Beekeeping Course: Week 7

This weeks course was a special one for me as it was the first I had attended as a genuine Beekeeper! Upon arrival we all got talking, mainly about how everyone's Bees were settling in. Mine seem to be doing fine but a couple who attend together who got their Bees the same day as me seem to be very lucky; their Bees have almost drawn out all the foundation into full comb. I imagine mine will catch up without too much problem.

As several people were picking up their Bees and there was a lot to cover we went straight up to the apiary. This weeks course was all about Bee diseases and being able to identify them. As a lot of Bee diseases are first noticeable in the brood as a Beekeeper you need to be able to remove Bees from a frame so you can see into the cells. We split into 3 groups and was shown how to shake the Bees off a comb. Once Ivor had done a frame the hive tool was passed round so everyone had a turn. When it came to my turn I gently removed a frame and had a quick look for the Queen. While I was looking for her I noticed a Queen cup with a white residue on it; I asked Ivor what it was and while he was looking at it a large caterpillar fell of onto the hive below, Ivor quickly caught it and disposed of it. It turned out to be a greater wax moth larva! It was now time to shake the Bees; to do this you hold the frame at either side and then shake with a couple of quick sharp thrusts downwards, which should dislodge enough Bees to be able to see the brood underneath. This should be done to all brood frames at least a couple of times a year if you want to catch diseases before they become a problem. After everybody had shaken a frame we moved straight onto putting the nucleus hives into everyone's hives and then left them to collect at the end.

After a quick break we went straight onto the classroom session which this week was about Bee disease and pests. We were shown several slides with various different problems present. Things we were told to look out for were:-

• Uneven brood colour; a frame of capped brood should all have a very similar colour, newer comb will be lighter than old comb.
• Smells; strong or sour odours can be signs of foulbrood
• Uneven brood pattern; a failing Queen can cause cells to be regularly missed
• Larva in cells looking different; they should be ivory white and curled in a "C" shape, if they are a different colour or seem twisted in the cell that could be foulbrood
• Capped cells look sunken; capped brood should be lightly raised, again could be foulbrood

If any of the above are found in the hive then there could be a problem and if in doubt get someone else to look at it. If you suspect foulbrood, either American or European, then by law you need to notify DEFRA; we were all encouraged to register at Beebase and through there you can notify any problems you have. We also mentioned Varroa and Small Hive Beetle. I won't go into much detail on the diseases and pests as they will be eventually added to the separate page I've created .

I also bought a new suit for my better half so she can get a little more involved. She has decided that Bees aren't as bad as she thought but still prefers her chickens, which she blogs about here.

Steph in her Bee suit

Beekeeping Course: Week 3

The third week of the Beekeeping course again was split into 2 parts; the apiary visit and then back in the classroom. Before going up to the hives we were advised that we were quite lucky that the weather had picked up enough for us to do the hive inspections. Also young virgin queens will have recently hatched so the apiary visit had to be quick as if the hives were left open too long they could take flight and be lost.

On the walk up to the apiary I put my suit on and tucked my trousers into my socks (I didn't fancy Bees in my breeches). I managed to pull a large amount of hair out of my head as the Velcro on my veil got caught in my ponytail. When we got to the apiary we split into 2 groups and looked through the hives. The first hive we looked in was a polystyrene nuc hive; a nuc or nucleus hive is a small hive created from a larger hive, they usually only contain 5 or 6 frames of brood and a queen. The queen was spotted but she is still a virgin queen so was hard to spot as she has a very small abdomen compared to a laying queen. The hive was closed up very quickly so not to disrupt the build up of the hive. We then moved onto a larger more established hive, this one having a double brood area. We did a quick check to make sure there were no queen cells being created and removed a couple of queen cups; they were all empty so were just practise cups. There were plenty of brood and also quite a lot of honey in stores so no issues with the hive. We passed around a frame that the foundation was been drawn out on; this is where the Bees turn flat foundation into full comb with cells ready for eggs to be laid, or honey stored.

After the apiary visit we went back to the classroom. To begin with we had a presentation from a guy called Chris who did the same course I am doing last year. He told how he has gone from a beginner to what stage he is at now. By what Chris was saying, he has really embraced Beekeeping. He has got 6 hives now though 2 are nucs and may be used to strengthen the other hives should the need arise. One thing that interested me was that he builds his own hives from ply wood which would make it a lot cheaper, though the hives wouldn't last as long and would need to be treated against rot each year; The usual wood used is cedar as this has natural resistance to rot. I'd also need to make sure my measurements were precise so the frames fit in without getting stuck or being too loose. All in all his talk was very encouraging as this time last year he was at the same level as me.

The second half of the classroom session was Dhonn, the other guy running the course, talking about other essential pieces of equipment needed for Beekeeping. As he was talking about the various bits of equipment he handed them around the room for us all to see. Some of the items passed around were:-

• Queen cage and marking pen - This is a small round cage used to hold the queen down so you can use a marking pen to put a coloured mark on the queens thorax, making her easier to find.
• Hive tools - Already mentioned in a earlier post, these are used to prise hive components apart that have been stuck together with propolis by the Bees, also used to scrape debris and other bits from frames.
• Porter Bee escape - These are basically one way systems that you put between the brood chamber and the supers so that the Bees will leave the supers and not be able to get back in. This is done so that when you return a couple of days later there are no Bees in the supers so you can take them away to extract the honey. 
• Uncapping fork - Has two uses. The first use is to remove the capped honey so that it can be extracted. The second use is for removing drone brood to check for varroa; this kills the drone brood as the fork impales the brood, but as varroa prefer to infect drone it a useful technique for seeing how bad your mite levels are.
• Frame spacers - Simply used to make sure the correct space is kept between frames.

There were other items mentioned such as the suit and the smoker but these items weren't passed around and are very self explanatory.

Also in the past week my better half's chickens have arrived, please visit Stephs Chickens where there are pictures of the girls.

Bee Hives Spotted

Today me and my better half went on a long walk around my local area. We had to stay to decent paths as we also had our baby in the pram being pushed by us in turns. When we set off we only intended on doing a short walk but in the end we walked 3.8 miles, with quite a lot of it being up and down steep-ish hills. While on the walk we found a house down a lane with an honesty box selling eggs and honey. As we walked further down the lane we could see the man working in one corner of his land in what looked like a vegetable plot and behind him was a large area of land. The majority of the land was for chickens and ducks but there was a little area that several Bee hives could be seen. We weren't close enough to talk to the man, or see if the hives were active but if we go for a walk in that area again and see the man I will attempt to engage him in conversation and possibly visit his hives. My better half was also interested as she is going to be getting some chickens soon though she is getting fed up with me talking about Bees!

Ginger and Lemon Mead

I have started another batch of mead. This one is very experimental and again I haven't followed a strict recipe. This mead (as it contains honey, lemon and ginger) will be called medicinal mead!


To start this one off I copied instructions I had found for making a yeast starter. This involved putting a teaspoon of wine yeast in a jam jar with a couple of teaspoons of ginger and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. I then gave this a good shake and then added the juice of a whole lemon. The next thing to do was to put a piece of kitchen towel over the top to stop dust getting in. Within half an hour it was fizzing quite happily.

The next day I added another couple of teaspoons of grated ginger and the same amount of sugar. By this point it was fizzing like a freshly opened can of ginger beer and smelling like one as well!! I left the jam jar for about 12 hours then made the mead. To start I boiled a large pan of water and left it to cool; this is done to get rid of the chlorine in the water. I then weighed out 1.5kg of honey. This was easier said than done as all my honey has now solidified and I did bend a spoon or 2, I eventually went for the wooden spoon option. The honey was then dissolved in about 2 litres of the pre boiled water which was still warm so dissolved fairly easily. This honey water was then put in to a 1 gallon demijohn. The juice of 2 lemons and the rind from 1 was added into the demijohn along with a handful of sultanas and about a tablespoon of grated ginger (I didn't measure this and just added to taste). The last thing to go in was the contents of the jam jar. When all the ingredients were in I put further water in the demijohn to make it up to 4.5 litres.

Using my newly bought hydrometer I then took a gravity reading that was 1.080; this is known as the specific gravity or SG. When the mead has fully fermented I will take a further reading and then be able to work out roughly how much alcohol is in the brew by using a formula. The formula is quite complicated so I will be using an online calculator. About half an hour after adding all the ingredients and looking on the Internet at different SG levels I decided my level wasn't quite high enough so I added sugar to make my SG level 1.090. After I applied an airlock I checked back on it after about half an hour and found it to already be bubbling away very happily, almost worryingly fast!

I will now leave this in a warm place for a few months and then rack it and take another gravity measurement. If the alcohol level is 12% or above I will probably bottle it then.

This picture was taken a day after everything was put in the demijohn and you can see a layer of foam forming at the top as it is fermenting so rapidly. The bottle that is partly in the shot, to the right of the main bottle, is my first mead which is still not quite ready.


I would also like to add a note thanking my proof reader and editor, Steph, for the work she does correcting my grammar before I publish new posts. She has started writing her own blog about chickens, I think you should follow this link and have a read!