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.

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.

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.

A Bit of Beekeepery at Our School Garden Open Day

Saturday the 11th of May


It was Garden Open Day today at LandofSpike's kids' Primary School just along the road from Spike Towers.

This annual event showcases the work of the School Garden Team, a small and dedicated group of parents and staff who work with the children throughout the gardening year to help them understand how things grow and where our food comes from.

Presumably, it also helps the kids understand the very best ways to get totally covered in dirt.

The day was a bit windy and not particularly warm, but at least it wasn't raining. 
So, unperturbed and with a few heavy things on top of the light things to stop them from blowing away, it was time to open the gates to the public and let everyone have a look at what the gardeners had been up to.

As ever, there was plenty of brilliant stuff to see and do.
The day was subtly bee-themed, with a make-a-bee craft stall and a bee-themed colouring-in table. 
Kids could also plant some seeds, paint their own plant pot or decorate a pebble.

You could make one of these at the craft stall

Hungry visitors could sample a variety of tasty homemade breads, rosemary scones, apple cake and fantastic soups made from produce grown in the garden.
Intrepid visitors could take a tour round the site to view the results of all the great work carried out by the children and adult helpers.



In addition to all this excellence, LandofSpike had been enlisted to spread the beekeepery word and was delighted to set up shop under the apple blossom tree on the garden's northern borders, right next to the face painting stall.
.
His aim was to try and help demystify the arcane world of the beekeeper.
He couldn't really bring a big bag of bees along with him, so he brought a big bag of beekeeper kit along instead. 
And talked a lot.


In a hugely enjoyable couple of hours (for him at least) we discussed frames, foundation, Langstroth, beespace, brood boxes, supers, queen excluders, hive tools, smokers, colony collapse disorder, neonicotinoids, fondant, syrup and the value of autumn feeding.
That's the autumn feeding without which the beesofspike would not have survived the winter.
. 


A varroa tray with 4 days worth of debris provided a sample of mites to look at under a microscope. 

Horrible

And once identified, people could return to sift through the tray to find the little blighters in situ, along with plenty of wax flakes, some dropped pollen, a few wings, legs, a sting and, happily, no evidence of wax moth.

Varroa tray detectives could identify, wax flakes, pollen & mites

There was lots of wild comb on display and very quickly people found they could identify brood cells and larvae, capped brood, drone cells, pollen cells and uncapped and capped honey. There were even a few new workers emerging from their cells to marvel at.

A BeesofSpike worker emerging from its cell

Despite all this learning and worthiness, LandofSpike suspects that by far the most popular bee-related exhibit on his stall was the large chunk of honey-filled burr comb that he sliced off the side of a particularly heavy frame of capped honey.

Yes, we know the varroa are really interesting but when can we have a taste of this?

Garden Guru Anita whisked it away to the produce stall where it was very swiftly consumed, along with the delicious homemade breads, by an enthusiastic public. 

It's heartening to know that the bees that made that honey had, more than likely, visited this very garden and the gardens of most of those attending the Open Day, to collect nectar and pollen.
It was indeed the most local of local honey. 

And so with people still picking beeswax from between their teeth, a very successful Open Day came to a close.



It would seem that anything that can help make beekeeping more accessible is a step in the right direction.
What goes on underneath that veil, behind that screen of smoke and inside those enigmatic buzzing boxes shouldn't be seen as mysterious at all.
Hopefully today, and days like it, help to lift the veil just a tiny bit.


LandofSpike's only regrets were that he didn't get to demonstrate his smoker lighting technique, which was judged a Health & Safety hazard by Mrs LandofSpike, and that there wasn't time for Stevie to model her extremely cute beekeeper suit.

It's About Time He Fixed That Gate...

Sunday the 3rd of March: Late Afternoon.
While his bees were hard at work in the early spring sunshine, LandofSpike had some seasonal tasks of his own to complete.

Apiary Diary: A Little Maintenance

1. No Grass and Looking a bit Scruffy

Task: Last year's wet weather had transformed the Apiary (and the previously grassy plains of Spike Acres) into a mud pit. 
It was now spring and the grass hadn't yet recovered.
Also, the Apiary was covered in leaves, twigs and other detritus that had built up over the winter.
Action: Leaves and twigs raked up, grass seed laid.

Raked & seeded. There are even some daffs

2. The Apiary Gate Needs Some Attention

Task A: Sticks from the willow screen above the door were continually dropping down into the door space, getting wedged in the door and stopping it from closing.
Action A: Attach wooden strip across front and back of the top of the door frame to keep the sticks in place.
Seal the job with weatherproof paint.

     Before: typically shoddy workmanship                                After: still shoddy of course, but problem solved

Task B: The Apiary Gate wasn't closing properly as it had not yet had a lock fitted.
The lock needed to be:
   i) sturdy enough to keep the gate from swinging open on its own or blowing open in the wind.
  ii) simple enough to click open when carrying lots of bee equipment.
Action B: Attach lock device
Secure clip to Doorframe with 20mm panel pins.
Hammer 30mm nail into top right hand corner of gate so that the head of the nail just rests behind clip when door is shut.
Door will now click open with the gentlest of tugs or pushes. It will also click shut with the same minimal pressure.

   Position of gate lock on unpainted lintel                        Close up of lock device: gentle click to open

Update: A Week Later

The Apiary gate modifications are working perfectly.
On the other hand, it has rained, more or less, continuously for two days, turning the Apiary and the rest of Spike Acres, once again, into a sea of mud.

The First Inspection of Spring

Tuesday the 5th of March, Early Afternoon.

The Apiary thermometer was reading 16.5C. 
It was time to have a quick look around inside the hive.



Apiary Diary: Inspection

Smoker ignited at first attempt. Patent LandofSpike eggbox method (to be detailed in upcoming post) works a treat.
Entrance smoked, lid popped off, top feeder removed.
The top feeder had been left on for the winter but had seen no significant attention from the bees since the autumn.

Transparent inner cover removed and more gentle smoke used.
Bees retreated down into comb.
As usual, these Buckfasts are placid and calm.

Eke and slab of fondant removed.
Not much of the fondant had been consumed but it had been integrated into the top of the frames and attached to the top of the burr comb structure.

Fondant integrated into the burr comb structure

(The reason for the presence of burr comb of such epic proportions will be documented in a subsequent post. Link to follow...)

Super frames 1, 2, 3, 7 & the inside of 8 were seen to contain a good supply of capped honey. 

Frame removed showing capped honey                     Capped honey on frames & burr comb in situ

The burr comb, occupied the space vacated by missing super frames 4,5 & 6. 
It was, although not particularly Langstroth-friendly, stunningly beautiful. 
Its smooth architectural curves were delightful and there were deep, mysterious-looking bee-sized tunnels swooping into and out of its intricately twisted shape, allowing apian access to each and every cell.

Anarchic, not in the handbook, but intricately beautiful. And, seemingly, full of honey

Crucially though, it also looked as if it was completely full of capped honey.
And if it was full of capped honey, that meant it contained no new brood.
Which meant that it was less likely to be harbouring the Queen.

Which means that now it has served its purpose of helping sustain the colony through the winter, it can now be considered for imminent removal.

The presence of the burr comb meant it was impossible to remove the super to check the brood box for new brood.
However, super frames 1, 8, 9 & 10 were removed and honey stores were spied in the box below. Every sign indicates that all is well down there.


A second super was added just in case the bees felt the need to make some new comb.


Inspection over, the inner cover and the roof were replaced, and the restraining strap secured.


Finally, the varroa board, having been absent for the winter, was re-inserted.
Monitoring this for a short while will give an indication of hive activity and post-winter varroa levels.



Post inspection:

The eke has been cleaned and stored.

The top feeder has been cleaned and is due a lick of gloss paint on the inner reservoir surface to reseal some scuffed patches. 
The feeder should really have been removed from the hive much earlier. In winter, syrup is best replaced with a solid feed.

The remaining fondant has been re-sealed and stored in the freezer.



Conclusion & Projected Action:

Now that it looks likely that the burr comb is just one big honey store, it has been decided that it should be removed at the next inspection.
This is scheduled for Sunday 10 March.
If all goes well, it should restore, after a winter of freestyle comb, regular Hoffman frame order to the hive.

This will also be an opportunity to check on new activity and asses whether the top feeder (primed with 2:1 syrup) needs to be in place, as a precaution, until the weather stabilises.



The removal of the burr comb is also, of course, the equivalent of an early season honey harvest.

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.