New years resolutions, the pond and early spring forage for the Bees.

The excavations for the pond are complete and it measures 6m x 3m.  Now all we need is an outer liner - carpet, newspaper, carpet felt or a bespoke pond underlay and also an inner PVC or butyl liner to hold the water.  I fancy that a nylon carpet would be longest lasting and probably easiest obtained of the free underlay options but the waterproof liner is going to cost!  Working on a 9m x 6m "flexiliner" (£123) and underlay (£45) plus a few water plants I estimate that there won't be much change from £250.  Butyl would cost £372 so that option would come to £500 or there abouts.
I've bought a few spring flowering bulbs for the Apiary garden - Snow drops, various daffs, Winter Aconites, Crocus, Anenome Blanda and the white Anenome.  As of today my lodger Jimi and I have planted 300 daffodils.  I know it's late but the supplier ensures me that they'll be OK, fingers crossed then.
My new year's resolutions on the Apiary - put tools and equipment back where they belong after use, keep really good records for each hive and have them readily available for any member's inspection and to manage Varroa as organically as possible using queen trapping etc.
I wish all my readers a happy new year and for those of you with Bees a successful season of beekeeping.
Barry

Back home, pond building and a talk on our Nepal visit.

  Colin and I returned home in early November and we've managed to keep busy since then.  We found pools of water on the floor inside the pavilion.  Job number one then repair the roof.  This work revealed that the felt needs to be replaced over the whole roof and possibly the shed behind the pavilion may need to be done as well.  Job number 2, weather-proof the pavilion and sheds for winter with a couple of coats of preservative.
  Colin did both of these jobs and in the mean time I;ve been digging out the new pond .  I'll post a few 'before and after' photos on this blog, but basically it's about 5m long and 3m wide and at its deepest approximately 90cm.  There's also a boggy area which, to bee-keepers, is very desirable as long as there's plenty of damp moss for the bees to use as a source of water for colony maintenance.  The problem has been disposing of the spoil so we'll have to construct a few tastefully positioned banks around site.  We need to come up some ideas of how we can make the banks functional, wildlife friendly, beautiful, bee friendly or a combination of these.  We also need to line the pond with layers of newspaper or perhaps carpet under-felt before the waterproof liner goes in.  Any offers?
  On Saturday Colin and I gave a talk about our recent visit to Nepal, all went well until I couldn't find the next Power point presentation on Colin's visit to Monacamana, (a famous religious site) and Chitwon (a national wildlife park), anyway, we decided to do a slide show using the original downloaded photos from his camera.  Mistake!  For every 10 snaps of empty blue sky or fuzzy snaps out of bus windows there was one decent, even good, shot of a rhino or an elephant.  It took forever, what should have been an inspiring but brief insight became a little boring, although the audience was far to polite to say so.  I blame digital cameras, in the old days when there was 32 potential photos on a roll. You had to be a bit choosy about when you pushed the button but now it's snap, snap, snap, loads of dross and a few half decent pictures!  When I got home I searched the memory of my computer to see if I could locate the missing presentation and -yes you've guessed it  I found it within 2 or 3 minutes tucked away in a "folder" entitled "Hive records 2004".

Barry

A Bit more from Nepal

There’s so much to tell that we can’t fit it all in so I’ll just relate a few incidents from our adventure.  Not all of this entry is Bee related but I hope interesting none the less.

Apis cerana - the differences from A. melifera:-

Much smaller I estimate about10mm in length, this is pretty rough.

“Bee space” required is around 4mm.  (Estimated from the design of the hives we’ve seen). 

Cells are

The bees do not seem to produce propolis.  I’ve noticed some hives have swiveling pieces of wood to hold brood and super boxes in the same alignment and only one used a hive tool.

The bees are much more lively and enter the hive much more quickly.

They produce about 12 kg of honey a year, (info from several Beekeepers).

They have less hair on the abdomen and are quite brightly coloured with yellow stripes reminiscent of a wasp, see the “Pictures from Nepal” page of this blog..

The bees are far less aggressive, out of the four or five inspections we’ve witnessed only one beekeeper wore a veil when opening a hive and neither did we.  Colin was stung and reports that the cerana sting is far less painful than that of our European bee.

Colin and I have observed that there don’t seem to be any guard bees at the entrance to the hive.

The Queen is all black and thus fairly easily spotted, I was lucky enough to capture a Queen in a photograph of a frame being shown to us by a Nepalese Beekeeper and the picture is on the “Pictures from Nepal” page of this blog.

The bees we are told are more likely to abscond or swarm and one Beekeeper told us that he’d had one colony abscond or swarm 6 times, (his English was much better than my Nepalese but still poor so I couldn’t establish exactly whether he was saying they absconded or swarmed), other Beekeepers said they expected the bees to swarm once or twice in a year.  Perhaps there are good and bad strains of A.cerana.

The standard hive is much smaller than hives used for melifera, the brood frame is 12” x 7 ½” compared to 14” x 8 ½” for a national (the most popular hive in the UK. The hives are constructed with top “bee space”.

The gun.

A farmer in the “Hilly side”, which is what the Nepalese call the very extensive Himalayan foot hills, gave us a demonstration of the use of a muzzle loading gun.  He had made the powder and bullets himself and the gun was hand made.  He rammed a quantity of gun powder down the barrel, the measurement seemed a bit hit and miss, then a wad of paper on top of the powder before sliding the bullet down the barrel with a final wad to hold the bullet in place.  The ignition was accomplished by a “cap of the type used in toy guns secured with polythene over the firing hole.  He then fitted a wedge of wood between the firing hammer and the cap, holding the gun at half cock before setting up a 2” thick plank with a target roughly drawn on it about 10 metres away.  I didn’t see him pull the trigger as I was half cowering , half sheltering a very nervous child.  The gun went off with a tremendous bang and the bullet went right through the target just inside the bull! 

He also had a beautifully made bow constructed entirely of bamboo including the string.  More surprising to me than the structure was that the missile was not an arrow but a stone!  He was also deadly accurate with it, at around 10 metres.

The bus ride.

We’ve undertaken several bus trips but the one from Chainpur to the Saba Khola was the most exciting.  The driver clearly loved his job and exhibited skills that would qualify him for the job of stunt –driver in a James Bond film.  There were huge rocks in the road which had come crashing down the mountain in the recent past, sections of the road where the tarmac surface was missing and deep ruts had developed, some of which at a conservative estimate were 3’ deep, and occasionally another bus or lorry would squeeze past, at places where the road was wide enough, with only inches to spare.  Despite the condition of the road the driver swung his bus around hair-pin bends and other obstacles with great panache and at what seemed to me tremendous speed.  For much of the ride we seemed to be a couple of feet away from the edge of the road beyond which was nothing but fresh air until you reached the valley floor sometimes thousands of feet below.   Combine this with the fact that at times the road condition caused the bus to sway alarmingly and you get some idea of what we experienced.  The Nepalese passengers thought the OMG expression on my face and my mime of a palpitating heart hilarious.  I fancy the Nepalese would find Thorpe Park extremely boring.

The next entry will I hope be from Kathmandu where we intend to visit an organization called “Himalayan Beekeeping”.  I’m not sure but I believe they were established to promote Beekeeping in Nepal and offer advice to novices plus the necessary equipment at reasonable prices.

Goodbye for now, more later

Colin and Barry

We set off for Jimi's home in the hilly side

We’ve been here for thirteen days now, every day brings something new and interesting. Colin and I are taking two hives, designed for use with Apis cerana, to Jim’s home in the village of Jimigaun in the district of Sankhuwasabha and if fate is kind to us we’ll find a swarm and install it before we leave. We hope to make contact with local apiarists in the area and If we’re not lucky enough to obtain bees we may be able to enlist their help. We’ll keep in touch with our trainee beekeeper over the internet and publish our doings on the blog.
We unloaded our 4x4hired for the day at a place called Tutedeurali and after loading our luggage on a tractor trailer set off for Chauki on foot where we spent the night in a hotel. From there we intended to carry our hives slung under a bamboo so that two men would bear the load and to wear our rucksacks at the same time. In the end and after a long debate we hired two mules and set off carrying just our cameras. I at least ended the day pretty tired suffering from the arthritis in my knees and we didn’t get there until after nightfall. Thank heavens we never persisted in our plan to carry all the gear ourselves. To cut a long story short we spent another day walking - eye popping views, ear popping altitudes!
I’ve been given a day to rest and tomorrow we hope to be visiting a Bee farm, (about half a day’s walk in all there and back). More later.

Colin and Barry in Nepal

This the first blog from Nepal , we've been here for 12 days and enjoyed almost all of that time.  More to follow if the power cuts permit.

On day 10 of our stay in Nepal Jim, our Nepalese host hired a “van” (Suzuki people carrier) and took the family, Jenee, Sakar,Raj Kumar plus Colin and I to see several colonies of the Asian Hornet and a colony of Cliff bees or, (I think), Apis Dorsata.  The Nepalese names for these are “Oringal” and vheera mauree respectively.  The largest of the hornet nests was roughly spherical and about 30” in diameter.  Colin and I took numerous photos although we were very cautious about getting too close as the Hornet’s sting is we were told extremely painful and more than 2 or 3 of them can be dangerous.  The cliff bees were clustered on what appeared to be a single comb which was attached to the branch of a tree.  We estimated the comb to be 3” thick, 3’ wide and 2’6” deep.  Again we were advised to take care, Jim said that if the branch was shaken the bees would attack en-masse.We are fairly confident of our ID but will consult the internet to make sure. 

Colin and I have purchased two hives, as used by local people, the dimensions areas shown in the attached photo.  The supers and brood boxes are 6”and 8” and they are designed for top bees-pace of 1/8”.  We’ve watched several hives opened, all of them Apis cerana and the beekeepers never bothered with veils or with smoking the hive. The main differences between cerana and mellifera, as noted from very limited observation, are as follows for cerana:-

 Much smaller, about 3/8”.

Bright yellow stripes on a black abdomen.

The queen is easily seen, she’s jet black.

No propolis or brace comb were noted in the hive.

They seem much less aggressive, Colin only got 3 stings!

Colony numbers seem less.

Few guards at the hive entrance.

Photos are on the Photos from nepal page (I think)

Next Saturday 24th on Bedonwell Apiary

If you're at a loose end next Saturday we need you on the Apiary!  We've got a lot of work to get done before Colin and I leave for Nepal on 28th Sept and we'll be gone a month. We've treated all our colonies for Varroa and almost completed our winter feeding programme but I digress, back to the list of jobs for Saturday. 1/ Tidying up- not just a little light sweeping or litter picking- no, the sheds are in chaos and the various "lay down" areas are very untidy.  2/ A final inspection of the Bees to make sure they've got the stores they need to carry them through the winter and are as free as possible of Varroa. 3/ There are numerous perenials to plant out and Colin is threatening to bring a load of foxgloves to site. 4/ We have to dress a few Kenyan Hive top bars with wax starter strips and fit them to the Top Bar Hive on site.  5/ If there's any time left there's a couple of tons of soil to dig out of the new Pond.
As an incentive there will be free tea and some snacks including my famous honey fruit cake for the workers.
Barry

Sunday 18th Aug. on the Apiary. Winter feeding and Varroa treatment.

Colin and I will be doing our routine Apiary work on Sunday and not as is customary on Saturday.  We'll be carrying out Varroa treatment and winter feeding. We've treated all our hives including the Top Bar Hive with Api Life Var.  The method of deploying the strips in a conventional hive is to place a piece in the four corners of the hive on top of the brood frames but this method would not work in the top bar because the frames are closed up with no spaces between them so we inserted the thymol impregnated strip into a net envelope and pinned this high up on the mid-hive divider board and as far away from the brood as possible.  At the second application in our National hives we noticed that some of the "biscuits" had disappeared. The instructions on the packet say that you should remove the exhausted pieces when applying new strips.  This begs the question "how important is it to find the old bits"?
Colin and I are going to Nepal for a month at the end of September.  If I can I'll make some Blog postings from there but before I can do that I'll have to find out how to do it "on the hoof" so to speak!
Barry

Today and next Wednesday on the Apiary

Today, Saturday, we treated hives 1 to 6 with "Api Var Life" Varroa treatment.  This the first time that either Colin or I have used it.  We found that the "biscuits of the compound were very brittle and care in handling was required.  A pocket of fine nylon net, or similar, to contain the Varroicide and fixed to the top of the frames with a drawing pin might help.  I think I'll try this next Wednesday on the hives yet to be treated.  Another problem we found was that wearing gloves, as many Beekeepers do, you can easily crumble the biscuit or drop it between the frames.  The technique we've developed that gives most control is to pick it up with the end of your hive tool then carefully slide it onto the top bar of the frame.  We fitted a super with no frames above the brood chamber, an unventilated crown board on top of that, the existing super free of bees atop that and then the roof.  The idea is to prevent the fumes from the varroicide tainting the honey, nectar and combs in the super which will be returned to the bees when the treatment is over.
Winter feeding is due during September, I'll make up some 2:1 sugar syrup and we've already purchased some proprietary syrup, (Ambrosia"), both of which will be fed through Miller feeders.  We'll compare the home-made with the purchased syrup to see if it's worth the money.  The theory is - there's loads of sealed brood ready to hatch, and in some of the hives plenty of empty comb so all the colonies should find somewhere to store the feed and this will slow the queen down and get the colony as well prepared as possible for winter, stores -wise.
Visitors to the Apiary whose last visit was more than a couple of weeks ago will find a few surprises.  We've started work on our woodland garden - expect bluebells, daffodils, primroses etc. but the major project now underway is the pond, we're talking 6m x 4m folks!  To fit it in we've had to divert the path slightly, adjacent to hives 5 & 6, but the diversion takes the path through a tunnel of foliage, very romantic, to emerge at the end of the pond where there'll  be a bog area.  If you have any expertise in this area of gardening, in fact even if you don't, share your ideas with us on aquatic plantings and on the construction of what I am confident will be a major attraction in the garden.
Next Saturday Nicki Gammans of the Bumble Bee Conservation Trust will be delivering a talk.  I'm not sure what else is planned but there'll be the usual tea and cakes and the usual beekeeping gossip.
Barry

Saturday 27th on the Apiary

We will be inspecting all the colonies on site with the exception of Colin's feral colony.  Winter is approaching and we're interested to see which may not be strong enough to survive on their own and which do or don't have plenty of stores.  We recently combined the feral colonies from Franks Hall and Abbey Wood.  We removed and marked the Queen from the Abbey Wood colony and placed her along with a cupful of workers in a polystyrene mini nuc.  With a constant supply of one of the proprietary feeding syrups we hope to bring them through the winter.  No one I've spoken to has tried this and researching the internet has not given us anything positive to go on except that several people conjecture that it's not the cold but lack of accessible food that causes colonies to die out.  What have we got to lose?  I'm hoping to use Api life Var thymol based varroa treatment on all the bees this year sometime in the middle of September.
Barry

Tomorrow on the Apiary, Saturday 20th August.

On Wednesday last Colin and I recovered the remaining feral colony from Franks Hall.  All went smoothly although the Nuc which was, as my regular readers will recall, at an elevation of about 18’ was a bit of a lump to carry under one arm!  We’ve deliberately saved our first inspection for tomorrow when I hope we’ll find that the colony is healthy, vigorous and “queen-right”.  We’ll try to find the Queen and mark her, so if you’re reading this Colin, could you bring the queen marking device and your white queen marking paint on Saturday?  I fed the colony from Abbey Wood another pint of 1:1 syrup, they’ve had about 2.5 litres so far.  They’ve expanded in quite an impressive fashion since we brought them to the Apiary but I’m still doubtful as to whether they’d be strong enough to survive the winter without uniting them with another colony.  There are still plenty of plums going begging so if you want some bring a bag.

Barry

Tomorrow on the Apiary, Wednesday 16th August

Um...well, we'll look at the Nuc from Abbey Wood - they've had about 2litres of 1:1 syrup and I'm hoping they've drawn out more comb and that the Queen is laying faster.  They need to build up quite a bit to  be viable to survive the winter in good order.  We'll check the Top Bar, the Dartington and the Beehaus.  Another important task is to plant the potted Lavender that Colin blagged from Wilkinsons for a knock-down price, he says there is enough to make a hedge at the entrance to the Queen rearing area.  In the evening it's off to the Elizabethan hall to collect the Nuc mounted on the front of the house.  I'm touching wood as I write and hoping that the Nuc has a resident (new) queen and that she is laying nicely.
There are still plums available to anyone who wants to pick them, in fact the last time I looked they were ankle deep in front of the pavilion.
Barry

Today on the Apiary, Wednesday 8th August

Colin Jim and I were working on the Apiary today.  Of the proposed work we chose Queen marking, pond digging and "blackberry attack".  Colin had some work to complete on the Frame Racks in the Queen rearing area equipment shed.  When everyone was on site we duly inspected the Abbey Wood Nuc and found 1 frame full of sealed brood another half full of unsealed brood and a quarter full of sealed brood.  There was very little in the way of stores so I’ll pop down tomorrow with a feeder, a couple of pints of 1:1 syrup to give them a quick boost and a couple of 2:1syrup which they can store in the drawn comb they have already prepared.  A small feeder holding about 1 litre should do the trick.  Her majesty was quite easy to find and we marked her white. The bees including the Queen were very quiet on the comb and of very good temper.    

I started on the pond and at Colin’s suggestion we decided to divert the current path beyond the hedge on the southern side of the walnut tree.  This enables us to make the pond quite a bit larger and at the same time makes the route of the path more interesting.  The shape and position of the pond are now established. All we need now apart from a lot of hard labour is a large sheet of pond liner and a good selection of pond plants, we can hope for the wildlife to take up residence of it’s own accord.  Colin says he remembers mention of a spare pond liner by one of our members!  If we can get hold of a buckshee liner that would be a big bonus!  The owner of the Elizabethan mansion has asked us to postpone our planned Nuc recovery until next Wednesday.

Barry

Tomorrow on the Apiary, Wednesday 10th August

Queen marking, pond digging, shed tidying, Varroa checks and "blackberry attack".  These are the choices for the day but not necessarily in that order and the tasks at the bottom of the list may not get done.

Depending on the weather number 1 is to mark the Queen in the Nuc of Feral Bees recovered from Abbey Wood so that if we decide to unite our weaker colonies on the Apiary we’ll be able to find the spare Queen easily.  Pond digging is a long term project which will be straight forward labour that any helpers can pick up on once the shape and position are established.  Shed tidying is of a fairly high priority because we've decided that if you don't know that you possess something, perhaps because it's buried in the corner of the shed, you might as well not have it!  It's also important to  be able to "lay your hand" on a particular tool or item of equipment as quickly as possible when a hive is open and you're veiled up with a smoker in one hand.  Varroa checks, by estimating the mite drop should be fairly quick as it only entails sliding the V. trays out and inspecting them but it is important because it has to be done soon.  I'm hoping to use Api Life Var, a thymol based organic product, and it can't be used when temperatures drop below 15C.  Blackberry removal is an on-going process which will hopefully result in the Apiary being free of Brambles except along the perimeter fences and hedges.  We've concluded that if they're properly trained we'll have just as much, or maybe even more, blossom and fruit as if they'd been left to do their own thing and we'll have a great deal more room on the Apiary.

Late in the afternoon Colin and I plan to recover a feral colony from Farningham which should by now be mainly resident in our Nuc with, touch wood, a new laying Queen.

Barry       

Absconding bees - other stuff - 6th Aug. Apiary Meeting Soap & Toiletries

Next Saturday Dr.Sara Robb will be showing us how to make soap using the products of the hive.  All are invited.
I have a new telephone or should I say an additional phone as I'm keeping the old one for a while until people stop calling me on that number.  The new number is 0 742 743 1108 which I think is quite memorable, anyway my reason for bringing it to your attention is that I want people to use it instead of the old one.
Yesterday Colin and I collected a colony from Abbey Wood, (see last blog).  There's a Queen in residence and it looks like she's performing well but the colony is very small so we may need to combine this colony with another.  We know the Queen is only a couple of months old and she is laying nicely so if we did "combine" she could be surplus to requirements and available to a member who needs to re-Queen.  On Saturday we'll try to find and mark her to make her easy to locate in the future.  If you want to see how to find the Queen and mark her, come early on Saturday at about 1000.
On Sunday 24th July Colin Emmanuel, his friend Mark and I went to Romford to collect a feral colony from a compost bin.  Everything went swimmingly, most of the brood comb was hanging from the lid of the bin and the owners kindly gave permission for us to take the lid back to Dartford.  As luck would have it the comb, still attached to the lid, slotted neatly into our prepared box (a super fixed with brackets to a brood chamber).
On the following Monday Colin and I installed them in Emmanuel's Beehaus hive (the long plastic hive made by Omlet ltd. and based on the Dartington design).  On Wednesday E phoned (using the old number) to say that the bees had absconded!  On three occasions in the past and this is the second time this year I've had a newly installed colony abscond.  One  of the installed colonies was a swarm and two were feral colonies with their comb trapped in standard frames with chicken wire on one side and single strand wire on the other.  All three were on open mesh floors.  On the second occasion a hinged flap on the bottom of a home-made Dartington accidentally "flapped" open and on the last grass stuffed under the mesh floor and above the varroa board, (there was a gap of about 2" between them), became, I believe, partially dislodged.  In future I shall be doubly careful when installing a new colony I'll avoid exposing them over an open mesh floor and we're giving some thought to the design of an all wood "comb trap frame". Has anyone any ideas?
I hope to  see you on Saturday.
Barry

3rd August, wild bees, and plums.

Today at about 1930h Colin and I will be collecting the feral colony from Abbey Wood, (see previous postings).
The theory is that we will find brood in the recovery Nuc, positioned high up the brick wall of the block of flats.
We will then block the entrance, wrap the Nuc securely in a sheet and carry it off to the Apiary.  Let's hope it goes smoothly then we need to find a home for the bees.
There are "buckets" of plums (Victoria I believe) on the Apiary, all members are invited to pick as many as they like just bring a container.  I've bottled some in honey syrup some in sugar syrup and some in brandy with a little added honey.
Barry

Tomorrow on the Apiary Wednesday 20th

On Wednesday commencing at around 10.00am we'll be combining the colony behind the new shed with the naughty bees (hive 8).  We'll also be making a start on organizing the sheds and work areas and we're giong to see a lady who lives near the "MacDonalds roundabout" on the London road about a "wild colony that has set up home in her roof, (I expect that'll be at about 3.00pm).

Barry

July 17th at the Dartford Festival

Today Colin, Jean, Mick and I are manning the Dartford Beekeepers stall in the main exhibition tent.  It's just as well that we're in the tent as it poured with rain yesterday and the skies are threatening us with more today.
Notwithstanding the "cats and dogs" we had a good day.  Visitors could sample our produce, Blackberry and Elderberry Mead, Colin's honey, Kevin's Honey cake and Lip balm.  Bill and Colin offered honey for sale and there was such a demand that Colin ran out! The Mead and Honey cake disappeared at a tremendous rate and proved to be especially  popular with the kids, (the cake that is).  By popular demand here's the Recipe -
6oz Honey
5 oz Butter
3 oz Light Muscavado sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
7 oz self raising flour
Heat the butter, Honey and sugar in a saucepan until it melts into a nice brown syrup and let it cool a little.
Mix in the flour and beaten eggs.
Pour the mixture into a buttered and lined 7" tin.
Bake at gas mark 3 for 40-45minutes.

Today on the Apiary and Parsnips and Bees

Today Bill, Colin and I collected the Bees from the hollow tree. Bill said he was taking them to one of our members Nigel who lives in Southfleet.  They are eventually destined for the garden of Nigel's Dad in Dartford but have to be temporarily stationed at least three miles from the hollow tree.
Throughout the day Colin and I , with some help from Kevin and Emmanuel, erected and roofed the shed given to us by Steve.  During the day I also hived the swarm that Colin and I collected last night.  They are housed in a Langstroth which has increased the variety of hives on site.  We now boast 6 Nationals and one each of Langstroth, Dartington, Kenyan Top Bar and Omlet Beehaus.
Tomorrow we visit Romford to collect a "wild colony" in a compost bin.
Stop press -  There's been a hitch, the "bin Bees" may have to wait until the weekend after next because the people are not able to make themselves available during the week.

Most gardeners dig all their Parsnips before they flower and then produce seed, but there are at least three good reasons to leave a couple of roots undisturbed.
For one you get large quantities (one plant will supply all your needs), of free seed which is of a much higher quality in terms of germination than much of the seed you buy.  I've found that if you allow a parsnip to spread it's seed freely they spring up everywhere but if you sow from a packet you're lucky to get every fourth or fifth seed to germinate and even then it's painfully slow.
Another good reason to cultivate seed is that the flowers are very handsome.  They're yellow, umbelliferate flowers, (a flat headed inflorescence), a bit like a yellow Achillea.
My last and I think, most persuasive reason for recommending a bit of "slack gardening" is that all manner of insects including bees are strongly attracted to the flowers and because they bloom early in the season they are especially valuable to all manner of wildlife.
Barry

Wild Bees.

The above title is a misnomer, more correctly I should call them unmanaged bees. Given a specific stimulus the Honey Bee's instincts will cause it to behave in exactly the same way whether it is living in a bespoke hive or a hollow tree.  They behave, apart from minor characteristics achieved through cross breeding of the various sub-species, just as they did before man arrived on the scene.  Anyway what I started out to say was that we have three "wild" colonies that we have not yet succeeded in bringing under our management.  One colony, readers may remember, was ensconced in a hollow tree in Dartford, another, in Abbeywood, was in a cavity wall 35'above ground and the third in an Elizabethan manor house.  Lessons learnt so far this season, (recovery of wild colonies using the porter bee escape method),  include :- Seal the collection box very very carefully because the bees are masters at finding a way back into their main nest and this can easily cause major delays.  Design the box so that the Porter bee escapes can be maintained (propolis cleaned off the springs) as you want the bees to be "drained off" the original nest eventually leaving too few workers to keep it going.  Make sure that the householder/ manager of the property will pay for any equipment such as extending ladders etc. as the bill will usually exceed the value of the bees, for instance the ladder we're using in Abbey wood costs about £40 a day and we've used it twice so far with one more visit required.  Something else you must take into consideration is making good, we had to remove a section of a plaster and lath wall to expose the comb inhabited by a colony in the Elizabethan manor house. Fortunately Colin has that particular skill but I had to point out to him that if he made too good a job of it it wouldn't look as if it had been there for the last 600 years. By-the-by I should also warn readers not to get Colin "started" about the standard of the recent repairs made to the Manor house lead plumbing!
Tomorrow (Wednesday) am. we'll be erecting the shed donated to the Apiary by Steve Clack and making a swarm comfortable with frames of foundation, possibly some drawn comb if we have any spare, and some food in the form of fondant. We'll be collecting this swarm after dusk tonight (Tuesday). In the evening we'll be bringing the colony from the hollow tree back to the Apiary.  At about 8.00 pm Bill, Colin and I will begin the operation and shortly after dusk the "capture box" will be sealed, wrapped and brought back to the Apiary.
Barry

Yesterday and tomorrow

Yesterday was brilliant, if you missed the Apiary meeting, you missed a real opportunity to watch an expert beekeeper, Alan Byham at work.  Everyone I spoke to afterwards said they had learnt something new.  Henceforth all my Bees, (and the Apiary Bees), will live on open mesh floors, I'll leave queen excluders off when installing a super containing only foundation until the comb is drawn, I'll reverse half drawn frames on the outside of the brood nest or move a full frame of stores outside an undrawn or partially drawn frame.  Alan imparted several other elegant tricks of the trade, much advice and also vital info on the management of Varroa.  Our thanks go to Alan and also to Colin for the impressive spread, sausage rolls, sandwiches, salad etc. and to Julie for running the drinks stall. Colin and I also cl;aim a pat on the back for getting the apiary ready to receive visitors and thanks of course to Bill Mundy for organising the whole thing All in all a day to remember.

Tomorrow we'll be on the apiary in the morning (around 10.00am) before visiting Colin's apiary to inspect his bees.  Colin has offered to provide a frame of brood for use at an Elizabethan mansion where we're recovering a wild colony, so that's the second port of call.  At 6.30pm, it's back to the apiary to show a group of visitors around and then at 8.00pm we'll be assisting a lady beekeeper from Southfleet to sort out a problem with her bees.
Busy, busy busy.
Barry

Latest- July 2011

Just a quick one- tomorrow we're inspecting all hives.  The Top Bar Hive is short of space, all combs are full sized and all have a lot of brood so we'll probably expand the brood chamber by about four bars and hopefully then they'll provide some combs with only honey in them. Foundations will also be installed for the new shed (given to the apiary by Steve), and Colin will be finishing off the perimeter fence both in the "Queen rearing area".

More tomorrow Barry

Busy, busy, busy.  The swarm season is reaching a quieter period but we're still in the throes of recovering several colonies which have set up home in some very awkward locations.  There's the bees in a hollow tree which now has more sand and cement rendering than bark, the bees 35' up a brick wall in Abbeywood and the three separate colonies in the upper storeys of a beautiful Elizabethan manor house.  More of the challenges we faced and the solutions applied to them in later blogs.

Another wild colony set up home in a very old national hive, (2 supers glued together), which was transported to the Apiary early this year.  Several attempts have been made to get the bees to leave this box which is full of a higgledy piggledy mass of comb.  We tried placing a brood chamber, fitted with frames of drawn comb, over the old box and feeding them 1:1 sugar syrup and we tried to bleed them out of the old box using a Snelgrove board. These attempts were only partially successful.  Yesterday, Saturday 18/June, Bill Mundy gave a demonstration of how to extract the bees using a method derived from the historical technique beekeepers used with Skeps, (frame-less woven straw hives).  First of all he moved the old box from it's location and placed a box containing some drawn comb, which has now become their new home, in it's place.  The old box was placed on a stand in front of a chair in which Bill positioned himself.  A super with one end covered by a sheet of plywood was fixed edge to edge and tilted at a 30 degree angle above the old box so that the whole assembly looked like a chest with it's hinged lid partially open.  Bill then began to strike the old box rhythmically on either side.  After about 2 minutes the bees could be seen marching up into the "lid".  After 5 minutes or so of this treatment most of the bees had left their old home and we were able to take the lid with it's cluster of bees and shake them into their new home.  We cut out bits of the old comb, some containing eggs and young brood and some stores of honey and nectar.  These were fitted into frames with chicken wire tacked on one side and secured in place with a strand of wire wound around pins on the other side.  These frames were installed in the new box on the old site.  Job done!

Bob Kent has kindly offered to help members of Dartford Beekeepers with the BBKA Basic Assessment.  Anyone interested should contact me and we’ll organise study and, mock exams.  Bob has taken and passed the exam and his experience is a valuable resource for potential students.  The Prospectus and syllabus can be found on the BBKA website - http://www.bbka.org.uk/learn/examinations__assessments/basic_assessment 

We've had one or two problems with the feral bees situated about 6 metres from the pavilion, they were put there very late one night early in the year and they seem to consider the communal area in front of the hut as within the boundaries of their defended territory.
We've had an incident where bees managed to get into a lad's smock because the waist elastic was not tight enough.  Please be vigilant and tell the others present if the bees are getting frisky.  The good news is that over the past few days they've been very quiet and settled and we hope to move them several miles away in the near future.


Barry

Broad Beans, Vicia faba

Broad Beans, Vicia faba, is a major source of nectar and pollen for the Honey Bee.  A very important factor in favour of  B. beans is early flowering especially when they are autumn sown.  Farmers and gardeners often choose to sow an autumn crop to occupy the land during the winter, to produce an early crop and to avoid major infestation by the dreaded blackfly.  The nectar and pollen produced early in the year give the Bees and other pollinating insects, notably Bumble bees, an early start in building a strong colony and storing surplus honey.  If the Beekeeper is fortunate enough to be near a farm that sows Feild Beans as a forage crop there may well be a surplus of honey for the Beekeeper, when the beans are sown as green manure however, they are ploughed in before they flower.

Barry

Dr.Nikki Gammans on Bumble bees, Pavilion mods and Feral bees.

Next Saturday, June 11th, Dr.Nikki Gammans will give a presentation on Bumble bees.  She is currently engaged in a project to re-introduce The Short-haired bumblebee (Bombus subterraneus) which is extinct in the UK but survives in New Zealand and Sweden.
We've made a few alterations to the Pavilion. The partition wall onto which Bill Mundy projected his Powerpoint presentations has been removed and the end wall, of the Pavilion, panelled in plywood and painted white to make a new larger screen.  We estimate that we will be able to accommodate an extra eight people seated for Talks or Presentations.
The Apiary now has four colonies one in each of the Beehaus,  the Dartington, the Top Bar hive and H7 (a national).  Another six colonies, (5 frame Nucs) will be collected soon.
We also have a feral colony temporarily housed on site.  This colony is in a very old very decrepit brood box and super all glued together with propolis and wild comb.  We placed a new brood chamber with frames of drawn comb and foundation over the colonies wild home, in the ancient boxes, in the hope that they would move up into the new box so that they can be properly managed.   They have moved into the new chamber but are still using the old boxes extensively so we have re-configured the tower to comprise a floor, the new deep, then a Snelgrove board and on top of this the old component of their home.  We intend to bleed off as many of the bees as possible into the lower chamber by manipulating the Snelgrove board entrances.  Colin the colony's owner intends to re-queen at the end of the month and move them to a new site.
See you on Saturday
Barry

Plants for Bees 2 June

Blackberry, Brambles Rubus fruticosus

The factors that make a good bee plant are the number of flowers it bears, the quality and quantity of nectar and pollen produced, the length of time that they produce flower and the time of year when those flowers are producing bee fodder.  These factors can be weighted in order of their importance. For instance flowers that produce pollen and or nectar very early in the year such as winter Aconite, Crocus and the various Willows allow the bees to build the strength of the colony ready to exploit the main flows of nectar later in the year.  Added to the above the Beekeeper must consider the fact that bees concentrate their efforts where there is most nectar / pollen closest to the hive, thus a large area of inferior flowers will be preferred to flowers which individually yield more forage but are scattered in small groups.

Blackberries score highly according to the all the above criteria and are a major source of pollen and nectar for bees and many other insects. They are very widely distributed and cover large areas.  Added to this, individual plants flower prolifically from May to September covering the periods when there is little nectar available from other plants.

Management of Blackberries is easy. All you need to remember is that they fruit on last years growth, so after they have cropped prune out all the old growth and leave the current year's stems (the green ones).  To make life easy train this years runners in the opposite direction from last years.   

 When the insects have done their work of pollination the brambles  fruit prolifically.  A win - win situation, stores for the bees and jam for us!

Barry

31 May

On Wednesday 1st June Colin and I will be on the Apiary from about 09.30am.  We hope to inspect and manipulate the colony in hive7 and maybe Colin's wild bees near the Andersen shelter. Colin is talking to Bill Mundy about the best way to proceed with this colony and we hope Bill will be on hand to advise.
I may have said this before but - we hope to make hive inspections on Saturdays in future, this is so that they coincide with our regular open days, which are scheduled for every second Saturday in the month.  Bill Mundy often opens a hive as part of the proceedings on such days.  On Wednesdays we can usually be found on the Apiary, from about 10.00am on.  If anyone wants to visit, phone me on the day (Wed. & Sat.) or for any other day a bell on the evening before would be appreciated.
mob.phone 0758 153 1623

Barry

29th May

Bill Mundy and I receive numerous requests for help with bees that have taken up residence in peoples houses, gardens or outbuildings.My initial question is phrased to ascertain what their concerns are relating to the bees and they are usually about the danger of bee stings because the bees have built a nest in an area where they are in close contact with people especially children. If they are honeybees we'll coax them out of their nest, take them away and re-house them but if they turn out to be Bumble bees then the location of their nest is very important.   If the nest is situated out of the way where the bees are unlikely to feel threatened by people going about their everyday activities I try to persuade the householders that they are privileged to have the bees.  Often information about the bee's species and life cycle stimulates interest in preservation and a sense of ownership.  So far this year we have re-housed four colonies of Bumble bees on the Apiary.  Two are of the species Tree bumble bee (Bombus hypnorum) and the other two are either Buff-tailed or White-tailed bumblebees (B. terrestris or B. lucorum).  Later this year we have an "Apiary Talk" by Nicki Gammans of the Bumble bee Conservation Trust and I'll get a positive id then.
I'm giving some thought to keeping a "Swarm log", (on this blog), with dates, locations, technical detail and information on the challenges encountered by Dartford Beekeepers when collecting swarms.  More later.
Barry

25 May

We didn't get around to finding the Queen in hive 7 yesterday nor the day before as planned.  This was however for v. good reasons (see last two posts).  Today we have raised the priority and finding the Queen comes in just after a litttle gardening we have planned as our first job for today.  Find Bill Mundy, Colin, Jimi and I on the apiary at about 11.30 when we should be getting set up for the operation!  For some manipulations, not least re-queening you simply have to find the Queen so this is an extremely useful experience for us all.  Today my friend Jimi (ex Ghurka) will be trying to spot the Queen visually, something he's very good at, but if this fails plan 'B' is to "sift" the bees through a Queen excluder.  Colin is making up the necessary equipment, basically a funnel fixed to a queen excluder.
It should be an interesting day!
Barry

24th May

I'll be on the Apiary today installing a colony of Bumble bees, collected this morning, not sure which species yet.  I'll also be planting herbs, some donated by members, some grown on my allotment adjoining the Apiary.
Colin and I had a good day yesterday,  we visited a beautiful Elizabethan country house where the owner wants us to remove two established colonies. We also set up Nuc with a Porter bee escape mechanism under the eaves on the main building of Bean Primary school.  This feral colony will have to pass through the Porter bee escape when emerging from the nest but will not be able to pass through it when returning and will build a second nest in the Nuc.  There's an old saying that we learn by our mistakes and if this is true then this season I'm getting cleverer by the day.  Yesterday I inserted a frame of brood in the Nuc at Bean school in the hope that the feral bees would establish a separate colony much more quickly if they had some brood to cover.  On sober reflection I doubt they'll occupy the box in sufficient numbers and quickly enough to prevent the brood becoming chilled and perishing!
Barry

23 May on the Apiary

Tomorrow Colin and I will be around from about 11.00am until 12.00 for routine work.  From 1.30pm till 3.00pm we'll be looking for the Queen in hive 7, and replacing her with a queen we've reared ourselves.
On Saturday we set out the Dartford Beekeepers stall at the Bean School Fete.  We made some useful contacts one of whom is chair of the Bean Parish Council and she wants us to attend the Bean Village Fete with our displays and the various "products of the hive" in September.  The school also has a resident colony of bees in their roof and we are planning to recover these bees.  Colin suggested that we record the process of recovery for the interest of the staff and children.  Perhaps photos and videos on discs or maybe a Powerpoint presentation.
Barry

Blog 22 may

I'm locked out of the blog

19th May Queen rearing

Today we'll be on the Apiary to find a particular Queen, mark her and then take her off to a member's apiary in Belvedere.  There she'll be introduced into a queenless colony.  The bad news is that I haven't yet collected my new prescription from Specsavers, the good news is she's in an Apidea mini nuc.
Any one who wants to see the proceedings come to the Tredegar allotments gates and phone me on 07581531623 (we share a gate with the Allotmenteers).
There was a problem reading the blog on at least one mobile telephone so I've changed the design.  Let me know if it's OK now.

Barry

Sunday 15th May

Next Wednesday, Colin and I will be on the Apiary from about 10.00am until 3pm or there-abouts.  We will be working on our rainwater collection systems, ironically if it's raining we'll probably be in the Pavilion just talking about it.  We hope to incorporate an automatic top-up for the new pond and maybe a charcoal filter to achieve water suitable for making mead.  May as well aim high!  Another pressing task is planting up the herb garden.  I have various mints, lemon balm, lovage, catnep, chives, garlic chives, coriander, marjoram, rosemary, wormwood, sorrel lavender and thyme etc.
Today we made up two more mini nucs using the Beehaus as donor hive (for the queen cells).  So far the Beehaus colony has been good tempered and quiet on the comb though productivity has been poor thus far.  Colin also installed a frame of brood complete with two queen cells, from the same source, in the feral colony living in a hollow tree on the site of the old Joyce Green hospital.

Barry

Apiary Newsletter 15th may

Saturday's meeting was good, well attended by a very wide cross section of the public including the Mayor and local politicians.  I think I can claim, at least I hope I can, that everyone including the strong contingent of children present were entertained and found something of interest in the proceedings.

Thanks to the team who helped prepare and run the event.  

Today we'll try to remove some of the queen cells found in the Beehaus hive and install them in mini nucs.

Bedonwell Teaching Apiary news

Changes are afoot on the Apiary in 2011. Our goal is to create a model Bee Garden or get as close to it as our resources will allow.   We want the Bees to thrive and visitors and beekeepers to have a pleasurable and instructive experience when they visit.

Work so far has mainly been to establish the basic infrastructure, new woodchip paths have been laid and the hive stands  have been positioned to minimize “drifting” and to allow audiences to observe hive manipulations during demonstrations of practical beekeeping.  We’ve installed two, discreetly screened, “Tardis” type toilet cubicles, which have proved to be an excellent site amenity.   Another important improvement to the Apiary is the housing of the Generator in its own shed.  This shed, which I thought of as little more than bonfire fuel was in pieces and seriously damaged but Colin Mann has somehow managed to salvage and modify it to a very high standard.  We have installed all but 6’ of a new fence, bordering the allotments and three new water containers for rain water collection.

Building maintenance is also underway.  The pavilion roof has been repaired with new felt laid along the ridge (Colin again), and the solar power system is under repair though still operable.  The Andersen shelter has been modified, part of it is now a compost enclosure.

Pavilion furniture now includes an improved mounting for Bill Mundy’s slide projector, two new cupboards for visitors’ bee suits and veils, two large tables for demonstrations and presentations, a 3 by 5 metre tarpaulin for the canopy attached to the front of the pavilion and four new picnic tables. 

The garden is taking shape, we want it to look good, to smell good, to bear fruit, to resound with birdsong and importantly to hum with insect life.  We’ve cut down almost all the blackberry thickets on site but will allow some plants to re-grow to clothe the chain-link fence. These will be managed to maximize forage and fruit. A small lawn has been laid as a “stage” for the chairman’s Saturday lectures and for visiting speakers. Beds have been dug to eliminate competition with our choice of plants from “weeds” and brambles, annuals will be cultivated where there’s bare soil but most of the planting will be of perennials shrubs and trees which will be allowed to naturalise if they will.  These will be planted in drifts where possible .  The plantings will be selected mainly to supply a succession of forage for the bees.  Preference will be weighted for early and late pollen or nectar production as at these times of the year adverse weather and short daylight hours may make long distance foraging difficult or impossible. Other factors to be borne in mind are - length of time in flower,  the height of plants, quantity of nectar (number of flowers per square metre), the presence of extra floral nectaries ,as with field beans or Cherry laurel,  the time of day when nectar is released, provision of shade from hot sun and shelter from prevailing winds and wildlife habitats to suit expected fauna including nesting sites for birds and insects.  A much larger pond is a must, it attracts people almost as much as it attracts wildlife, Colin and I have noticed that on a warm day honey bees, collecting water for the hive, cover the damp moss on the rocks in our existing pond and also that children make a bee-line for this pond (which is about one square metre in area), as soon as they come on site.

 Members and visitors are encouraged to use the “Wildlife Log” if they would like to record any unusual wildlife sightings around the garden.  Observations on the enthusiasm with which honey Bees are foraging particular plants and the time of day when this occurs would also be appreciated as this could help with improvements to the garden planting scheme.

Lastly,thanks Colin and thanks Darcy for the ideas and hard labour!  Thanks Jim, Roy, Mick Jean and the other members and friends of the Apiary who donated plants including bay, medlar and crab apple trees, rosemary, foxgloves and various other plants all of them fitting in nicely with our planting scheme.

Barry 

Saturday 14th May Apiary Meeting

Today's a big day!  The Mayor and Mayoress along with several other dignitaries will, I think, be in attendance.  Colin and I have been working to get the Apiary looking it's best and we'll be there today from around 10.00 am. The formal meeting will kick off at around 3.00 pm as usual but any students or members who fancy turning up early to help finalise preparations will be very welcome.

Barry

9th May 2011

I've been unable to update the blog for the past two days.....You guessed it I forgot the three things a blogger should keep in memory, the password, the G-mail address and my username!!
At our last beginner's class I was asked for info on wood preservative for hives and suppliers of mesh for varroa floors.  For mesh Bill Mundy has come up with this E-mail address J T Wenb Cloth, Banbury and has enquired about Langstroth mesh from them.  I have come across this E-mail tony@jtwirecloth.com but I've had no communication with them.  As to the wood preservative, on a website "Top Bar Hives By Mike Alsop", I came across the following quote "I recommend a couple of generous coats of boiled linseed oil and wax 20:1 mix".  Steve Clack told me that he just boiled up linseed oil and added some ready melted beeswax.  Hopefully Steve will be with us on Saturday next and you can quiz him.  Apparently you should ensure that the linseed oil dose not burn as this will darken the finished product.
I understand we're expecting theMayor and the council leader at the meeting on Saturday 14th so we want to put on a good show!


See you there - hopefully
Barry

Saturday 7th May 2011

Bill Mundy's last beginners class of this session.  The class studied re-use of old frames, building new frames complete with foundation and the fabrication of a hive from a 'flat pack' .
Colin and I recovered a swarm and housed it in the Dartington hive.  'Touch wood' it's still at home tomorrow!
We've acquired a new Kelly kettle.  It'll come in v. handy.
More tomorrow on floor mesh suppliers and protective wood treatment for hives.

Thursday 5th May

Yesterday Colin and I paid our usual Wednesday visit to the Apiary.  On our "to - do" list we ticked off the following items :- tidying the proposed Queen rearing area (which included preparing a site for a rather nice 8'x6' shed offered to us by Steve & Sharon), planting, digging blackberry roots and a bonfire.  We didn't get round to sorting out the bait hive which was dislodged by the recent strong winds but it was a very productive day anyway.  My 'work planned' lists tend to be a little on the optimistic side.

On Saturday next Bill Mundy will conclude his beginners classes at the Apiary.  He'll be dealing with Colin's feral bees and some practical stuff.  Colin and I will be there from 10am on, tidying up/making preparations and Bill's talk will begin at 3pm.

Barry

Wednesday 4th May

Tomorrow, Wednesday, is "bramble attack" day, unless the Nucs ordered by Bill Mundy are delivered, in which case we'll be assembling said Nucs.  We also need to tidy up around the Apiary ready for Saturday7th when Bill will be delivering his last beginner's class on site.
The next colony inspection will be of hive 7 when we'll be adding a split board.

Barry

Today we accomplished quite a bit.  4 brood chambers, 8 supers and 4 floors were constructed and we checked all colonies on site to see if any feeders needed topping up.  The Beehaus brood chamber was not inspected.  I hope to do this on monday as the colony seems to be developing a little slowly.

Barry

Saturday 30 April

Today Colin and I will be on the Apiary.  We'll be constructing hives from flat-pack kits and looking at the Beehaus which seems to be developing rather slowly. We'll also take a quick glance at Colin's feral bees.  Phone me on 07581531623 if you want to visit the Apiary but don't have a key to the allotment gates.

Barry

Wednesday 27 April 0930h

I'll be on the Apiary tommorrow from about 0900h.  Colin and I have been tidying up the Apiary sheds and we're hoping to get rid of some of the stuff that's been loafing around on the Apiary for years unused.  At 1030h or thereabouts Bill Mundy will take Colin and I with a trailer load of junk to the tip.

Hello all,
yesterday I found we had no brood chambers available on the apiary, (except one old and decrepit antique), instead I fitted a super and quickly closed up.
Today 25/4 I asked Colin if he could loan the apiary the necessary gear to carry out swarm control and he kindly obliged.  We did a Demaree on Hive 7 and introduced a new queen. She is about 8 days old and laying.  Hive 7 proved to be preparing to swarm so we removed a sealed Queen cell and introduced that into the Mini Nuc that had raised the Queen for H7.

 On 14/5 Bill Mundy will be giving a demo of how to drive a colony of feral bees, (Colin's), up into a new brood chamber.

Barry

The purpose of this blog is to inform members and friends of Dartford Beekeepers branch of the KBKA of activities on the Bedonwell Apiary in real time.  This to enable anyone interested in the tasks being undertaken on  a particular day to attend and observe or help with those tasks.
The Apiary shares a gate with the Tredegar Allotment society and so anyone without a key should phone me on 07581531623, (yes I've been persuaded to get a mobile phone), or post a reply on this blog.
On the 9th April Colin Mann and I made up a couple of Mini Nucs containing 9 day old queen cells from Colins most prolific colony.  Yesterday, 24th April, I inspected one of them and found it's queen had hatched, mated and was laying! Today I intend to carry out a Demaree operation on a colony in the apiary to obtain bees for a five frame Nuc into which our new queen is to be introduced.  

Hello and welcome

This is the first post of many to come. The blog is intended for you to keep up to date with all the goings on down the Apiary.
More to come so keep checking back for updates.