Winter

A time for bees to cluster and beekeepers to worry. Our bees were well fed and also able to forage throughout October before being bedded down under some hessian as the temperatures dropped during November. This year there was no useful flow from the Ivy but the Himalayan Balsam (so hated by conservationists) provided valuable late feed.

December brought us nightime temperatures down to -15.9c and two spells of snow that blocked the hive entrances. Each time it thawed a few dead bees were revealed outside each entrance. Initial fears for the bees gave way to the realisation that housekeeper bees had been clearing out the bodies so the colonies were still functioning normally.

Should Mother Nature grant any daytime temps of 8 - 10c we shall apply oxalic acid to kill Varroa mites. This treatment is harmful to open brood so can only be done in the dormant winter season when the Queen is not laying.

The long evenings provide opportunities for reading and planning for the spring. Jennie gave me a little book "The Beecraftsman" by H.J.Wadey then editor of the magazine "Bee Craft". He wrote it in 1943 in quiet periods whilst on night duty with the National Fire Service. Clearly they had a more robust attitude to Health & Safety in those dark days. Despite the fact that he recommends wearing motorcyclists' goggles and says "...Woolworths have them at about 6d" his method of dealing with a swarm in a chimney seems a bit risky even by wartime standards. If a good fire in the grate supplemented with sulphur doesn't smoke them out he says "...If the fire will not draw, extinguish it, close the bottom of the chimney with wet sacks, and pour a couple of gallons of ordinary petrol down from the top, which should then be covered with wet sacks". A plan that would be wrong by today's standards on so many levels! Mind you he also says that "Potassium Cyanide is generally recommended for killing bees but experience with it has not been encouraging". Don't get me wrong, the reader who survives immolation or poisoning will find that its a great little book. I am particularly lucky as my copy has marginal and some typed notes inserted by a previous owner long ago.

Treatment and food

Thank heaven for a relatively warm and sunny month. This has helped the crucial task of killing Varroa mites and feeding. The Apiguard treatment (Thymol) remained in each hive for 4 weeks. Two days after it started a count was made of the average drop of mites per day during a 4 day period. Hive 1 dropped 3, Hive 2 dropped 1, and Hive 3 dropped 9. The average of 9 in Hive 3 is a little high but hopefully the treatment will sort them out. If conditions prove right then they will be treated with Oxalic Acid in about December when there is no brood. The bees keep warm in winter by forming a cluster. No eggs are laid during that period so it is safe to administer the acid which can harm new brood.

The bees have been working really hard to take advantage of the warmth that has ensured a continuing supply of pollen and nectar. Pic shows a worker on our Nicotiana flowers. She has a heavy load of pollen in the basket on her hind legs.

An inspection of the hives on the 19th revealed good supplies of capped stores in each hive but nevertheless we need to feed them to assist in building up the stores that they will need early next season when they start to rear brood. There is usually a time when they are raising the new season bees but there is little nectar so they need good stores to see them through. The feed s given in the form of sugar syrup in the proportions 2 parts sugar to one part syrup. Bees will drown if they land in water or syrup, they need to have their feet on dry land whilst feeding or drinking. The round feeder shown in the pic enables the bees to come up through a hole in the bottom, then down the side of the central beaker (it has a ribbed surface for grip). The line of bees feeding at the bottom can just be seen through the opaque sides. They convert the syrup into honey which they store in cells in the comb. When they have reduced the water content sufficiently to prevent fermentation they cap the cells after which the honey will last in good condition until they need it.

Evil curse or vital nosh?

Our village magazine "Leintwardine Life" included reference to Himalayan Balsam growing by the river banks. Its an invasive plant outlawed by the Wildlife and Countryside Act because its such a bully. The bees don't agree! It provides them with a rich source of both pollen (protein for the larvae) and nectar (carbohydrate) just when they need it to start building winter stores.
I know that our bees have found it down by the river Clun because they have been returning looking as though they have been playing in a bag of flour. The pic shows a returning worker with the telltale white dusting.
It has been a busy Bank Holiday weekend for events including the Sun Inn beer festival. As I was peering into the bottom of my pint of Hobson's "Old Flossie" one of our local beekeepers, Robin, came over to discuss the current problem of wasps. Conversation was not easy thanks to the live music pulsating from the performance tent but we agreed that there are signs that the wasps may be a real problem this year unless we get some cold nights to start killing them off. Robin's bees are also bringing in the balsam.
Back at the hives I took a picture of an interloper trying her luck, unsuccesfully, at hive 2.

Treatment time

Really enjoyed yesterday's hive meeting near Tenbury Wells. Dennis handles his bees with confidence but real gentleness. The theme was Varroa treatment and preparation for winter. The opportunity to chat with experienced beekeepers about things like: how best to protect against wasps, whether to insulate the hive roof, the relative merits of selling honey in one pound or half pound jars, whether to feed between Varroa treatments, priceless.
So today I got on with the vital work without which winter survival, and next year's honey crop would be prejudiced. I took off the remaining comb that the bees had been cleaning for me since the honey was extracted. The pics show the artistry and perfection of the bees' efforts. Then I inserted the trays of Apiguard gell, one per hive, placed directly on top of the brood frames. The gell gives off Thymol fumes and remains in the hive for two weeks. A second treatment is then given for a further two weeks. It needs raised temperatures to evaporate which is why it needs to be put on before the weather cools too much. The downside is that no honey can be taken off once treatment has started. Any that the bees now collect is for winter stores. Its unlikely that they will collect enough on their own so a close eye has to be kept on the volume and sugar syrup will be fed to help them fill their larders. They will get plenty of tlc over the next two months. I shall also be monitoring the "drop" of Varroa mites to keep track of what is going on.

Second Harvest

Having seen that there was a little honey that we could take without leaving the bees short we set about it on 16th, taking off 11 frames. Thanks to Hamish for the loan of the extractor once again. He has upgraded it by adding a piece of precision bright red engineering, an electric motor. Under the heading "Pros & Cons" I can report that its much quicker to use but on the other hand one has to be careful with the throttle if one wants it to remain in the same room. I suspect that at full belt it can cause electrons to collide. J managed to extract 30grammes of wax from the cappings to go with our 6 jars of honey.
During our first winter here I tried my hand at hedgelaying and it wasn't bad until Billy the Bull had fun pulling it to bits. I made the mistake of asking Malcolm what was the name of his bull. He looked at me as only a farmer can look at a townie and said that his animals have numbers, not names. If I want to know what it is I must read his eartag. Hence I named him Billy. The pic shows him resting earlier today.

Harvest time

Its in the jar, all 48 of them. Thank goodness I was warned of the importance of preparation to avoid terminal stickiness during the bottling process. All went well though I could have done with 3 hands whilst juggling different sieves. The honey in the extractor was divided into two equal tubs. The first was put in jars without further processing apart from filtering. The second batch allowed to start to set/crystalise for a week before it was warmed gently in my home made warming chest for 24 hours at 39c. Then it was put through a muslin filter and bottled. Good honey gradually crystalises and can set very hard which is inconvenient when trying to spread it on rushed morning toast. If it is allowed to set and is then gently warmed back to clear state it will take longer to set a second time and will set more softly. The downside is that heating will start to reduce flavour so we are trying to balance taste with texture.
Honey must never be overheated as the sugars caramelise and flavour is ruined. My warming chest has two 40w bulbs in the bottom. Testing showed that it will reach a safe maximum of 40c with the lid and both bulbs on.
Meanwhile our kitchen resembles a witches covern as cauldrons of chutney, jelly, jam, and marmalade bubble gently and the oven is full of a mongrel assortment of jars and bottles being sterilised ready for filling.
It sounds corny but it is truly satisfying to see the harvest being preserved ready for the coming winter and spring seasons.

Sticky stuff

Excellent hive meeting at Ashford Carbonell last weekend gave me a chance to chat with the "Experienced Ones" and I came away determined to take off our honey crop without further delay. Hamish most generously offered the loan of his extractor. Mother Nature heard me coming so wet and windy days followed but thankfully temperatures held up and I had the chance to remove 21 frames of honey on Thursday. Decapping proved less difficult than I had expected thanks to a large old serrated bread knife. Temp in the shed was 22.4 degrees. With the first 9 frames loaded into the extractor I tentatively wound the wheel and in no time there was the satisfying splatter of honey being hurled out of the cells against the side. At last after 14 months our first HONEY. It is important to load the machine evenly otherwise it will vibrate its way out of the room so I did 2 further loads of 6 frames each. The honey was left overnight but the empty "wet" frames were loaded back into the supers and returned to the hives for the bees to clean up. Next morning the honey was run out of the extractor through a coarse filter into two plastic buckets. Each was weighed at 10 kilos giving a total harvest of 20 kilos or 44 lbs. I also filled our very first one pound jar which will be our test sample for establishing the crystalisation properties of our honey.

If only we get some more warm weather during the next couple of weeks there may be some more honey to harvest. The warm sun today after rain seems to have encouraged the clover into a nectar flow, it was covered in all sorts of bees this afternoon.