Spanner in the works

That time of year again when blog posts become scarce. All the usually gardening and poultry tasks to be attended to, plus the allotment and bees to see to. Been thrown some curved balls by the weather too to deal with. There’s quite a bit of other “stuff” going on too round here at the moment just to keep us on our toes.

Last week when I checked the bees I took my guru along (after sales service he called it). Hive full of bees all looking very happy and healthy, brood, egs, feed, pollen, queen etc. No signs of swarming.

Today when I checked – hive full of bees, starting to bring in some honey, pollen, capped brood, erm, no queen (not unusual – she goes for flights and sometimes just has too many attendants to spot her), but wait, no eggs either. Bugger.

A quick call to the guru confirmed what I suspected – leave the hive alone for 2 weeks and they’ll rear a new queen. Bit of a pain as it’ll set the hive back about a month and I was hoping to make a second colony with a controlled swarm, but they’ve already started raising there new monarch and with no eggs in the hive she’s unlikely to swarm, so fingers crossed.

All part of the learning curve.

Buzzing about

Had a few new arrivals on Friday night – hundreds (possibly thousands, but probably not yet) of honey bees.

Having spent last year reading up and learning from my mentor, I finally got my own hive. Brought them home in the back of the Landie (only 3 escapees) and left them to it in their new home.

Went to inspect them today and all appears to be well – Queen, brood, eggs, food and of course bees, all present and correct. Some were bringing in gorse pollen, but we’ve had a cold morning, so I was quite surprised at that. Given a bit of warmth (that we’re not forcast), I’ll be able to put a super on soon for my very first honey crop.

A very exciting time.

Initiated

I’ve been thinking about keeping bees for a while now. I’ve read up on the subject, but decided it would be a good idea to get some practical experience before getting my first hive.

With that in mind I decided to join the local association. Through them I met a guy locally who’s willing to show me the beekeeping seasons, all the jobs that need doing, what could go wrong, how to prevent it, how to put it right if it does etc. So every now and then I pop along when he’s out with his bees to see what’s what.

Today, there was something in the air. Can’t say what it was, just a hunch I guess, but I knew as soon as I got there that today was the day. Sure enough, when we’d finished and I’d taken off my suit, I got stung. I’ve been stung before (though not by a honey bee) so I wasn’t worried, but it did hurt more than I was expecting – possibly because it was on my face.

Can’t be a beekeeper and not get stung though – I feel proper now (but I’m sure the novelty will wear off – along with the burning sensation in my cheek!).