A week after the infamous ’Beast from the East’ freezing weather and the snow had completely disappeared.  The sun in my north facing garden was creeping nearer the patio each day.
It was finally warm enough to strip the old wax out of the frames on the de-commissioned hive and sterilise everything.  It may be paranoia but there looked to be some dark streaks on some of the frames suggesting bee dysentery.  This can be caused by problems with feeding on crystallised sugar in the winter, or can be a sign of nosema, a microsporidian fungal infection.  I of course feared the worst.  With no bees left from that colony all I can do is a thorough clean, replace all the wax foundation and consider treating the other two hives ‘just in case’.   It did not help my mood to find that every book and piece of Internet advice suggested using Fumagillin which they also point out is a banned substance – not very helpful.  When it is warm enough I will need to look carefully at the other hives for poo stains.  Tests have found traces of nosema in a high proportion of shop honey and if our bees find an unwashed jar lying around they will bring the spores back to the hive.  A difficult issue in an urban environment.

As the month came to its end the weather  was still horrible and cold.  I put varroa boards in each hive to check the drop of mites and took the mouseguards off.  I have been painting the hives and replacing foundation on the brood frames ready for the Spring build up.
 
April jobs for beekeepers

• Start your regular weekly hive inspections when above 16 degrees.
• If necessary, re-mark the queen while she is still easy to find!
• Add a queen excluder and super when the brood box is nearly full of bees – overcrowding can result in swarms!
• Replace old combs with new foundation.  Do a full frame change using the Bailey technique and reduce the pathogens in the hives.
• Monitor varroa drop and organise treatment if needed.
• Make sure that you have the equipment for swarm control to hand and know what to do.  I have a simple step-by step action sheet in my inspection folder.

 
April jobs for friends of pollinators

• Plant your annual seeds to feed pollinators. 
• Even if you only have room for window boxes and hanging baskets you can plant for pollinators.  Here are some ideas: alyssum, petunia, pansy, ageratum, lobelia and lavender.  Select flowers with simple shapes and not the double varieties as this makes it difficult for bees and butterflies to access the nectar.
• Like cooking? Herbs are great for pollinators too: rosemary, thyme, chives, sage, marjoram can all be grown in tubs or window boxes.  Add some viola tricolour and you can add these pretty, edible flowers to your salads.

​​

Last weekend the sun shone and we started work on the new wildlife pond and did some gardening without the help of my small flying friends.  The weather forecast was awful so I check that the bees had enough fondant to feed on in the hives. 

I did a photoshoot clad in bee-suits and poised by the hives as part of a collaborative project with a young chef who is featuring local Hackney produce this year.
Then the snow and wind turned the garden to the Arctic.  First job last week was to clear snow from the hive landing boards and put a protection board across the front of each hive to stop the light reflected off the snow enticing the bees out.  Then each day I fed the birds and melted a hole in the ponds so that they could access water. 

I still need to sterilise the ‘dead hive’ but the deep frost will have kept it safe from any wax moths and anyway it is sealed up.  Everything else is clean and ready to go once the Spring arrives.
Annual seeds selected to for their attraction to pollinating insects arrived.  I am experimenting with echium, ‘viper’s bugloss’ for the first time.  I can’t wait to get my meadow seeds planted and get some colour in the garden.

I now have to tell people that they  must wait until June for the new crop of honey as I have run out except for some jars with comb chunks in which is not to everyone’s taste. 
 
March jobs for beekeepers

• Check food reserves and feed fondant if still cold or light syrup when warm
• Carry out the first quick hive inspection fi it is ‘tee-shirt’ warm
• Monitor varroa drop and organise treatment if needed
• Ensure all equipment is ready to go: newly waxed frames, supers
• Make sure that your ‘swarm kit’ has all the components ready, just in case
• Consider feeding pollen substitute

 
March jobs for the friends of pollinators

• Order plants and seeds that will attract and feed pollinators
• Check that if you buy potting compost it does not contain chemicals that will harm bees as they like to drink moisture from wet compost
• Look on the National Open Garden Scheme website to find gardens to inspire your planting at the same time as supporting nursing charities. 

 
 

Last weekend the sun shone and we started work on the new wildlife pond and did some gardening without the help of my small flying friends.  The weather forecast was awful so I check that the bees had enough fondant to feed on in the hives. 
I did a photoshoot clad in bee-suits and poised by the hives as part of a collaborative project with a young chef who is featuring local Hackney produce this year.
Then the snow and wind turned the garden to the Arctic.  First job last week was to clear snow from the hive landing boards and put a protection board across the front of each hive to stop the light reflected off the snow enticing the bees out.  Then each day I fed the birds and melted a hole in the ponds so that they could access water. 
I still need to sterilise the ‘dead hive’ but the deep frost will have kept it safe from any wax moths and anyway it is sealed up.  Everything else is clean and ready to go once the Spring arrives.
Annual seeds selected for their attraction to pollinating insects arrived.  I am experimenting with echium, ‘viper’s bugloss’ for the first time.  I can’t wait to get my meadow seeds planted and get some colour in the garden.
I now have to tell people that they  must wait until June for the new crop of honey as I have run out except for some jars with comb chunks in which is not to everyone’s taste. 
 
March jobs for beekeepers

• Check food reserves and feed fondant if still cold or light syrup when warm
• Carry out the first quick hive inspection fi it is ‘tee-shirt’ warm
• Monitor varroa drop and organise treatment if needed
• Ensure all equipment is ready to go: newly waxed frames, supers
• Make sure that your ‘swarm kit’ has all the components ready, just in case
• Consider feeding pollen substitute

 
March jobs for friends of pollinators

• Order plants and seeds that will attract and feed pollinators
• Check that if you buy potting compost it does not contain chemicals that will harm bees as they like to drink moisture from wet compost
• Look on the National Open Garden Scheme website to find gardens to inspire your planting at the same time as supporting nursing charities.  

​

​

It has been a horrible, cold, wet winter but today, the day after St Valentine's Day, at last the bees were flying so much that there was an audible hum.  I could not see any pollen being taken into the hives but there are a few flowers in bloom in the garden: crocus, violas and winter clematis.  However, I have given the bees fondant to augment their honey stores just to be on the safe side.

I was pleased to see bee activity as I lost one colony this winter.  It went into the winter strong and full of honey but I had a bad feeling about it and when I opened it there were no bees or larvae but a lot of queen cells so I fear they created a late season queen who did not find any drones to mate with and so the colony died out.  It is upsetting but I am sure I will be able to split one of the other colonies in the spring.  I sealed the empty hive to keep out wax moth and will be destroying the old wax and sterilising the hive ready for new occupants as soon as the weather is warm enough.

It is time to start work on the garden so that it is at its best for the National Garden Scheme opening in June.  The RSPB featured the garden in the spring 2018 edition and seeing the pictures of the bees and butterflies in the sunshine cheered me up in this miserable winter.  I have sourced some medicine to treat the mangy foxes that haunt the apiary.  I'd rather not have foxes in the garden but I can't bear seeing these half bald creatures scratching and looking so thin.  The advice is to add the drops to honey or jam sandwiches which they apparently love.  I'm afraid they won't be getting any of my honey so lets see what jam can do.  I saw a frog on the lawn today and I am about to install a new pond so there is much to do. 

February jobs for beekeepers

• Check that your bees have enough stores by hefting the hive and add fondant if necessary.
• Make sure the hives are not damaged by mice, woodpeckers etc.
• Peep through the mouse guard to ensure the hive entrance is not blocked by dead bees.
• Start preparing equipment for the new season.

February jobs for the friends of pollinators

• Do some research on the best plants for pollinators (see my website)
• Buy seeds ready to plant in the spring and create pollinator heaven in your garden
• Look out for butterflies and queen bumblebees coming out of hibernation in garden sheds and other winter hiding places and make sure they are not trapped inside

​

My list of tasks for January includes making sure that the landing board and entrance on each hive is free from snow.  Although there have been some cold and foggy days, in general there has been sufficient sunshine for some bees to leave the hive on 'cleansing flights' - the workers do not defecate in the hive.

Another task is to check the hives for damage.  It is easy to do a regular check as the hives are in my garden.  In general I look quickly to see that the mouseguards are still in place and that there are no dead bees blocking the entrance but the presence of a splendid greater spotted woodpecker on the fence last week inspired me to make a more thorough check.  All was well with the hives but I bought some mealworms for the bird table to keep Mr Woodpecker away from my bees.

Following an e-mail from the National Bee Unit warning beekeepers to check stores as some beekeepers had found thier bees starving to death, I did the traditional hive 'heft'.  This means lifting the hive at a corner to see how much it weighs.  They all felt heavy but I have no confidence in my 'hefting' skills whatsoever.  I had ensured that each hive had 35lbs of winter stores by leaving on a super of honey and feeding syrup in the autumn. Thus they should have had adequate food but then the warm weather meant that they were using up energy by flying and the queens may still have been laying.  On a sunny day with the temperature 14C I took the roof of each hive and slid the crownboard across just enough to look at the outer frames.  I took care not to break up the cluster of bees.  There was enough food for the moment.

I usually treat the colonies with oxalic acid on Christmas Eve and then feed them with fondant but this winter was so warm I delayed this until 7th January.  I used Apibioxal using the trickle method.  It was a bit fiddly filling the syringe but I managed it and popped in the varroa boards so that I could see what impact the treatment had.  A big impact!  I found a lot of dead varroa mites on the boards on the days following the treatment and am relieved to say I could not see piles of dead bees behind the mouseguard or on the grass outisde the entrance so I trust that only the mites were killed.

I will keep checking that there are adequate stores in each hive and other actions as already described.  There is not much else to do with the colonies this month so I am planning for opening the garden as part of the National Garden Scheme 'Open' events.  I am working on plant lists and information to help other people to garden for nature.

Last year I found myself involved with more bee-related activities and neglected my blog.  So my New Year Resolution for 2017 is to re-fresh my blog regularly making sure to remind beekeepers of priorities for each month and include information about new learning and research that I hope will be of interest to others.

Personal Outcomes for last year included:
Passing the 'Honeybee Products and Forage' module of the British Beekeepers' Association
Capturing and successfully housing my first swarm
Joining the committee of the North London Beekeepers' Association
Writing a Health & Safety Policy and Procedures through consultation with association members
Contributing to the education and training of new beekeeepers through teaching and mentoring
Successfully re-queening two colonies at my home apiary
Managing my colonies so they did not swarm
Making beeswax furniture polish
Contributing to the National Pollinator Strategy
Reading and learning new things about bees and beekeeping to apply in practice
Making new friends through beekeeping

In achieving this I am very grateful to some special friends and fellow beekeepers who alert me to new research and offer sound counsel as we try to understand our colonies' behaviour and how best to help them thrive.  Thank you all and may all our bees over-winter and have a healthy and productive 2017.

After a warm start the May has had disappointing weather overall and has not been kind to the bees.

Blue Hive
I found a play-cup today (2nd May).   This is a natural stage in the build-up of the colony and often occurs at the outer areas of where the queen is and thus not leaving her pheromone foot-print there.  It does not mean a swarm is imminent.  As this is the first season for this young queen and the colony has more than enough room to expand, I would not expect to find queen cells with larvae in them but that does not mean that this will not happen, so each inspection must be thorough with special scrutiny of the edges of the frames, any little excavations in the face of the wax and areas covered thickly by bees.

There is drone brood and a few drones in the hive suggesting that the colony thinks it has reached a stage in the spring build-up when it can afford to produce and ‘support’ drones.  It does not mean they will swarm just that they can.  However, the presence of drone brood means that the Varroa mite population will start to grow more quickly. 

I watched a forager on the forget-me-not flowers.  The corolla changes colour from yellow to white when the nectar has been extracted as an indicator to the bees and sure enough she avoided the flowers with white centres.  I never cease to be amazed and delighted.

It is now mid-May.  The colony is steadily building up but quite slowly and there are still many un-drawn frames.  I noticed that the cream flowers are out on the horse-chestnut trees.   Their yellow guidelines will turn red as pollinators deplete the nectar.

As the month draws to a close I have been able to carry out all the planned actions including:  the  addition of two supers and a short frame for drone brood and a health check and commencement of Hive-Clean treatment.  Checking for queen cells remains a priority as this is the swarming season.  The weather has been cold and wet.  A total disaster for honey production.  I checked my records for last year and at the end of May there were two supers full and capped on the green hive. This year 1 super only is filling.
 
 
Queen Cells and Swarms
Last week I was contacted by a friend whose bees had swarmed at the Primary School where she works.  The swarm was in two clusters fairly high in a tree however,  her husband and I managed to house it successfully without anyone being stung or frightened. 
I also had offers of a swarm to replace my lost colony and on the evening of 22nd May I collected a small swarm in a polystyrene travelling box and left it on a stand in my garden with a plug of grass in the entrance.  By 8.00 a.m. the bees had released themselves and were happily orientating themselves in the morning sunshine.  I moved them into a wooden nuc box with frames of undrawn foundation comb.  I spotted the queen who is small and not yet mated.  Later in the day I saw a drone enter the hive so hopefully the queen will leave on mating flights in the next few days.  She is capable of being mated for up to three weeks.  The weather looks good so hopefully this will happen soon.  She will not start laying until 3-4 days later so I would hope to see eggs by 12th June.  I will not mark her until I have seen that she can produce worker brood.  Brother Adam, recommended leaving queens unmarked until the next spring!
 
SWARM NUC DIARY
22nd May – small swarm collected in the evening and left on stand in travel box with grass in entrance
23rd May – 8.30 am grass at entrance already dislodged and bees flying.  Transferred bees to a nuc box with 3 foundation frames and 2 with stores only.  Small, un-marked queen seen.  Later in day saw drones entering nuc and heard the queen tooting.
24th May – poor weather, syrup added but colony not inspected.  Queen orientation flights could start but unlikely given poor weather.
25th May – poor weather, all syrup taken and replenished.
26th May – better weather, syrup not in need of re-filling  Pollen being taken in.
27th May – in theory  queen mating flights could start today  and then on up until 12th June depending on ‘success’.
28-29th May – sunshine and bees flying but have kept syrup topped up.
30th May – the earliest day when the queen might start laying depending on when she was mated.   The weather is cold and dull but a few bees flying.
31st May – cold with torrential rain.  Syrup topped up in a break in the rain.  These last two days were definitely not days for mating flights but she has up until 12th June to complete these.
1 – 2nd June – cold again.  Little syrup being taken down.  A very quick look in the nuc shows that a small amount of wax has been drawn on the side of one frame, enough to store some nectar but no sign of eggs or larvae yet  but another three weeks to go before it is too late for there ever to be brood.  I resisted a more forensic look for the queen.
 
Other beekeeping related activities
This has been a busy month.  I have contributed to two practical sessions for novices at the Association Apiary and worked with others on the committee to re-vamp the education programme and prepare the kit that we take to festivals.  I attended the Global Pollinator Strategy discussion at Parliament.  I have visited other teaching apiaries in Herfordshire and Hackney Wetlands.  I have also been tending my pollinator garden that is developing really well.  Finally, I have been cleaning up frames and processing the wax to use in furniture polish.  A very full bee-focussed month.
 
Priorities for June

• Health maintenance,
  • Maintain weekly Hive Clean treatment and monitor effectiveness via varroa drop on board
  • Cull and inspect some drone brood on the short frame
  • Monitor bee behaviour and brood cells for signs of disease
• Swarm control
  • add supers ahead of need to ensure bees have space
  • 7 day checks for signs of queen cells, equipment ready to do an ‘Artificial Swarm’ if required
• New colonies
  • Carefully monitor nuc hives and the laying quality of the new queens
  • Add brood frames or move to full sized hive as appropriate
  • Feed as required
    

MAY
Finally some warm weather.  I have only done quick checks on the bees in order not to chill the brood.  This month I will need to carry out the full health inspection and health maintenance actions that I could not do in April (see last blog for details).

Priorities

• Full health inspection as planned for April but too cold to do
• Health maintenance,
  • frame change as per April plans, this may have the added bonus of stimulating brood expansion
  • Start weekly Hive Clean treatment and monitor effectiveness
  • Add short frame next to the brood area to encourage drone brood which will be culled and inspected for infestation before it hatches
• Swarm control
  • add supers ahead of need to ensure bees have space
  • 7 day checks for signs of queen cells, equipment ready to do an ‘Artificial Swarm’ if required

My next blog will report on how far I got with these priorities and of course all the 'unplanned' things that needed managing. 

It has been a cold Spring so everything in the garden including plants and bees are running behind the usual calendar.  This month is always risky for colonies as the winter bees are dying off and there as an increasing reliance on new season bees.  This year we were sent an alert by the National Bee Unit warning beekeepers to feed colonies if necessary and plan action for Varroa infestation.  As you will read, the new 'princess' in the green hive was un-mated and died.  A sad end to a brilliant colony.
 
Priorities for April

• Check sufficient stores available in each colony and feed with syrup if necessary
• Monitor bee activity at the hive entrance on a warm day.Pollen activity means the colony are probably feeding young brood
• When 14°C + carry out quick 1st inspection.Priorities are: health,stores and queen laying in a good pattern of worker brood.No sealed brood suggests that the queen has died, drone cells suggest a drone laying queen, or drone laying workers.If limited brood or spotty pattern, there may be disease.
• Full health inspection:
  • Varroa – insert board and check drop over 7 days.Should be less than 1 or 2 per day.Review your varroa management plan for the year
    
  • Deformed Wing Virus – check adult bees
  • Nosema – any sign of faecal staining on on the combs or around the entrance?
  • Chalk brood – ‘mummies’ on the hive floor
  • Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus – shiny black bodies of adult bees
  • Adult bee disease indicated by listlessness of trembling
  • Brood diseases – ensure larvae are pearly white, c-shaped and segmented.Small amounts of chalk or sac brood not unusual in April but monitor.Any concerns that a notifiable disease is present, call the bee inspectors.
  • Wax moth – look out for signs in frames and black specks of droppings on the varroa board.Deposits of white are probably wax cappings chewed of cells!
• Health maintenance:
  • Replace all hive parts with clean ones: boxes, queen excluder etc.Clean over-wintered equipment ready for re-use.
    
  • When the colony starts to draw wax ie brace comb, start replacing old frames with clean foundation – place next to brood area but don’t split it.Render down wax from old frames and carefully clean them by boiling in washing soda or flame sterilise.All frames can be changed using ‘Shook Swarm’ or Baily methods.
• Swarm control
  • Check all items for swarm collection ready
  • Start weekly checks for swarm cells – often seeing drones in the hive is a pre-cursor
  • Add supers to give sufficient space for brood and stores
    

 End of Green Hive
The new queen in hive one was, as I feared, not mated  because she was the result of a very late supercedure.  She was unable to lay any eggs .  The workers did not reject her and start drone laying but the colony was clearly dwindling and it was too early to buy a new queen.  I considered killing the virgin queen and amalgamating the colony with the blue hive but did not want to take the risk of this not working and ending up with the death of the blue queen.
With a heavy heart I moved the ‘virgin queen’ led colony into a nucleus hive to slowly see out their days.  They were perfectly healthy and it was a real shame.
After a few weeks I opened the hive to find just the weak queen who had not been fed because her attendants had all died.
On her death I emptied and sterilised the nuc ready for future use.  I rendered down the wax in the frames which was a messy job and resulted in very little wax for the time invested.  I then sterilised the frames ready for re-waxing in the future.
I ordered a nuc of Buckfast bees with a 2016 ‘white’ queen for delivery in early June to replace the lost hive.

Learning:  perhaps I should have re-queened both halves of the colony when I split it in July.  Or I could have killed the old green queen and united the two halves back again with the new blue queen.  There had been no sign of supersedure until I packed the hive up for the winter and then it was too late to get a queen.  Although queens can live for up to five years I think that in future it would be wiser to re-queen in the July of the second season and place the old queen in a nucleus with a small colony to overwinter and act as ‘back-up’.  Despite all ones best efforts this sort of thing will happen.
 
Blue Hive
I took the ‘winter stores’ super out from under the brood box, replaced all the hive parts with cleaned ones and put the super frames back in a new super over the queen excluder.
I am not sure if it is the season, a different strain of bee, or a weak queen but the colony is not building up strongly.   I shall persist but if the colony does not grow and there are insufficient foragers filling up the supers when the nectar flow is on, I will consider buying another queen and consigning this one to a nuc as an emergency spare.
As the weather started warming up and pollen and nectar was being brought into the hive I moved the stores frames in the brood box to the edges.  However, by the end of the month there was no sign that the workers were drawing out any of the frames of foundation that were at the edges of the brood box.  I will remove these old frames, render the wax and sterilise them ready for foundation when required.  Bees prefer to draw out new foundation so it is not a good idea to wax them until just before I need them.
As this colony was on new frames in July 2015 and it is not strong I have decided not to do a ‘shook swarm’ onto  all ne frames which is a good way of reducing disease in the hive.  I checked the Varroa count and it is very low.  However, this season I am going to treat the colonies with HiveClean which is an organic product which allegedly ‘activates the natural instinct for purification in bees’.  Another beekeeper recommends its regular use to reduce the build up of Varroa in the colony.  I have not seen convincing scientific evidence but think it worth trying along with drone culling as I would prefer to limit the number of ‘aggressive’ chemical treatments I use.  I will report on progress.

We had some unseasonably warm weather before Christmas.  On a particularly warm day I made a quick check in the garden hives to see how much honey was left and to my horror I found a new, unmarked queen in the green hive and what looks like it could be drone brood.  I closed up quickly and will have to see what is going on when the weather is warmer.

It was too warm in December to treat the colonies with oxalic acid in order to kill off varroa mites so this had to be done in January when we had a cold snap.  I added some fondant to each hive to give them extra food although I think they had enough stores.

Both hives have kept their entrances clear of dead bees and there has not been any woodpecker or fox damage to date.  We had some terrible gales but I had strapped the hives and they survived in-tact.  We have had no more than a thin powdering of snow so no 'digging out' required.

Now in February it is freezing at night but on some days the sun comes out and when it has warmed the hive sufficiently some bees emerge.  I saw some on the grass the other day and checked them for disease but they were collecting dew and happily flew back to the hives.  I have seen the odd worker bringing in beige and yellow pollen to the blue hive, indicating that there is brood to feed.  The green hive is more in the shade at this time of year and I have seen bees collecting water from the bird-bath but no pollen yet.

I have not joined the Executive of North London Beekeepers' Association which will be interesting and hopefully I can make a useful contribution.

Four of us decided to study for a BBKA Beekeeping theory examination.  It is quite a slog.  I have learned a lot so do not regret it but there is quite a lot of technical information to memorise which is arduous' especially as different books give conflicting information.  If I can scrape a pass in March I will be pleased.

I bought and have constructed my third hive.  Theoretically this is a spare so I can move bees and pieces of equipment around.  It is not for a third colony as at the height of the season that would be an awful lot of bees for the neighbours to put up with.

Everything is clean and tidy for the new season.  All we need now is some warm, sunny weather and then I can do a hive inspection see what mischief has taken place over the winter.