2015 Bee Report
By early April 2015, I was back down to two colonies. The weaker of the three colonies that went into the winter, at the end of the ivy flow in October 2014, never made it. I strongly suspect that the failed colony went into the main winter period, queenless – probably as a result of a failed supercedure/badly mated queen. Regardless, by mid-April 2015, I had two strong colonies only, one in a wooden national and one in a poly langstroth. My ‘spare’ wooden national was set up as a bait hive. This last point is important as both surviving colonies swarmed (lack of inspection on my part!), within 4 days of each other, around mid-May. In the first case, the primary swarm ended up in the bait hive, in the second case, I caught them on a bush (see below). Both allowed me to re-house the swarms in newly acquired poly-langstroths.
May swarm
Post-swarming, I reduced both of the original colonies to a single queen cell, to prevent further swarming/throwing of castes; naturally, I also re-checked for QCs a week-or-so later, to ensure the bees agreed with my plan. I thought t they did but, of course, I missed one QC, which ended causing a caste to be thrown before the end of May. This small caste went into a national nuc.
So, by the end of May 2015, I had 5 colonies on the go – three in poly langstroths, one in a wooden national, and one in a wooden national nuc. This is pretty much how the season ended up too. In August, the bees from the [bursting at the seams] nuc, went into a third langstroth poly, meaning I went into the winter with 5 strong-ish colonies, across 4 poly langstroths and one wooden national.
3 poly langstroth, 1 wooden national and 1 wooden national-nuc. June 2015.
There were, of course, some additional dramas on the way, including an additional swarm and subsequent re-combining, but no need to cover that here, as all ended up well, with no colonies escaping!
On the honey front, I harvested several supers-worth of honey in late August, and netted some 50 odd jars (of varying sizes). I invested in my own 3 frame tangential, hand-cranked, extractor too (read “cheap”!). My filtering was rough and my packaging even worse – I used a bunch of second-had jars, and found that the honey crystallised quickly, leaving me with a surplus of near rock-hard honey that was almost impossible to sell. Home use only then! Lessons to be learned going into 2016…
Autumn Equinox 2014
Yesterday marked the autumn equinox which, in my book, means that autumn has properly arrived; winter hides just around the corner. The beekeeping season is nearing an end too. Currently, my bees are ‘working the Ivy’ and have been for a couple of weeks; ivy flowers are a prolific pollen and nectar source at this time of year, here – not just for the bees, but for many other insects too. Regardless, it’s great to see the girls so busy during the warm autumn days, and the distinctive smell of ivy honey/nectar currently abounds around my small apiary.
Overall, I’m delighted with the way things have gone for me and my bees this year. Back in April I had only a single colony of bees, so my two aims for the year were simply to:
- Keep the bees that I had alive, and
- Make increase if I possibly could.
I started on the second objective in April, by vertically splitting my one colony. This split went well, but in mid-May the ‘original’ colony decided that they wanted to swarm, despite having been split. So, I then had to perform an artificial swarm, thus giving me a third colony. In early June I then picked up two small castes, leaving me, at that time, with five colonies. Since June I’ve combined the smaller colonies and now I’m looking at taking three strong colonies into the winter. The diagram below gives an approximate idea of the road I’ve travelled this year:
2014 Bee Keeping Summary
In addition, the amount I’ve learnt has been huge, including, but not limited to:
- Making & using my own Snelgrove board in my first vertical split.
- Performing my first artificial swarm.
- Successfully harvesting and then incubating queen cells.
- Successfully using apideas for the first time.
- Successfully combining two colonies using the ‘newspaper’ method.
Further, I’ve also managed to harvest one super of spring honey (extracted and jarred) and one super of summer honey (still awaiting extraction). In other words, my single colony has multiplied to three, and given me nearly 50 jars of honey, in one season. If you’d have told me that back in January, I’d have been disbelieving.
The bees have now all been treated for Varroa, have plenty of stores and are ‘filling up the corners’ using the ivy flow. I’ve even had to add an extra super to my strongest hive. I now have to keep my fingers and toes crossed that all three of my colonies get through the winter without issue.
Chooks ahoy
With all my preoccupation with bees, the rest of our patch has taken a bit of a back seat, blogging wise. However, I’ve not been totally neglectful of the rest of the garden and its inhabitants…
On the chicken front, my aging collection of hens has been supplemented by three new pullets, bought from a local supplier, plus a home hatched-Light Sussex hen. As a consequence, laying rates are up to an acceptable level again (i.e. enough to easily supply our domestic needs, plus allow for a few gifts & sales on the side). The only slight annoyance is that while my son picked out the three pullets that we bought, I was distracted enough not to note down their breeds…annoying not to know!
A mixture of young and middle-aged chooks!
In the greenhouse, all the tomatoes are doing well as are my cucumbers, chillies, strawberries and lettuce. As ever, my Claber watering system takes the pressure off the daily watering regime, leaving me with only having to worry about feeding, a few times a week.
The re-built veg patch is doing well too. All beds are occupied, with the overwintered garlic and onions about to be replaced by pumpkins. In the other raised beds, beetroot, runner beans, dwarf French beans, parsnips, leek, kale and spring planted onions, are all doing well. I’ve abstained from potatoes and turnips this year – both crops have gave me trouble in 2012 and 2013, so this year it was time for a change.
Veg patch in full flow
Elsewhere in the garden, all the trees and shrubs are pouring on the growth. The warm wet spring, followed by the current warm start to the summer, has given everything a good kick start.
Now…back to the bees!
Honey bee tackling some Old Bay Willow Herb
My bees get a holiday from me
I’m just back from a ten-day holiday in northern Italy, mostly around Lake Garda. While away, I found myself peering at every flower that we passed, looking at the local bee populations undertaking their daily work. It’s curious how one’s outlook changes, based one’s interests! The many lavender plants around the various towns that we visited, proved to be great gathering spots for the local bumbles and honey bees alike, as did the many wild flowers we saw around the lake.
On return from Italy, I found my small number of colonies to be quite well. Indeed, they probably were the better for my absence! My main delight was finding that my third and fourth colonies had successfully united [through the sheet of sheet of newspaper that I had left between them] during my absence, and the single queen had since proceeded to lay-up another two frames of eggs/brood, due to the larger, combined, population. With a bit of luck, this new combined colony will develop strongly over the next month-and-a-half, and be good for overwintering. Anyhow, here’s a quick overview of where all my bees are at:
- Colony 1: Now progressing nicely with both eggs and brood. I might even get a super of honey, if I’m lucky, before our main flow ends [usually at the end of July], although I haven’t added one yet. These ladies are currently in a wooden national hive (brood box only), although I may well transfer them into a poly langstroth, if they look like needing that super.
- Colony 2: This national hive is currently my strongest box of bees. They are currently working on their second super of the summer, and are mighty busy. I’m leaving them well enough alone, other than checking the supers on a weekly basis.
National hive plus two supers
- Colony 3: Now combined with ‘old’ colony 4, the numbers in this colony are on the up. The queen is laying on four frames, currently, so fingers crossed that they’ll be strong enough to overwinter well. The bees are currently across 5 frames of a 10-frame langstroth deep.
- Colony 4 (was colony 5): These girls, originally from a small caste, are currently in a 5 frame national nuc. On return from Italy I found a hatched queen cell, together with another queen cell that had been ‘chewed out’, on the frame [of then eggs & brood] that I had added on 24th June. As such, I have hopes that a single virgin queen is now around, although I didn’t actually lay eyes on her. So, currently, there is still some hope that this small colony might survive, although with new bees likely to be at least a month away, assuming the virgin queen gets mated and starts laying soon, it’ll be touch and go, numbers-wise, as to whether they’ll be strong enough going into the winter.
Rowan Hill Living 