The past few weeks have been very busy at home and at the Association Apiary. The focus has been on extracting honey and disease control. However, I have also been keeping a daily diary of the development of my new hive with the 'blue queen'.
Honey Extraction
I jarred 48 pots of honey from 2014 for the North London Beekeepers' Association. It had been in a bucket for a year and had crystallised so the NLBA Chairman had put it in his warming cupboard to liquefy it again. It sort of worked but was still very thick. I sterilised 50 jars and filled each one up and then checked to ensure that all of them was above the minimum weight of 8 oz. Rather a lot of work but £240 that will be raised from its sale is a useful contribution to Association funds.
I worked with a small team of NLBA regulars to extract the Apiary honey. As last year, we used a Community Centre Kitchen with a high hygiene rating rather than the shed at the Apiary. It was very sticky and the local bees found us but we managed the activity with good humour and efficiency.
I helped the husband of a friend to extract her honey as she went into hospital for an operation. What an interesting man and so the task was a pleasure. The next day I extracted my own honey. By this time I was getting a bit 'stir crazy' with uncapping, centrifuging and filtering. Once I had finished I was not in a big mood to jar the honey. I separated the spring from summer honey but to date have not sat down to do a 'tasting' but what is noticeable is that the honey from my hives at Kenwood is much darker than my home honey - both batches of which are light in colour.
BBKA Assessment Result
On 6th August my friend Paul texted me to say that he had been telephoned and told that he had passed and asked what had happened to me. I waited all evening but no 'phone call. I had bad dreams about failing. Next day there was still no call so I began to fear the worst. Eventually when I was shopping in Liberty's I received a congratulatory e-mail saying that I had passed with credit. So relieved.
Home Hives
The new hive has been of concern as the amount of brood and stores have not been growing. I have kept a daily diary and maybe a 'watched hive' does not 'boil' to mis-quote the old saying about pots. I treated both hives for a month with Hive Clean on the recommendation of a fellow beekeeper. Unfortunately it does not seem to have any impact on varroa infestation judging by the continuing drop of mites and the number of bees with deformed wing virus.
After extracting the honey I returned the frames and wax cappings to the hives for the bees to clean up which they did which leaves me with clean frames and them with honey back in their stores for winter.
I also fed he hives with sugar syrup and 'Bee Strong' prior to applying the MAQs formic acid treatment strips this week which I hope will kill off the wretched varroa before the winter bees are laid.
I have started to clean up the wax cappings for candles. I have also experimented with making soap and also night-lights and tapered candles to help fellow beekeeper with her social enterprise business. It really does not make sense for me to take on manufacturing as there is so much work and so little potential income, but it has been interesting and I am keen to support the enterprise.
I have sold some honey direct to local people and my daughter has sold some to friends. I need to decide if I want to sell again through the local deli. The owner is very nice and she needs to make a living but doubling the price makes it very expensive and I would hate to think that I am charging so highly when I am sticking to the Association recommended price.
So all in all it has been a very busy bee month with positive outcomes but as ever, some issues to resolve.
Honey Extraction
I jarred 48 pots of honey from 2014 for the North London Beekeepers' Association. It had been in a bucket for a year and had crystallised so the NLBA Chairman had put it in his warming cupboard to liquefy it again. It sort of worked but was still very thick. I sterilised 50 jars and filled each one up and then checked to ensure that all of them was above the minimum weight of 8 oz. Rather a lot of work but £240 that will be raised from its sale is a useful contribution to Association funds.
I worked with a small team of NLBA regulars to extract the Apiary honey. As last year, we used a Community Centre Kitchen with a high hygiene rating rather than the shed at the Apiary. It was very sticky and the local bees found us but we managed the activity with good humour and efficiency.
I helped the husband of a friend to extract her honey as she went into hospital for an operation. What an interesting man and so the task was a pleasure. The next day I extracted my own honey. By this time I was getting a bit 'stir crazy' with uncapping, centrifuging and filtering. Once I had finished I was not in a big mood to jar the honey. I separated the spring from summer honey but to date have not sat down to do a 'tasting' but what is noticeable is that the honey from my hives at Kenwood is much darker than my home honey - both batches of which are light in colour.
BBKA Assessment Result
On 6th August my friend Paul texted me to say that he had been telephoned and told that he had passed and asked what had happened to me. I waited all evening but no 'phone call. I had bad dreams about failing. Next day there was still no call so I began to fear the worst. Eventually when I was shopping in Liberty's I received a congratulatory e-mail saying that I had passed with credit. So relieved.
Home Hives
The new hive has been of concern as the amount of brood and stores have not been growing. I have kept a daily diary and maybe a 'watched hive' does not 'boil' to mis-quote the old saying about pots. I treated both hives for a month with Hive Clean on the recommendation of a fellow beekeeper. Unfortunately it does not seem to have any impact on varroa infestation judging by the continuing drop of mites and the number of bees with deformed wing virus.
After extracting the honey I returned the frames and wax cappings to the hives for the bees to clean up which they did which leaves me with clean frames and them with honey back in their stores for winter.
I also fed he hives with sugar syrup and 'Bee Strong' prior to applying the MAQs formic acid treatment strips this week which I hope will kill off the wretched varroa before the winter bees are laid.
I have started to clean up the wax cappings for candles. I have also experimented with making soap and also night-lights and tapered candles to help fellow beekeeper with her social enterprise business. It really does not make sense for me to take on manufacturing as there is so much work and so little potential income, but it has been interesting and I am keen to support the enterprise.
I have sold some honey direct to local people and my daughter has sold some to friends. I need to decide if I want to sell again through the local deli. The owner is very nice and she needs to make a living but doubling the price makes it very expensive and I would hate to think that I am charging so highly when I am sticking to the Association recommended price.
So all in all it has been a very busy bee month with positive outcomes but as ever, some issues to resolve.