Amanda Hayes
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Battles of the flying insects

22/7/2014

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Kenwood Apiary

A few weeks ago I killed a wax moth larva on the frame of my Hive 1.  I have been keeping a careful watch on the frames since then.  Unfortunately last thursday some of the other bee-keepers discovered a nucleus hive and two apidea, with new queens, were infested with wax moth grubs and the wax cells destroyed.  The nucleus was I think saved but the new apidea colonies were thought to be 'beyond repair'. There will need to be some review of hygiene practices regarding cleaning the polystyrene apidea.  There is a rigorous scorching of wooden frames after use and careful storage of drawn wax frames to be re-used.  It may just be very bad luck. 

Two years ago I had a colony of bumble bees which despite an entrance escape trap for the bees, had the nest infiltrated and destroyed by wax moth.  The brood box was full of web and inch long grubs crawling around - disgusting.  I was very upset and did a lot of research on wax moth prevention and treatment.  Bumblebees are more susceptible to be wiped out by wax moth than honeybees.  The moths like the old frames with traces of wax and can over-winter in cracks, although a treatment is to put frames to be re-used in the deep freeze for 48 hours.  There is also a proprietary treatment which is a biological control that the frames can be treated with as obviously you cannot scorch drawn frame with comb that you want to use as a basis for the next honey season.  I shall have to think carefully how I am going to clean and store my first season super frames at home.  I rather favour the freezer if the frames will fit and I can make room in there.  Followed by sealing the frames into a plastic box - having made sure that the frame is dry, or mould will be the next problem.


Garden Hive

The bees have been very busy foraging this week.  At the last inspection I swapped the unfilled and capped super frames in Super 1 to the centre and these are now full and capped.  Super 2 is also full and mostly capped and super 3 is filling.  I re-made the problem super and after much reading and debate decided to add it today.  I cannot borrow the Association honey extractor as it is booked out and cannot buy one as they are temporarily sold out.  My plan is to buy a big plastic box with a lid and put the full frames in here until they can be extracted.  i will then re-arrange the frames in the hive probably reducing the number of supers.  The honey flow is coming to an end and I do not want to over-super and end up with loads of half-filled frames that cannot be harvested as the water content is too high and the honey would ferment.  I also need enough honey for the bees to over winter.  I noticed that there is still plenty of brood in the brood box but the bees are also beginning to add stores to the new brood frames I added which is good news.

The less good news this week was that the builders working on the roof next door found a wasp nest and a day after treatment my neighbour mentioned that they had been spraying poison powder all around the nest and the kitchen extension roof.
  When I asked about what had been used, the contra-indicators and if the entrance had been blocked there was little concern that dying wasps carrying poison might also fly to the hive on a robbing mission and poison some of my bees - not to mention add poison into the honey.  A slight risk you might say but I was disappointed that I had not been consulted, or informed at the time.

Today, doing my weekly inspection Tony spotted a 'bee fight' outside the hive.  I pointed out that it was in fact a bee and a wasp fighting.  The wasp on a robbing mission and the bee defending the hive.  There were several wasps around.  I had made a wasp trap yesterday - no fatalities yet.   I will reduce the hive entrance with the entrance block making it easier for the bees to guard and repel invaders.  There were no wasps within the hive and the colony is large and lively.  As I had just re-built the hive and added a 4th super I couldn't insert the block and decided that dismantling again was a bit too much of a disturbance.   Also it is going to be a hot week so the ventilation is probably good.  Although I know some experienced beekeepers advocate keeping the block in all year round arguing that the mesh floors provide adequate ventilation.  Close monitoring required.

Inside the hive there were no signs of queen cups, having shaken bees off each frame and of course no sign of the elusive queen but I had my queen catcher and marker pen ready if I had seen her.  Plenty of larvae and a purposefully active colony, so I hopefully
all is well.  I moved the least used old, short, brood frame to the outside of the brood box with one of the new un-drawn long frames next to it - hopefully the few larvae will hatch, her majesty will not visit and I can get rid of the horrid old thing and reduce my own chances of getting wax-moth in my hive.

During the coming week I need to prepare everything for honey extraction which is going to be a right messy job ........................

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Rainy days and Mondays always get me down .....

14/7/2014

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PictureAn Orb Spider has captured one of my bees!
Kenwood Apiary bees

Except that it was rainy Thursday!   It rained all day and the forecast indicated no let up so I finally decided not to make the two and a half hour round trip to Kenwood and potentially find nobody with a key was there, or end up standing in the shed looking at damp hives.  I sent a message to Malcolm to say I would inspect my hive on Sunday.  However, I received an e-mail from lovely Connie to say that she had looked at Hive 1 and all is well.  Hope she didn't have to do inspection with umbrella in hand, or maybe the sun shone on Hampstead.  It never shone on Hackney!!

Sunday, a rainy start but I went to the apiary as the forecast was OK.  What an interesting contrast between the apiary hives and my very busy hive at home.  Hive 1 had a few bees going in and out.  A varroa board had been put in on Thursday and on inspection showed a mite drop of 2 which is OK.  There was brood and generally everything looked like the colony is developing.  I did not see the queen but as she was seen 3 days ago I decided not to go through the frames again - I think you can overdo disturbing them.  I will look again on Thursday.


Hackney bees

Not a great week weather-wise for people, or bees but the workers have been out and about.  One of them probably should not have been as she ended up as spider lunch!


Saturday, the supers are filling up well.  I did an inventory and the first super has capped honey in 7 frames but the two end ones were merely drawn with a little nectar and the bees had moved into the other supers.  I shifted the empty frames into the middle and the full ones to the outside.  We will see if the bees now fill them or not.  On looking at the newest super there were dead bees squashed on top - all my fault I had not checked when I constructed the new super that the side rails were low enough.  As I glued and nailed them this is going to take some carpentry to fix so best answer is to buy my second hive, make up another super quickly and swap it with the wonky one.  I feel bad about the mortality and I won't make the same mistake again.  After that discovery the amount of honey stores mattered less, but there is plenty of nectar in super 2 and wax is being drawn in super 3 which suggests there will be sufficient for bees to overwinter and some spare for me.

I decided to finally examine the 'sacrificial' drone brood which is part of my varroa plan.  I stuck the uncapping tool into the capped brood and attempted to hook out the drone larvae for inspection.  I achieved a squishy mess and one visible varroa.  This murderous action wound the bees up as well so the result was agitated bees and an inconclusive cull.  I need to get better at hooking them out - but it is not my favourite task.

As I had left my 'bee-proof' trousers at the studio I wore the ones I had on for the inspection and did not tie up the ankles.  Part way through the inspection I felt something crawling up my leg, or did I?  Yes, I did so quickly and calmly I stood in the middle of the lawn and removed my trousers.  Not sure what any nosey neighbours made of an 'astronaut jumping up and down in her knickers' but at least I did not get stung and one bee life was saved.

All in all bees 5/ Amanda 1 this week.  I have been getting a bit casual so need to sharpen up.


Other bee-related activity


I highly recommend 'Travels in Blood and Honey' by Elizabeth Gowing.  She tells the story of how beekeeping became part of her life when she and her husband moved from north London to live in Kosovo.  The human stories woven into her bee-related activities reveal much about the nature of war, the cultural oppression of women and the human spirit
.  Elizabeth also details traditional recipes using honey along with the context of how she came across them.  My honey is too precious to cook with but perhaps I may experiment with some Sainsbury's 'Product of UK and other Countries'.  

Seeing large numbers of bumble bees on the blue globe thistles and yellow Welsh poppies in the garden reminds me that I need to send information to www.greatbritishbeecount.co.uk  which is organised by Friends of the Earth, B&Q and Buglife.  The more information we can all provide about bees the better so do join in.  I also need to get myself organised and do the National Plant Monitoring Scheme again - my OS grid area includes London Fields where Hackney Council have planted a wild-flower meadow, so when the sun comes out again I will be out with my clip-board.  This provides important data so do get involved www.plantlife.org.uk



Picture
The bumblebees love my globe thistles. I have seen seven on one head but the honey bees are not as interested.
Bee Trivia No 2

It takes 3 million flowers to make a jar of honey (well depends on the nectar and the flower and the size of the jar but it is a powerful image) 


Also bee trivia No 1 should have been 'it takes 12 bees a lifetime to make a teaspoon of honey'.  I should have double checked my sources - as I said, getting a bit casual Must do better!


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'Off with her head' - well nearly .....

11/7/2014

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PictureA piece of 'wild' honey comb
Kenwood Apiary

As my husband, Tony, had tickets for the Ladies' Semi Finals at Wimbledon I arranged for my experienced friend Alison to check over my hive and see if the new queen was laying satisfactorily. 

Yesterday I sent Alison an e-mail to ask for news (I was a bit anxious that I had not damaged the queen in anyway when I trapped and marked her last week - you have to be so careful with legs and abdomen and it had been a bit daunting).  News came back that the apiary manager was having a bit of a 'shake up' and combining hives together, creating artificial swarms presumably to ensure that the colonies were equalised in size.  He also decided to kill two of the less effective queens and replace them with the new ones that had been nurtured from other hives.  She wrote 'he asked me to dispatch the queen from Hive 1'.  Oh poor thing, she survived being squashed and daubed with green paint by me only to be 'dispatched'.  Alison continued, 'to cut a long story short, when I found her he agreed that she looked good and admitted maybe we should wait and see if she speeded up her laying etc. so she is still in residence'.  Poor Alison being asked to 'do in' my queen.  'Green Queen' therefore lives but on 'death row'.  If she doesn't get her team organised in the next few weeks I think I will be asked to do the 'dispatching'.   I appreciate that we need a healthy and thriving apiary and if Hive 1 is not up to speed then the colony is unlikely to survive the winter which is awful for them and depressing for me - so I am grateful for the advice and support and if necessary it will be 'off with her head'.


Garden Hive

I have been putting a greased varroa board in for three days at a time to see what the mite drop is.  High, but all dead, as opposed to pootling around or lying on their backs wiggling their legs.
  I trust that the fumes killed mites in the egg cells and that in the next couple of weeks their will be no new mites emerging and the drop will reduce down.

The weather has been great and the workers so busy that I added an additional super (no 3) during the week.  As usual it started raining at hive inspection time on Saturday morning.  Tony says that the bees make it rain to keep me away!
  So we inspected them yesterday.  All very busy.  Guess who was hiding?  but I saw plenty of newly hatched larvae and the bees were calm and busy and no sign of queen cells or bags being packed for a little journey so I am pretty sure that she is fine.  Slightly erratic laying pattern to be kept an eye on.  No new wild comb architectural structures (see image above) on the other short frames and drone brood now in the wild comb on the one frame I left for that purpose.  This is to be culled and examined next week as varroa mites prefer drone brood at is takes longer to mature and this is one way of attracting the mites to a place where they can be counted and destroyed - but that means dispatching drones - sorry boys!  I added another new frame so now the brood box is nearly full - unfortunately the queen is still laying on the old frames at the end.  I will get rid of them as soon as I can without having to sacrifice too much brood, which we need now to build up to full strength and bring in stores before the winter.

It looks like I should buy another hive and some other paraphenalia soon.  Good thing that
I am not keeping bees to make money - they are a total money pit.



General Bee-related Activity

I read something every day about bees - no surprise there!  Often it is technical but I am also reading more widely.  This week I re-read the section in Lark Rise to Candleford where Queenie talks to the bees about her day.  I have also started a book written about life and bee-keeping in Kosovo.  More to report on this in future weeks.


I have also been researching jars, legal requirements of labelling honey and found a couple of outlets for the future.  I do not expect to have any surplus this year.  Honey labels from Thornes will conform to legal requirements about content and size but they really are horrible and also one needs to buy so many which is not a sensible investment, especially if lot number and best before dates are printed on them.  I have therefore designed some possible labels for home printing: one rustic and one fresh and simple.  Both have a bee-skep as this is on my other bee-product related materials and you cannot use flower pictures unles you can guarantee that nectar from these flowers makes up the majority of the honey.  I don't think people like pictures of insects on food and there is so much wording required that a tiny label can look a mess.  As there is Hackney Farm Honey and London Fields Honey I am going for Hackney Garden Honey.

Everyone I meet seems interested in 'bee trivia
' so from now on I will include a random bee fact in each blog so here is the first:


BEE FACT NO 1

It takes one bee a whole lifetime to produce a teaspoonful of honey.











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    Hello, for many years I have been a passionate gardener and have encouraged wildlife into my urban garden.  Three years ago I joined a Beekeeping Association.   Last year I installed a beehive in my garden and started this blog to record my  experiences.


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