Show me the Honey...

A time in the beekeeping calendar has arrived recently for GlastonBees.  It all started when taking 1 super filled with frames of Honey from Gwenyn Mêl 2 (the National hive).  

After taking up the kind offer from a friend, I had the use of his honey extractor for the weekend to speed up the process of collecting honey.  Gwenyn Mêl 2 (the national hive) have a brood chamber and a super to use for their colony development, so the other super filled with honey was considered excess by moi.  

  

This year I have gone from 1 lovely colony of honey bees to 3 lovely colonies of honey bees.  The 2 newer colonies arrived in June and August, and have yet to produce, what I deem the recommended amount of stores for them to survive through to the spring of 2014.  So without any hesitation, the Honey that was just taken from Gwenyn Mêl will be stored and used to supplement the others as and when required. 

This did baffle the minds of some people who were expecting to get honey from me as soon as some were available.  Well the way I see it is this...  These wonderful ladies have worked their little arses off at every available opportunity to make this Honey and it is the best possible food for them to feed on.  

Why another person would take most of this honey from the lovely honey bees and replace it with a sugar syrup or ambrosia, is something which I struggle with.  I understand that there is a potential financial gain to be made, but I believe that bees should only eat honey, and their own at that.  They should only be provided an alternative such as sugar syrup if it is the last resort, as a matter of survival. The benefits of the bees must be prioritised before the benefit of the beekeeper.

So far there has been only 2 jars of honey taken from the heavily laden container.  This wonderful Cwmbran honey tastes amazing, yes I may be biased but those who have tasted it have also agreed, that it tastes better than shop-bought honey.

For the time being the honey bees living in my hives will be closely watched to check on the amount of food stores that they have, with plenty of food in standby incase they need a help in hand.

Nos da bawb

The swarmy ones

On Tuesday 16th July I was sat on the bench just outside my workshop taking in the view and enjoying a well deserved break.  There was beautiful sunlight and an overpowering heat from the sun, freshly picked radishes to munch on, horses to watch, birds to listen to and then there is a noise...

This noise was gradually getting louder as the time flowed on by me.  I looked up and there was the reason for this noise, it was my bees.  There must of been a few dozen of them flying around in patterns around 3 foot above my head, within a few minutes there were hundreds of bees and the noise was dominating more and more... Oh well break time is over...

I stood up and stepped towards the hive to see what was happening, it appeared that the ladies of Gwenyn Mel 2 were thinking about swarming.  Quickly I went to the workshop to retrieve my bee suit, gloves, a box and most importantly my phone, as I needed to make a quick phone call to cancel some work that I was expected to go to that afternoon and so that I could record this experience.

The sky in front of me was transforming before my very eyes, the previously mentioned hundreds of bees had increased to thousands, then increased to tens of thousands, honey bees were flying in amazing swirling patterns in the sky, the noise of their tiny wings flapping was inspiring, obviously my first thoughts were to record this experience and share it with you.

I was fully kitted out with suit and gloves with a phone recording some of the Honey bee adventures. 

Ever so gradually they were hovering towards the hedge line nearby, so I clambered through the ditch to look into the next field to see the general direction that they were heading in.  Luckily for me they began to settle on a branch nearby, however to get to it was not going to be an easy task.  So after moving along the hedge line I noticed a potential way through into the adjacent field, but it did require climbing through a heavily overgrown ditch with stingy nettles, brambles and a temporary wooden barrier.

They were only 10 metres from their hive, but it must of took me 10 minutes just to get to them.  More filming of the swarm was required, my senses were in overdrive, being in awe of the noise that was being produced by the bees, awe of the sight of tens of thousands of bees flying around me, again in these amazing swirling patterns.  However I was there to collect the majority of the bees, place them into the box and return them to another home made by me.

Whilst waiting for the bees to settle down, I began to struggle with the heat from the sun, it was 1430hrs or 2.30pm on a cloudless, scorcher of a day, sweat was coming from parts of my body I didn't realise sweated.

After waiting for them to settle down and recording their activities on film, it was time to move them back towards their new home.  After another fence climbing expedition and walking an incredibly long way around I was back on familiar ground.  I decided to settle them down on the lawn under the shade from an apple tree.  The box was turned upside down with an entrance made for them to return, as they all settle back down, then a tarpaulin sheet was placed over the top of the box to exclude as much light as possible.  They finally calmed down around 1715hrs or 5.15pm, just enough time for me to change attire and drive to the reservoir to do a spot of cooling down in a kayak.

The plan was... To leave them inside the box to calm down, return after kayaking around 2100hrs 9pm to transfer them into a new home.  This time my accommodation choice for them had changed, previously they had lived inside one of my National Beehives, now however they were to be moved into my brand new and sparkling Warré Hive.  

After some assistance from a fantastically, patient friend, we managed to move them into their new Warré and left them alone in peace to adjust to their new surroundings.  

All that is left to do tonight is, return my friend home, and for me I must return in the morning to check on the lovely ladies.  TIme for bed I think.

Nos da, cysgu yn dda

And so the swarming season begins for GlastonBees.

Today (Wednesday the 5th of June 2013) I was telephoned and informed of a swarm of Honey Bees at a residential garden in the urban jungle that is Cwmbran.  Whilst talking on the telephone I was given a telephone number of who to call and an address.  Yeyyy... Honey Bees...

So after calling the number I arranged to be there within the hour to re-home a colony of Honey Bees.  Firstly I needed to visit my workshop, collect my bee keeping suit and other paraphernalia   Lots of excitement was beginning, thinking of collecting some Bees, however there was also anxiety... because last time I collected Honey Bees it was not a performance I would like to repeat.

A little while later I arrived at the house, pressed the door bell and waited for a response.  A gentleman answered the door and we proceeded to go straight into the back garden to get a look at where exactly these ladies have settled, thankfully for me (and them) they were about head height in an easy to reach bush.

Now to my plan of attack, no that is a bad choice of words... My approach goes a little something like this, in order of priority: 

Put bee suit on;

Take some photos;

Use loppers to prune the bush;

Take some photos;

Position empty box underneath colony;

Use loppers to cut branch and lower colony into box;

Stand back, and wait to confirm that the Queen is inside the box;

Take some photos and video;

Pack up my belongings;

Try and get a cuppa tea;

Confirm that the Queen is inside and collect as many workers as possible;

Load the car;

Transport the Bees to their new home.

Amazingly and wonderfully my approach worked perfectly without a hitch (as if it would happen any other way), it did help that I noticed the neighbour set up a video camera and I didn't fancy them taking £250 from You've been Framed.  Now that the ladies are in the car, it is time for us to take a trip to their new home.  It was a lovely 17 or something like that mile journey in the car listening to a bit of Muse on the way (I think the ladies like Muse, especially "New born" and "plug in baby") with the air-con on the lowest setting.  

Well the ladies couldn't of picked a finer day to be re-homed, glorious sunshine, warmth and the fact that I had some spare time.  So the bee suit went back on, I set the hive up and began to move the ladies into their new but temporary home.  After some 40 minutes or so they had settled down enough to walk near them without the suit on, with pride oozing from me from such a professional, without incident swarm collection.

The next chapter for these lovely ladies begins this weekend or early next week as they get moved into their brand new, sparkly home (it wont actually be sparkly).  I have been asked to build a Warré Hive for a customer, so looking forward to completing this type of hive and move the ladies into their final home for them.  

Lets wish for a fantastic summer of weather so these and all pollinators have the best possible chance of reproducing, pollinating and surviving until next year.

The hive is alive... With the sight of flying...

Once I got to the workshop this Wednesday morning, before entering I noticed a honey bee on the floor.   So after a massive grin appeared on my face I headed towards Gwenyn Mel 2 to see what I could see.

What a glorious sight... Dozens of lovely ladies flying around the entrance and heading out into the wilderness of Cwmbran.

I thought that this is an excellent opportunity to check a little further on how the ladies are coping in their home.  And so after heading into the workshop to don my bee suit and grabbing my phone (which takes great photos) I headed back to the ladies to get a closer look...

After 5 minutes of watching their flying habitats I lifted the roof to give a very quick check on how much food they have left. Excellent to see their own food and some of my food which I gave them still there.  I helped them out by removing dead bees from the top and closed the hive up after a few seconds.

My excitement on seeing them meant, that I just HAD to hang around for a little while longer to watch them fly. I have missed seeing them over the winter period, watching them coming into land, the noise they make, even missed them walking over my fingers.

Honey bees bring me great satisfaction and I want to share my enthusiasm with you. One way for me to do this is to take photos so you can also admire them, but I have one problem with this... These photos do not do any justice when compared to getting up close and personal with them around their home.

As wonderful as these photos are... They can not portray the impact they have on my senses such as smell and sound.

So after seeing the ladies doing well today, my thoughts are now aware that it is time, for the temperamental part of year that is... the end of winter into early spring time (quite often the hardest time for our Honey bees).

Feeding the ladies of Gwenyn Mel 2

It's time to check on the ladies of Gwenyn Mel 2 (Honey Bee 2).  So I paid the ladies a visit the other day to see how they're coping with our mild, yet damp winter so far and to check on their food quantities.

This is a normal requirement for a lot of beekeepers alike to ensure that these hard working ladies have enough food to live on and if not, introduce some food into the hive to ensure they make the spring time ready for the next burst in natures life and reproduction cycle.

Honey bees who are being cared for by a beekeeper have been working in partnership through at least, the previous summer, maybe even spring or longer.  This usually means that they have spent considerable time working together to build up enough storage of food to ensure their survival through to the next spring.  

As for the ladies of Gwenyn Mel 2 and myself, our lives came together in 29th August 2012.  For those that are unaware, what this means is that, this is not a lot of time for them to produce enough honey for themselves in their own preparations for the looming cold and damp months (not much different to the summer of 2012 really). 

Due to the amount of rain that fell on this area from September on-wards to ensure that there are still lovely ladies in the hive come spring, I needed to introduce an emergency drastic feeding regime.  

I have been keeping a close eye on them, more so than I would normally as they live just metres away from my workshop.  Always managing to spend some quality time sitting near their home just watching their activity, for which time just seems to fly by as I get absorbed by their behaviour.

Because they have not had enough time or suitable weather conditions to build up their own supply, I have needed to step in and supplement them.  Some will agree with me for doing this but some others will not, stating that bees would not normally eat manufactured sugar so therefore I should not feed them and just let nature take its course. 

Well personally my plans are to feed them through this winter into spring (if needed) and allow them to build up their own stores next year ready for the winter of 2013, therefore living a more natural life.  I must point out that I'm not spending my time with Gwenyn Mel 2 so that I can take their honey, I will leave more than enough for them to survive on.  So hopefully next summer will bee a great one and they can bee as natural as possible.

So anyway, back to why I came here... to update you...  The food level for the ladies was low, so some fondant was needed.  Time to get onto the internet to learn how to make my very own fondant, which is needed this time of year.  There was a wonderfully explained video found on how to make fondant which meant I needed to put my chef hat on.  

After a few curious looks from onlookers (there's just no trust when I'm in the kitchen) I proceeded to make a "slight mess" which was fully cleaned up afterwards, there now proudly sits, made by moi, 5 little trays with fondant in readyness to pass onto Gwenyn Mel 2 as and when required.

Yesterday I paid the ladies a visit and placed a small amount (no bigger than a 10 pence piece) of fondant in through the crown board to see their reaction.  Within seconds, 2 of the little darlings were busy with their tongues, within a minute, there were a few dozen over the fondant.

Woo hoo...  Success...

So as quick as my hands would allow me, I lifted the crown board enough to place the contents of 1 of the trays directly on top of them and lower the crown board again.  Staying briefly to watch the ladies and ensure that my home cooking was not a one off, I returned the roof and stepped back.

I think I will check on them quickly later in the week just to gauge how fast they eat this fondant as this is the first time that I have ever needed to do this as previously they were left copious amounts of their own food.

Take care and will speak to you soon   

P.S

If you are interested, there are a few photos of Gwenyn Mel 2 in their very own photo album which can be found on my facebook page by clicking HERE

An idiot’s guide to collecting a swarm of Honey Bees...

Natural beauty...

29th August 2012 

For some time now I have been on the lookout for some Honey bees.  This generally involves a lot of waiting, daydreaming and luck.

Well my luck had changed.  On Wednesday 29th August I got a phone call to let me know of a swarm of Honey bees in a residential garden.  So I downed tools, got my kit, jumped into the car and drove “whilst adhering to the speed limit at all times” and made my way to meet the owner of the house to collect the house keys from them at their work place.

There was a little drive to the house which was quite easy to find but my mind was thinking on what to expect.  I have collected a few swarms before but always assisted by somebody.  This time I was going solo.

So I arrived at the house and immediately went in search of the bees, Ahh excellent... there they are... 8ft up in an apple tree, in the back garden.  They looked beautiful, inspiring, too beautiful to remove in fact, but I was there to remove them nevertheless.  I returned to my car and got all of the equipment needed to retrieve them such as: 

• 1 x cardboard box
• 1 x step ladder
• 1 x bee suit and pair of gloves
• 1 x mobile telephone (with camera built in)

The colony looked so beautiful in fact that I decided to get closer and take some snaps before I moved them.  So before I got into my full body bee suit, the ladder got put up close to them, then I climbed onto the second rung and was within 2 foot of them.  I took a few pictures and just watched them for a couple of minutes as this was truly a special moment for me.  They were so placid, not a single bee giving any attention to me, I was at one with some Honey bees. 

Upon closer inspection it became apparent that this was not a recent swarm as I was told on the telephone.  This was an established colony with food stores, brood and plenty of comb.

Ah, at this point I have remembered that I have forgotten to mention the weather that day, which was drying up after heavy showers.

As I was moving on the ladder, my wet boot, on the wet rung of the ladder slipped and I lost my balance.  My natural automatic response was to hold onto something to steady myself, this just so happened to be a branch of the tree, naturally... 

Now, what can only be called a “mass of bees” fell from the colony and landed on me; in fact they landed on my head, neck and shoulders.  Suddenly this once placid colony had thought I was there to do them harm.

Oh crap!!!

Luckily my automatic responses kicked in pretty quick and I jumped off the ladder, brushed the majority of the bees off with my hands, and headed inside the house and shut the door behind me to reduce the amount of bees following me.  Then I realised that there were still bees on me.

“Ow, ow, ow stop stinging me” I yelled. 

There were quite a few bees stuck in my hair who thought their best course of action was to sting my head and in doing so committing suicide.

Now frantically brushing bees off me, I realised that I have been stung many, many times, as in dozens, to be honest I wasn’t counting as my chin, cheeks, arms, neck and head were stung multiple times.  I began to think

“I have never been stung this many times before”,

“How will my body cope”,

“I'm here on my own”,

“Where’s my phone if I need to call someone? Oh crap it's outside on the floor”.

A few minutes later all of the bees were off but I was still buzzing, literally...

The bee suit was now on; all zips were triple checked to ensure no more stings.  I was sweating, pumped on adrenalin but there was still a job to do.

So I watched them for a little while and they all returned to the colony and everything looked normal again.  This time, armed with a bee suit, gloves and cardboard box, I retrieved my mobile phone and returned to the second rung of that ladder to begin to collect the swarm.

The sweat was pouring out of me, but I managed to transfer 75% of the bees and their comb into the cardboard box.  I rested the box on the ground and went back inside for 5-10 minutes to see if I had got the queen and to let them settle down. 

All of their comb was kept and returned to them in a new home

Here is when I phoned a friend to let them know what has happened, after reliving my version of events to them I was greeted with hysterical laughter and some concern, albeit through laughter. 

After the phone call ended I returned outside to see what was going on.  There were still 75 - 80% of the bees and their entire comb in the box but there were still stragglers on their original position.  I saw some signs that showed me that the queen was in fact inside the box so after a couple more attempts to collect the remainder of the bees, I packed my stuff up and headed back to the car.

It was an interesting drive back to this person’s place of work, some of the bees decided to stay on me personally for our journey in the car.  Others helped me change gear by resting on the gear stick, some just stayed on the dashboard and enjoyed the view. 

I got out of the car and walked through a very busy outdoor shopping area whilst still wearing a beekeeping suit with approximately a dozen bees on me, it would not bee a surprise to you when I say that I got an unusual, retreating response from the public.  The crowd just got out of my way, and at this point the funny side of the events were beginning to kick in.

I did offer some bees to members of the public but had no takers sadly, so after handing the keys back and saying the job was complete I headed back to my car with a few less bees still clinging onto me.

It was a pleasant drive back to the workshop, where their new home was waiting.  We arrived in one piece “whilst adhering to the speed limits at all times”.  They were now very pleasant bees to bee around as I transported them into a National bee hive.  I returned their comb that they built back to them as it did contain lots of brood and food, which is rightfully theirs.  After ensuring they were settled, I walked away to remove the bee suit.

Now I realised something interesting... the stings that I received in the garden, quite a lot of them were still in me.  So for some 40 minutes the venom sacks were still pumping venom into my body because when it actually happened I didn't remove them all. 

So I searched for venom sacks and sat down and watched the little darlings for a little while before heading back to the car and going home.  Once home, I was greeted with some sniggers followed by some food. 

When replaying the events in my mind later that evening I thought:

“What a great story that is” 

“Someone will really enjoy listening to or reading that”

So to summarise, what have I learnt from today’s events? 

• That I can cope with multiple bee stings, even though I do not wish to repeat these events again.
• To wear non slip footwear.
• That if somebody did assist me today, there would be a video on its way to “You've been framed” or “You Tube” as we speak.
• To remove all venom sacks ASAP.
• That my automatic responses are pretty dam efficient.
• To wear a bee suit when getting close to a colony even though I think I'm safe, something may happen.
• That I am able to see the funny side in a very unusual situation.

Lovely to see the Ladies coming home

It looks to me their new flyers are getting to grips with flying

Hello and welcome

16/07/12

Hello and welcome to the very first GlastonBees blog, which is to be a written account about the “Adventures of GlastonBees”. There is every intention to create this blog in order for it to be: informative, useful (as in full of use), interesting, with a hint of a humorous perspective view from me regarding my life with the world of bees, bee hives and anything that I think is worth telling you about.

The last time I had to write something for someone else to read like this was my English teacher, a Mrs who shall remain nameless. A few years have passed since I was last marked for my spelling and grammar, so please ignore any deliberate mistakes that you may find; they are there purely for the sake of my English teacher who was always leaving such lovely, friendly comments on all of my work.

I am pleased to inform you (and her) that at least my vocabulary has expanded, which opens up a whole world of interesting verbal concoctions for me but not in a verbal diarrhoea kind of way.

This blog has come about from long and interesting conversations whilst talking to my friends about my adventures of:

• Bees,
• Building Beehives 
• My life and
• Visiting people’s homes who have bees living with them but who do not really want them there.

I have always tried to portray my story in an articulate manner so that my friends would be able to understand fully, some of the silly, downright amusing situations that I seem to get myself into quite often.

The general consensus thought that these little adventures should be shared with a much wider audience, so instead of utilising the TV broadcasting system and competing with those primetime programs for weekend viewing, we decided that a blog would be much more affordable since I'm working on a smaller budget than the Director General of the BBC.

For the last few weeks I have been delving through my memory banks to recall relevant and suitable memories to begin putting my blog together.

I must point this out now that I will not use any accurate names, places or information of anybody to prevent causing embarrassment to them. This blog is about my thoughts, experiences and how I perceived the events that have transpired and not intended to cause any harm to people that I have met on this wonderful journey.

Welcome to my world...