Malta

Malta is a tiny country in the Mediterranean closest to Sicily. It takes barely an hour to travel from one end of the island to the other (it takes even longer if you keep going the wrong way and having to backtrack). The name Malta is thought to derive from the Greek word μέλι or meli, which means honey and the ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη, pronounced Melite (info taken from good old Wikipedia). This is believed to be due to Malta having its own endemic species of honey bee and being well known for its honey production.

Me, Steph, Lauren and Steph's Aunt have just come back from a 10 day holiday in Malta and in that time got to see a large amount of the tiny Mediterranean island and it's even smaller island, Gozo. Whilst we were there we had various sites we wanted to visit, including some that were used to film the first series of Game of Thrones! One site I really wanted to see was in a town called Xemxija, near the north of the island. In this town there is an area which has  several ancient sites including burial grounds, a Bronze Age village site, Neolithic remains and a Roman apiary site! Not surprising the area I was most interested in was the ancient apiary site. At the end if this post there will be some photos showing the area.

On Sundays there is a major fish market held in a town called Marsaxlokk, to the southeast of the island near to where we were staying. The town is fairly peaceful and quiet during the week but on a Sunday it seems like half the island descends upon this area for the fresh fish that is sold there. By the time we got there the market was well up and running and there were a large variety of fish and shellfish that I recognized and even more that I couldn't. Steph and Lauren weren't too impressed with the smell of the fish although in my opinion it wasn't too bad. Although it is best known as a fish market there was also plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables plus toys, clothes and general tourist tat. There was also a stall selling local honey. I bought a sample of 3 varieties of honey from the lady and also talked to her for a short while. Her husband is the Beekeeper and he has over 100 hives spread over Malta and Gozo. I'm a long way off having the time, patience, equipment and sanity to have that many Bees but maybe when I retire it could be an option. Below are lots of pictures of the Bee related parts of the holiday.

The 3 sample honey's I bought at Marsaxlokk

Inside one of the apiary caves - The bees would have been kept in these upturned jars.

More inside the cave.

The apiary site from outside.

Yet another inside the caves.

A different apiary site in same area.

Below is a small selection of the photos I took of Bees on flowers.

Bees and a beetle on a flower.

I think this is my favorite!

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!

 

Apiary Visit 6/03/2012

This was my first apiary visit of the year and also the last apiary visit as a unmarried man! In a few days I will be married!! I have been getting rather exited and commenting every time I do something for the last time before I get wed. Anyway, back to the apiary visit...

The visit was the first time I have seen the Bees this year however I have had a couple of reports from my dad saying how active they were; one particularly warm day he said that there were hundreds of them flying in and out of the hive carrying baskets full of pollen. This is an especially good sign as if they are bringing in pollen then they must be feeding young larva which in turn is a good indication of a laying queen. So far this spring has had some really warm days and there are plenty of trees already in full bloom not to mention the daffodils and other bulbs.

When I went to visit the apiary it had been a sunny day but not as warm as the last week. Due to this my visit was very short, just enough to see the Bees really. When I arrived and suited up I notice there was no activity outside the hive but when I put my head next to it I could hear a gentle buzz from within. I removed the hive roof and was surprised that the fondant I had added was still there in part, I had been fairly panicked that they would have consumed it all! When I put the fondant on there were 2 tubs full and now 1 was completely empty and the other was nearly full! After I had removed the tub I could see the Bees inside and although I didn't fully open the hive, what I could see inside was plenty of female worker Bees crawling about the comb and no sign of any drones! I believe the production of drones will start soon when the Bees get into swarm season.

I made a short video of what I could see. In the video you can see where the Bees have been eating the fondant from the tub, also you can see where the other tub has been placed as there is layer of fondant still on the crown board. Unfortunately you can also see where I have been a little clumsy and killed a couple of Bees by placing the fondant on top of them, I was a lot more careful when replacing the fondant this time.

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 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.

Dandelion Wine Fermenting

After leaving the dandelion brew for 4-5 days in a covered bowl it was time to put it in a demijohn for fermenting. I used a sieve to scoop off as much of the dandelion "debris" as possible and then poured the remaining liquid through the sieve a few times for good measure. 

I then poured the remaining liquid into a demijohn (in this case a 3 litre dilute pop bottle). Before the dilute pop bottle I used a larger glass demijohn but this was too large for the amount of liquid I had. At this point I was panicking slightly as I have used the same amount of sugar as I should have used for a larger batch, meaning there is a higher sugar content. This will mean a sweeter wine which is no problem! At this point I should have taken a S.G. reading so I could work out the alcohol level at the end but didn't have time so will play it blind.

The next day I had a look at the mix and am happy to report that it is bubbling away quite happily. Now I need to wait a couple of months before racking the wine, then maybe another rack followed by bottling the wine and finally leaving for upto a year to develop. I will update as I go!

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.

Bumble Bee on Dandelion

Over the weekend I helped my Dad in his allotment. In one of his greenhouses there are an array of weeds growing on the floor including dandelions. I managed to get a shot of this busy character while she was foraging on this flower head. I am quite impressed with this picture as it was taken with my phone that only has a 3 mega pixel camera. I will have to start taking my partners camera out in the future as that takes much better photos. In my own garden my pear tree is just starting to blossom, so hopefully will be visited by some Bees in the next few days.