Showing posts with label land of bees. Show all posts
Showing posts with label land of bees. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Privet Hedges in Bloom

This week the privet hedges which border the eastern frontier of Spike Acres have been in bloom. The hedges continue in front of Number 3, resume across the road at Number 5 and persevere intermittently along the road on both sides. There's a lot of it. And just about all of it is currently untrimmed leaving a feast of blossom for our bees.

A very short journey to the privet hedge at Number 5

The BeesofSpike flyers are doing a steadfast job on it at the moment.
It is certainly one of the shortest journeys of their foraging year and the lovely smell of privet is now emanating from a very busy Hive Number 2.






Thursday 2 July 2015

34.9*C in the shade

It was the hottest day of the year yesterday.
By quite a distance.
On my first visit to the apiary at 9am the temperature had already climbed to 26.5*C and the beelines had been supporting heavy traffic for hours.
The privet that they were returning with has been out for a few days now and the hive is starting to smell of it.
There's an inspection due for tomorrow so we can see whether they've started stashing it in that top box yet.

As the morning wore on it very quickly became Abroad Hot.
So after a quick look at the varroa tray, which looked very healthy (zero varroa and zero evidence of wax moth), I decided to leave the tray out for a while to help the flow of air in the hive.
Also, I realised that I still had a half entrance reducer in place covering the RHS of their entrance.
Quickly I suited up, removed the tape holding the reducer in place, prised it out of the grooves and away from the hive.
It looked like there must have been a pretty sizeable proportion of bees leaning against it because a big bloom of the little fellers hoofed out through the now empty space and got interested in me for a while before quickly realising that, actually, having a bigger front doorway was, in this heat, a vast improvement and got straight back to business.

Apart from the heat, for the colony it was pretty much business as usual all day.
At 8pm it was still 32*C and there were still flyers returning. There was also quite a gathering out on the landing board; it was a bit like a bee beach party.

8pm, still 32*C, out on the deck

By 10.30pm the temperature had dropped only to 28.8*C and it was dark. The foragers had stopped flying but the hive was still active. A large group of bees were still out on the landing board and the noise of 1000s of tiny wings beating inside the hive to try and bring the temperature down was significantly loud.

All Night Party

Hopefully it won't be quite so hot tomorrow and perhaps they'll find the newly filled water source at the back of Spike Acres soon. If they do, that should help them keep the temperature down.






Wednesday 10 June 2015

New Lodgers at the BeesofSpike Apiary

After a bit of a hiatus, it looks like the LandofBees is back in business.

There are lodgers in the BeesofSpike Apiary.

Hive Number 2, which was still in place on its stand and hadn't been sealed, seems to have been deemed fit for purpose by a passing local swarm and colonised.


I've not got into the hive yet as I've only just found them, but at first glance it's looking pretty good. 
The guys look focussed and very busy. And there's a constant coming and going of foragers.
The guards are active and, judging from the debris which has been chucked off the front of the landing board, they've already had a fair old go at cleaning up their new home.
It smells right too.


The bees are back
I'll fire up the smoker and pop the top off their box tomorrow morning, give them the once over and draw up a tenancy agreement.
It looks like, despite my protestations that I'm too busy for bees this year, a local swarm has decided otherwise, and that I'm now a beekeeper again!

The LandofSpike has been very much a lesser place without its Bee-Loud Glade at the bottom of the garden so, once we know that the guys are healthy and strong, it'll be time for a little celebration.


Wednesday 6 March 2013

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Spring at the BeesofSpike Apiary

Sunday the 3rd of March 

Today was the first truly spring-like day of the year. 
It was still too cold to open the hive, but the sudden change in the seasons meant that there was now plenty of action outside the box.


Apiary Diary: Observations

11.30am: Bright sun and feeling warmer than it had for ages. 
The Apiary thermometer was only reading 6.1C but there were already lots of flyers, a few returning with pollen.


Morning: still a bit chilly

12 noon:  A little warmer and significant numbers of bees now flying.
A larger proportion of bees were returning with pollen and there was constant activity.
The flight patterns seemed less focussed than summer foraging flights. 
Much of the activity around the front of the hive was less direct, more chaotic, very probably orientation flights.

Soon after this the activity died away to nothing, perhaps coinciding with it clouding over a bit.

2pm: The sun had emerged from behind the clouds and the temperature had risen to 10.7C. The bees were back flying again. 
The flights built up from a small start to large numbers of bees which caused a bit of a traffic jam and the odd ruck at the small winter entrance with lots of pushing and shoving to get in and out.


Winter entrance already looking a bit on the small side

This time there were significantly more bees returning with pollen.
There was also a variety of colours, implying that there are already a variety of sources out there somewhere.



Meanwhile, away from the Apiary, the back doors and windows of Spike Towers were open to let in as much fresh air as possible.
Judging from the shouts coming from inside, LandofSpike (who was at the far western borders of Spike Acres carrying out some maintenance on the Apiary structure) was soon aware that the fresh air was not all that was being let in.
There were quite a few bees inside too.

LandofSpike had to employ his trusty queen clip to gently capture, then liberate, all the bees trapped in the house.


Every home should have one

This quite unexpected incursion of bees into the house is interesting because the only other time it has happened was on the bees' very first day in the Apiary, when there was, for one day only, a constant stream of the fellers getting trapped in the conservatory.

LandofSpike presumes these were bees scouting the new territory for sources of nectar and pollen. 
Having returned to the hive with the news that there was none to be had in the house, no more bees bothered to come visit all season long.
So, bees in the house on the first proper forage day of spring, isn't such a surprise after all. 
It was simply scouts re-mapping the territory.

This first day scouting may also account for the increasing returns of pollen as this first day progressed.
In the morning areas rich in pollen had been discovered, and the locations had been relayed to the colony, so that, in the afternoon, foragers knew exactly where to go.



Next up, a bit of Apiary maintenance and then, the first inspection of the new season.







Tuesday 26 February 2013

Winter Feeding for the BeesofSpike: Getting Fondant into the Hive

Tuesday 29th January.

After 3 weeks of wintry weather including sub-zero temperatures and a liberal helping of snow, the weather changed for the better and, for one day only, the temperature in the Apiary rose to a daytime high of 13.4C.

It was mild enough for the bees to be out stretching their wings and finding forage.

This was the window of opportunity.
Having failed to get fondant into the hive during the mild spell over Christmas and the New Year, this was the chance to make amends.

Adding fondant to your bees' stores of honey helps to decrease the likelihood of the colony starving to death during the long winter months.
It's not good to expose the inside of the hive to the cold so inserting the fondant would have to be done swiftly. The plan was to keep the roof off for the minimum amount of time possible.


It was also the time to see if the new homemade wooden eke would fit onto the polystyrene hive.
The fit had been tested on a spare hive but this was going to be its first use on a live box full of bees.


Dry fitting the unpainted eke on a spare brood box

An eke increases the available vertical space between the top of the frames and the base of the roof or top feeder. 
Without an eke in place there would be no room for the block of fondant.






It would also be the first chance to have a peek inside the hive since the last inspection of autumn. 
And the only chance to look inside before the arrival of the nice spring weather.



The operation went incredibly smoothly.

After smoking the entrance, LandofSpike and Neighbour Jane popped the top off the hive and gave them another small puff of smoke. 
The bees were, as usual, extremely placid and accommodating.

A quick inspection revealed that there was still plenty of capped honey left in the super and in the, ahem, large chunk of burr comb also nestling in the same super.
All seemed well.

The fondant packaging was slit open across the underside to expose the sugar and then placed on top of the uppermost frames so the bees could access it directly from below.

2.5kg of fondant in place, eke in place and, erm, prodigious amounts of burr comb in place.
However, you can see plenty of capped honey on frames 2 & 3 and on the burr comb.

Adding the homemade eke was extremely satisfying.
It was a snug and perfect fit.

Like a glove...

Perhaps the EPS hive makers could consider stocking EPS ekes for their beebox system as it is a pretty essential bit of kit and seems like a bit of an omission from their catalogue.
However, it's so relatively simple making your own that the lack of a store-bought eke is no great hardship.



So with the roof safely strapped back down, the BeesofSpike have their supplementary winter feed sitting nicely on top of their own stores. 
Their hive is now shut to humans until the spring.


Although the winter closedown is in place, LandofSpike will still be observing the little fellers on a daily basis, observing any activity and recording temperatures in the Apiary. 
He also needs to construct some new frames, paint some supers and brood boxes and build a new hive stand. 
And he really needs to get reading and bone up on what to do in the springtime.



Friday 11 January 2013

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from the BeesofSpike Apiary

The old year is now fast receding into the dim and distant past.

Not receding into the dim and distant past is LandofSpike's remarkably resilient cough; a legacy of a festive season of which he spent every single day afflicted with A Ghastly Illness. 
Moan, whine etc. 

His Man Flu was so virulent that he was unable even to drag himself to the western borders of Spike Acres to monitor his bees.
So the daily Apiary observation chart, over the Christmas & New Year period, records nothing apart from a maximum temperature of 12.2C, a minimum of 3.5C and a scribbled note that it had been rainy but mild.

The bees didn't seem to mind his absence though. They just carried on without him.


Another consequence of The Great Illness, but also partly due to A General Uselessness, was the LandofSpike Christmas cards failing to meet their December deadline.
So, in time honoured fashion, the Apiary Christmas Message is making a belated, yet still heartfelt, appearance.


LandofSpike and his Bees would like to wish all you Friends of Bees a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Join them for more bee-related nonsense in the coming year.



Wednesday 9 January 2013

Foraging in January

Yesterday, as reported on this blog, the bees were out and about in great numbers due to the unseasonably mild weather.

While in the Apiary, LandofSpike also noticed a few workers returning with polllen. 
There was uncertainty as to where this pollen could be coming from so early in January.

Today, the 9th of January, it's still sunny and is a pleasant 9.3C in the Apiary. 
And, with bees still in the air, the mystery of where the pollen's coming from has been solved.


It now transpires that at least some of it was coming from the thicket of Mahonia just outside the front gates of Spike Towers.
Mahonia is a dense little shrub which bears blue-black berries and is armed with some pretty spiky and tough evergreen leaves.
The council's favourite loiterer deterrent 
The local council plant Mahonia in places where it deems people need to be deterred from loitering. 
Seemingly, the raised bed area in front of Spike Towers has been designated a No-Loitering Zone as they've filled it with a healthy patch of the stuff.
This has the happy bonus of supplying the BeesofSpike with a reliable local source of winter forage.


Bright January sunshine, bright yellow flowers

At this time of year Mahonia has the most brilliant yellow blossom. It's amongst the earliest bloomers of the year.
And the BeesofSpike were all over it.


A BeesofSpike worker enjoying some January forage 

NeighbourJane takes the credit for spotting foragers industriously working the Mahonia in the sun this morning and LandofSpike was able to get some nifty photos to record the event.


Pointy leaves to deter humans, Lovely yellow flowers to attract bees

The bees don't usually have many opportunities to fly in the winter months but, if it's mild enough, Mahonia can now be officially added to the Winter Forage List.



Monday 17 December 2012

A Mild Winter's Day


It's been a bit quiet down at The Hive since the winter weather set in on November the 24th. 

LandofSpike has had the occasional glimpse of the odd worker peeking out of the entrance but, in general, the bees are hunkered down indoors and are not venturing out.



The BeesofSpike winter hive. A super full of stores and top feeder still
in place. Entrance professionally secured with duct tape.

But today, December the 15th, the weather's taken a turn for the better.
After a spell where the nighttime temperatures have regularly been below freezing, suddenly it's a balmy 10.9C in The Apiary and the bees have been back out flying again in decent numbers. 

Somewhere in the area there must be plants in bloom because foragers have been returning with pollen. 
The mortuary bees have been busy too, taking the opportunity to clear out some casualties. 
And some of the flyers just seem to be enjoying getting out in the fresh air after being cooped up for the last few of 
weeks.

After three weeks indoors, a rare chance to stretch their wings 

Interestingly, the sound of their buzzing seems to be at a lower, less urgent, tone. 
Somehow, it gives the impression that they're more languid.
LandofSpike isn't sure why this is happening or whether it's of any significance.
Maybe it's a winter thing.
Or maybe they're a bit jaded after their long confinement. 

However, it is genuinely lovely to see them flying and to see that, so far, they're wintering well.






Tuesday 3 July 2012

New Arrivals at Spike Towers

Saturday 30 June, 7:33 a.m.

The doorbell at Spike Towers rings loud and long.

BKJ2, having been up and about for quite a while, and being much faster than her old Dad, gets to the door first and throws it open.
On the step is The Royal Mail Special Delivery Guy clutching a reasonably sized and well sealed parcel. 
The parcel has dark, meshed-over holes on three sides and a large (and grammatically ambiguous) "FRAGILE BEES KEEP COOL" label covering its fourth side.

BKJ2 turns and launches herself into a Paul Revere-style charge through the house, announcing joyously, and at high volume that, "The Bees Have Arrived!" 
It's an alarm call that propels an instantly awake BKJ1 to the front door faster than the proverbial speeding bullet. 

The Postman, fair play to him, seems totally unfazed by the whole experience. 
He gets BKJ2 to make her mark on his electronic signing device and he listens politely as she excitedly tells him just what's in the box.
LandofSpike suspects that he may well already know.
Job done, Mr Postman breezes off.


So with the front door now firmly closed, LandofSpike, BKJ1 and BKJ2 are left standing in the entrance hall of Spike Towers looking at, and listening to, their New Box.
It's buzzing.
Or, to be more precise, whatever's inside the box is buzzing, and it's doing it rather loudly.

Buzzing

The box, as BKJ2 has already told us, contains the prospective new residents of the BeesofSpike Apiary.
A Five Frame Nucleus of Buckfast Honeybees.
It is, of course, these little fellers that are making all the noise.
They've had a long overnight journey from the Welsh Borders so they're entitled to be a little grumpy.

But their journey is almost over.


Mrs LandofSpike now appears and firmly but calmly, informs LandofSpike that it would be best if he, and his box, were to relocate themselves into the garden at the earliest possible opportunity, preferably a long way from the house.

Calming down... nowhere near the house

Again, fair play, because the loud buzzing noise does seem like a rather angry loud buzzing noise.
So off to the newly christened BeesofSpike Apiary they go.
LandofSpike lashes the box to the hive stand with his Hive Securing Strap, just in case it decides to topple off sideways.
Best to be on the safe side...


Nicely strapped down

That done, LandofSpike left the bees to settle in their traveling box for a few hours, and having missed breakfast in all the excitement, took the opportunity to grab himself a cup of tea and a large, nutritious snack. 

LandofSpike was now alone with his bees.
He read his instructions so he could plan what to do next.
Then he read them again. 
And then he read them again.

Several further rereads later, he suited up and decided it was about time he opened the box.
He had no idea what to expect but his task eventually proved to be extremely simple.
Y'see, LandofSpike might have been a tad apprehensive, but those bees, well, they knew what to do.

The door's under that label

The Nuc was still strapped to the hive stand, with its currently sealed and hidden entrance positioned as close as possible to where the entrance of the hive proper would be situated.
On the front of the Nuc, the big sticker which said "open using flap below" told LandofSpike where the door was concealed. It was possible to feel the edges under the exterior packaging.
The packaging was removed and the small entrance was revealed.

There it is

LandofSpike looked at the door for a long time and then, with the point of a craft knife, he gently and carefully flicked it open...


And the bees came out.


LandofSpike stood and watched.


And out they come

Still coming out

They seemed pleased that their confinement was over and set about immediately checking out the area, flying around the Apiary and crawling all over their box.
They were busy but not angry in the slightest.
However closely they were watched by the bloke in the white spacesuit, however many close up photos of them he took, they totally ignored him, so keen were they to get on with their Beestuff.

Are we still in Wales?

After a short while LandofSpike noticed that something special was happening.
A group of bees were standing by the door, their heads down, their abdomens pointing upwards and they were beating their wings.
They were fanning the Queen's pheromones from the hive into the air to announce to the colony that this was now their new home.

Later on that day bees started returning with pollen on their legs and it was obvious that they were now also already happily foraging.




With a seemingly happy flight of bees now bedding in, LandofSpike decided to leave them to settle overnight. 
Tomorrow, it would be time to transfer them, on their 5 frames, into their new permanent home.

Their momentous move will be documented in the next exciting instalment of the BeesofSpike, coming soon to this very blog.






Tuesday 19 June 2012

Your Bees are in the Post


LandofSpike has ordered his bees.

A Five Frame Nucleus of Buckfasts.
The Queen's already marked, which is good, as that means LandofSpike won't have to risk squashing her to death trying to mark her himself.
She's not clipped but that shouldn't be a problem.
The Nuc will be Varroa treated before despatch and will have brood eggs and flying workers.
And, happily, it's all on National frames which will slot right into the Beebox.


They're due to arrive at Spike Towers by registered post in a couple of weeks.
LandofSpike's postman, I'm sure, will be delighted.

Yes, he's delighted
On the one hand LandofSpike is really rather excited about the Imminent Bee Arrival, but on the other hand, he's seriously wondering what on earth he thinks he's playing at.


Thursday 31 May 2012

Deforestation and the Dawn of Empire


The area which marks the Western Boundary of Spike Acres has been a bit neglected of late. 


For example...

And...


So it was with some trepidation that LandofSpike and Beekeeper Junior Number 1 made their way through the undergrowth armed only with standard issue machetes, some homemade napalm, a compass and a fully stocked toolbox. 
Their mission?
To clear a space for the Land of Bees.

More wilderness

Actually, it wasn't too bad.
The vegetation put up only a token resistance and in no time at all sackfuls of the green stuff had been hacked away and a clear earth floor had appeared beneath their feet.
Predictably, removing all the ivy, dust and detritus of the ages from the nooks and crannies in the wall and fence revealed some critters so grisly that even the bug-loving BKJ1 had to think twice before approaching them. 

home to some pretty sizeable MiniBeasts

Several of Shelob's relatives seemed to have set up camp in the ivy and leaf litter under the Boundary Fence and they seemed none too pleased to be disturbed. A couple of the brutes even decided to attack each other. We let them get on with it.
BKJ1 also found a grub which was, frankly, enormous. It turned out to be a stag beetle larva. Sadly there's no photo of this colossus as LandofSpike was so flabbergasted by its immense bulk he forgot to photograph it.





One major consideration when setting up the Land of Bees was that the site needed to be as unobtrusive and as secluded as possible. 
A nicely concealed hive makes for a happier human community. It would also give the bees a calm area in which to get on with their work unimpeded, and isolated from the rest of Spike Acres.
So screening the area on all sides was going to be essential and, possibly, a bit pricey. 

Luckily, during the day's excavations, LandofSpike was able to unearth and salvage some willow screens left behind by the previous civilisation that had colonised the area in a bygone age. 
Largely unaffected by the passage of time, the screens were ready to be re-erected and restored to their former glory.


Evidence of an Earlier Civilisation

Perfectly preserved and re-usable relics


Meanwhile BKJ1 made a great job of converting a reclaimed pallet into a sturdy beekeeper platform. 
New slats were nailed into place and then the whole thing was given a liberal coating of weatherproofing paint.

BKJ1 contemplates his handiwork


The reclaimed willow screen was in great nick and with some judicial trimming and a bit of frame construction it has given the Land of Bees excellent protection on its western and northern borders.

Well, at least it looks less wild than it did 3 hours ago

So that's it for the time being...
Before the Beebox can be installed, the southern and eastern boundaries still need to be screened off, the ground needs to be leveled and the wooden bits still need some more weatherproofing. 
We also need a little weatherproof box to keep all the beekeepery kit in.


However, neat and tidy as it is, that bare earth does still look a bit unsatisfactory.

Fortunately, LandofSpike has spotted some big chunks of turf in a skip very close to Spike Towers.
It looks very much like that discarded grass needs to be liberated and given a new bee-friendly home.