill out and occupy the new space. When everything was closed up I took another video of the borage forage which is below.

Bees En Mass

Over the last couple of days me and my lovely wife went to York for the night to see a band while her aunt kindly looked after our daughter. It was a lovely couple of days with the sun showing her head for most of the time. While I was playing with my daughter in the living room prior to us going out for the gig I took a quick look outside and noticed a lot of movement on a small cotoneaster bush. When I went outside to look at it there were several Honey Bees and Bumble Bees busy collecting nectar from the tiny flowers, but that was nothing compared to the amount of activity at the end of the garden on the larger bush. The large bush had literally hundreds of Bees all over it. I took a short video of it in which I try to highlight that I had only to move the camera a short distance before finding another Bee.

Apiary inspection 10/04/2012

Tuesday just gone was my latest inspection of my beehive and maybe the last time I visit a single colony as I'm hoping to split the colony on my next inspection. As usual when I arrived at the allotment I started by lighting my smoker and then going to see the Bees from just outside the apiary. There were a few Bees coming and going but not a huge amount of activity. I suited up and went into the apiary... it was at this point my smoker went out! I exited the apiary and together with my father got the smoker working properly!

Once in the apiary properly I removed the roof and started looking through the super; I was happy to see quite a good amount of honey being stored. I removed the super next and started working on the brood chamber. Underneath the Queen excluder I was shocked to see how many Bees there actually was; in mid summer last year there were a lot of Bees and I would say that there was as many as then! When I started working through the brood I could see lots of sealed brood and larva at all stages and then I saw her majesty. I didn't see any Queen cells but due to the amount of Bees in the chamber I guess that they are probably not far off being ready to swarm. When I had finished my inspection I put the hive back together but added another super so there are 2 on now. This should give them plenty of space for honey and also relieve congestion in the hive. The next time I visit them I plan to split the hive, that will probably be my next post and possibly a long post depending on how successful I am!

I took a few photos while at the allotment, 1 inside the hive and a short video and a few of the flowers in the area that the girls will hopefully be working on.

Bees in the super

Oil seed rape in field next to allotment

Plum tree in blossom

Close up of plum blossom

Close up of apple blossom

Close up of pear blossom

Dead red nettle, considered a weed but I quite like it and apparently so do the Bees

Honey Bee on Himalayan Balsam

While walking down some woodland the other day I found a huge area of Himalayan Balsam that was alive with Honey Bees. 

I was visiting a friend and we decided to get out and see if there were any blackberries ready. Although there was a fair amount of blackberries ready we didn't collect any as another few days and they will be a lot bigger and easier to pick. We did pass a huge area of Balsam flowers and I was able to capture this photo on my phone. I did get another photo however the flower is in focus but the Bee moved and is just a blur so I haven't included it. There were literally hundreds of Bees busy collecting pollen and nectar from the flowers. The pollen in Balsam flowers is very light, almost white, and it's easy to tell when the Bees have been visiting them as they look like they have been dusted with icing sugar (to me anyway).  

Honey Bee In My Garden

This morning while collecting some onions from my garden I noticed a rather large flower on my courgette plant. On further inspection of this flower I noticed a Honey Bee collecting pollen or nectar from it. After visiting the courgette she went to a squash flower and then back to the courgette! I may try to save some of the seed and see what the hybrid is like! I'm really impressed with these pictures as they were taken with my phone!

Honey Bee on courgette flower.

This time on the squash

As it was the male squash flower and the female courgette flower then the seeds from the courgettes will be the mixed seed.

Below is a short video of her moving between the flowers.

Bumble Bees in my Garden

As it is half term this week there is no Beeekeeping course so as it's been really nice weather over the past couple of days I've been out and about in my garden and noticed there was a high number of Bumblebees about. My foxgloves and lupins seemed to be the main attraction for the Bees along with the occasional dandelion, however these have now been removed when the lawn was mowed. The following movie is of a Bumble been really busy collecting nectar or pollen from my foxgloves.

Also below is a few photos of a different Bumble among my lupins at the other side of my garden.

Beekeeping Course: Week 4

Today was the fourth part of the Beekeeping course. We started with a very quick apiary visit. Unfortunately the virgin queens haven't mated yet so the nucleus hives had no eggs in them yet; if the queen doesn't mate soon then it could be too late. While in the apiary we also collected the yellow boards under the mesh floors and scraped the debris into newspaper to examine for varroa when back in the classroom.

When back in the classroom the first thing we went through were different ways of starting Beekeeping. The first method was to get a nucleus hive or nuc, which contains 5 frames with at least 3 full frames of Bees and some frames of stores. When you receive a nuc, the frames are placed in your hive and the colony expands from there. We were advised this is the best way to start for beginners as there aren't as many Bees as a full colony so are easier to handle. The next option is to buy a full colony; doing it this way you don't need to wait for your colony to build up and will usually get a crop of honey in the first year. This way is more expensive and trickier due to there being more Bees to handle. The other way to get started is to catch a swarm. The big advantage of this is that it should be free; while the downside being that you don't know the character of the Bees. They could be very aggressive, they could have swarming tendencies and they could be diseased. Taking all the above into account and the possible availability of discounted nuc hives, that will be the option I will be aiming towards to start with.

During the coffee break we were free to examine the debris collected from under the hives to see if there were any varroa dropped. Luckily there wasn't as all the hives had been medicated effectively prior to last winter. There will be more on the subject of varroa later on in the course. The main things that could be seen in the debris were granules of honey, Bees legs and a couple of other dead Bee parts.

The final part of this weeks course was by a guest speaker called Phil who is a semi commercial Beekeeper with around 100 hives. I'm not sure that I'll ever have that many hives but it was good to hear from someone with his experience of over 30 years. I have read in several places that you can ask lots of Beekeepers their opinions and get a different answer from all of them and this rang true with Phil. Where as Ivor advises using open mesh floors, Phil swears by solid floors and also Ivor has double brood hives, Phil has single; I think the main thing is to work with what you are comfortable with. Phil gave some good advice about removing your supers when ready to harvest honey, which was if there is a full honey flow on and you take off 3 supers make sure you are able to put 3 empty supers back on or you may make the Bees congested. At the moment I only have 2 supers built and another to be built so when I have two supers on I will only take one off at a time so I can replace it with the other and always have two on. There was talk about the different plants that help a colony of Bees, but as there is lots of rural area around where I live there shouldn't be a shortage of Bee forage unless there is a major drought.

All in all there was a lot to take in this week and I'm not sure I remember everything but also believe I got a lot from today's course. Next week is half term so it will be two weeks before the next one.

Beekeeping Course: Week 2

Yesterday was the second week of the course. Again we were lucky with the weather and managed an apiary visit. Once we'd all suited up we went over to the apiary. While on the way up to the apiary I got talking to another guy on the course and found out he already had Bees, but also kept chickens, ducks and pigs but has no pigs at the moment; I was pleased to find out that he actually lives in the same village as me so next week I may ask for his contact details and maybe arrange a visit to his apiary if he is up for it. When we got to the apiary we were split into 2 groups; this week I was in Ivor's group.

We approached the first hive and Ivor puffed some smoke into the hive to relax the Bees. We had been warned that this week the Bees could be more aggressive than last week; this is due to most of the oil seed flowers going this week, meaning the Bees have to look a bit harder for pollen and nectar. Upon opening the hive it was apparent that the Bees were calmer than expected. Once the hive was opened and the supers removed, Ivor carefully removed the Queen excluder, checking that she wasn't on its underside. We then had access to the brood chamber. We removed the frames one by one inspecting them as we were going. In the first hive we were unable to find the Queen, but there were capped Queen cells possibly indicating that the previous Queen was no longer in the hive and the Bees were replacing her. We then moved on to the second hive and we were able to find the Queen so all was in order.

The third hive that we inspected was a fairly weak hive, with a new Queen. As we were looking in this hive, Ivor told us not to expect to see eggs yet, due to the age of the Queen, but that she should start laying soon. After Ivor had inspected the first two frames within the brood chamber he asked if anyone else would like a turn. The guy I was talking to earlier had a go; after he had inspected a couple of frames, another person had a look and then it was my turn. I was rather excited as it was my first time handling Bees! Using the hive tool provided, I separated a frame from the brood box and carefully lifted it to eye level to inspect. I was surprised at how heavy it was. I could clearly see stores of pollen and a couple of worker Bees emerging from their cells. In all I inspected two frames.

After the inspections were completed, we went back into the classroom for a tea break. After that there was a short talk from Val about what Bees collect and what they produce. They collect nectar which is turned into honey; the Bee's source of carbohydrate. They also collect pollen which is stored for the Bees proteins; and propolis, which is a resin gathered from plants and is used as a glue. She also mentioned a number of Bee friendly plants, but these have been recorded in a previous post.

After this discussion, Ivor demonstrated how to construct frames for inside the hive. I was please to see that the finished result looked like the frames I created. He also constructed a brood box from a flat-pack kit, that also resembles the one that I built. At this stage we realised that we had over-run, so we packed up and I went home to my better half and the curry that she had ordered. I'm looking forward to the next part of the course.

Bumble Bees En Mass

At work over the last few days I have seen many Bumble Bees on the bushes around the building. I'm not sure what kind of bush it is but it stretches for 10 plus metres on one side of the building and even more at the other side. The Bees I saw were mainly big black and yellow Bumble Bees and brown Bumble Bees; there were also a few Honey Bees knocking about but not as many. Intrigued at what kind of Bumble Bees they were I did a quick google search for Bumble Bee identification and came across the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust or BBCT. Using the guide found at this link, I believe the Bumble's that I was seeing were mainly Common Carder Bee, or Bombus Pascuorum and the Garden Bumble Bee, or Bombus Hortorum. The vast majority of them were the Carder Bee and I believe there were several queens; I thought this due to the size of them and the presence of a few much smaller ones but with the same colour.

Since finding BBCT's site I have become a member which costs £16 per year. I'm looking forward to getting my welcome pack. The welcome pack includes a chart for identifying Bumble Bees, a pin badge, a car sticker and a packet of Bee friendly seeds, along with a newsletter. If anyone fancies joining or more info on Bumble's then the link is here.

The BBCT site also gives a helpful guide on what flowers to plant to help Bees. This is a breakdown of the list and I have (painstakingly) added wikipedia links to all the different plants mentioned in the guide

• March - April :- Apple, Bluebell, Broom, Bugle, Cherry, Erica carnea (heather), Flowering Currant, Lungwort (Pulmonaria), Pear, Plum,  Pussy Willow, Red dead-nettle, Rosemary, White dead-nettle
• May - June :- Alliums, Aquilegia, Birds-foot trefoil, Bugle, Bush vetch, Campanula, Ceanothus, Chives, Comfrey, Cotoneaster, Escallonia, Everlasting Pea, Everlasting wallflower, Foxglove, Geranium, Honeysuckle, Kidney Vetch, Laburnum, Lupin,  Monkshood, Poppies, Raspberries,

  Red Campion, Roses (singles), Sage, Salvia, Thyme, Tufted vetch, Meadow Cranesbill, White Clover, Wisteria, Woundwort
•  July - September :- Black horehound, Borage, Bramble, Cardoon, Catmint, Cornflower, Delphinium, Heathers, Hollyhock, Hyssop, Knapweed, Lavender, Lesser burdock, Marjoram, Melilot, Mint, Penstemon, Phacelia, Polemonium, Purple loosestrife, Red bartsia, Red clover,  Rock-rose, Sainfoin, Scabious, Sea Holly, Snapdragons, St. Johns Wort, Sunflower, Teasel, Thistles, Viper's bugloss

This is a picture of the bush that they were feasting on. It was taken on my phone so isn't very good quality and I didn't even try to take any pictures of the Bees (mainly because I'd have had to get very close and would have looked a fool if anyone looked out of the window at work and also they were too busy and moving about a lot). I have done a bit of research on google and believe this bush is a species of cotoneaster or pyracantha although I could be completely wrong. At some point I may try to get a cutting for my own garden.