Bees update

Back in early spring I was delighted by how well my beehive was looking after a particularly cold winter. I inspected the hive carefully for any signs of disease and of course located the Queen Bee who seemed happy. The workforce had been tucking away into their winter stores and although they had been checked on several times during the cold months, the first Spring inspection is always very important. With no sign of disease in the hive and the numbers were quite high we believed that our hive was in a strong condition for the year. That was the same through the next few months, until early June.

We are almost quadrupling making our own bee candy as the pollen stores are so low. The numbers have decreased by a third and are not showing any signs of getting better with the weather forecast being particularly wet for the immediate future. Back in April I had started to make my own jars of honey as the warmer days in April had made the hive very busy. It is completely different now. Sadly this is not all due to the weather.

We know that pesticides have been harming bees and other insect types for years and it seems now with the wetter weather in the UK that some are increasing their use. Without bees we would be damaging our crops, it's as simple as that. No bees to pollinate our crops would be very bad.

With myself still under training I am always looking for guidance so my tutor has told me that I need to stop going back for a bit. Bit like leaving your child at school for the first time I guess, I just have to let them get on. I don't go every week as it is but I can see the whole beehive experience in recent weeks has been traumatic for me and the bees. Firstly I get absolutely soaked and those bee suits are super clingy when wet, yuck! Secondly the hive is very loud, more annoyed by the interruption of this big person who is pressuring them to work. Oops.

Definitely still learning and there are so many factors to take into consideration. So I will stop being so obsessive, for now.

You can read all my other bee posts here 




 

Feeding the bees

Carrying on with the bee theme of recent weeks, if you decide to get yourself a beehive or maybe even a bee box you might want to know how to encourage bees in. It's easier with a beehive as you will already have a colony but you still need to feed the bees to encourage them to produce more honey and of course keep a happy hive.

Inspecting a Beehive

I'd taken a break from my bee posts but now they are back! I've now completed a few beehive inspections on my own and now it feels like second nature to me. I thought inspections had to be done every day and I was wrong, I knew during the colder months you should not disturb them but a weekly inspection is all that is needed through spring to the autumn.

The Beehive

No not the hairstyle - carrying on with my bee theme, we now look at the hive. A hive has detachable sections and is exactly like the tiers found in a natural hive but this way you can easily control everything in your hive. So starting from the bottom here is what your hive has;

The Bee Workforce

In last week's bee post I started with the basics of bees and now we start to get into the nitty gritty stuff. Today we'll look at the bee workforce and the beautiful and sometimes annoying Queen Bee (I say that with recent annoyance).

Get Stung!

Image from HERE

If you do not like bees (and wasps) then this blog really isn't for you so go and read something else I've written on my blog as I'd be exactly the same about reading a blog about spiders! *shrieks*.

So anyway I mentioned about my beekeeping course and yesterday we officially got to visit our beehive. Oh I was excited. Yup total beekeeper geek alert :-)

Count those butterflies

Ok so this scheme has already started so you'll have to be quick if you want to join in. The Big Butterfly Count is underway as it started on the 24th July and finishes on the 1st August.