Letter From House of Commons

When this letter came through the door I was a slight bit worried. I thought what have I done now. I mean, it's not everyday you get a letter direct from the house of commons. It turns out that when I signed an

e-petition against certain chemicals that are used in agriculture in the country some of the politicians listened. 

The Post I Hoped Never to Write

I will start off by saying this is my first post in a while. I haven't been all that well but it's more about laziness than anything else. Anyway I'm better now but unfortunately I don't have brilliant news to share.

Yesterday was this months Beekeeping meeting and one of the things they touched upon was the threat of starvation (the main topic was something else but I'll do a separate post for that). After work today I went straight round to the Bees to see if they were fine and add some more fondant if needed. Upon approach of the hives I didn't expect to see any Bees out and about but this is to be expected due to the snow we've had recently. Upon opening the hive I was met with the worst possible sight a Beekeeper can see; a hive full of dead Bees. I was gutted and knowing this was my stronger colony I was dreading what I'd find in the next one.

When I opened the second hive my worst fears were met with the sight of a second box full of dead Bees. The worst thing about it was that it was clear that starvation had killed them due to the amount of them that were fully in the cells, as If trying to get the last drop of food, however the Bees in both colonies had plenty of fondant and one hive even had a small amount of sealed honey.

Frame with stores; unfortunately they were clustered at other end of hive

The problem, I think, is that they haven't been able to find the food and this is due to the cold weather. When it gets cold the Bees form a very tight cluster to conserve energy but in this cluster it is hard for them to move. With the frames with food in them at the other side of the hive to the cluster it was impossible for them to get to it. The bad luck part, for me, is that it had happened to both my colonies which does technically now mean I am no longer a Beekeeper.

I have already started inquiring into replacing them but starting again is so depressing, not to mention financially taxing! With any luck I'll be able to either catch a swarm or maybe purchase a small nucleus hive from someone and start building back up from there. Either way this won't be the last of my adventures in Beekeeping and I'm sure there'll be more set backs but I plan on learning from this and hopefully it won't happen again!

Hive floor covered in dead Bees. There were a lot more but I've already cleared loads.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Just a very quick post to say that it was my birthday in the last week. Below I've included a photo of the cake my beautiful wife made for me. She was super sneaky in making it, coming home from work in her dinner break to make it and clearing all the evidence. I'm not going to say how old I am but there is a good chance you'll be able to guess!

Wakefield and Pontefract Beekeepers: January Meeting

This Monday just gone was the first meeting we had of 2013 and the guest speaker was a guy called Gerry Collins. I think this was the 3rd time we have had him as a guest speaker and, as one of the times before, his talk was on swarming which included various methods of prevention including the Demaree method. I will be trying this method out on my Bees in the near future so won't go into any details here. If you are interested you can either google Demaree or try this link to Barnsley Beekeepers site that explains it very well.

The talk was fascinating and also very long; the usual meeting are scheduled to finish at 21.00, they were still talking at 21.45 when I had to leave to go to work as I was on the night shift. There was a short break in the middle where I got talking to people as usual and also in this time I picked up something I had ordered from a fellow Beekeeper who had organised a bulk order with Paynes Bee Farm. The item I'd ordered was a poly nuc which is basically a nucleus hive made, surprisingly, of polystyrene; not the kind of polystyrene you get goods packed in but a much denser type that is a lot more resilient and weighs more. Below are the photos of it.

The poly nuc

This screws onto the entrance giving you option of open, closed with or without ventilation and with mouse guard included

It came with 2 plastic inserts that you put next to the hive body and the feeder compartment. This one is a Queen excluder.

The hive from above showing the feeder area and the screened bottom.

The other plastic insert completely blocks off the feeder.

In this photo you can see the light reflecting from the clear cover, with this you can look into the hive with the lid off without disturbing the brood chamber too much.

All in all it looks and feels like a quality product. I can't say anything about the operating of it yet but will be able to later in the season but I am very hopeful that it will help me. Also everyone I talked to has said how good they are for creating nuc colonies. Next time you see this hive it should have a happy colony of Bees in it!

Moving the Bees

As I've already mentioned in previous posts my Dad has had to give up one of his allotments, which is the one my Bees have been taking residence in. You may also be aware that we have acquired the rights to use another bit of land in our area. The owner of this land has given us the OK to keep Bees on the land so the next problem was getting the Bees there.

The problem with moving Bees is that if you are moving them less than 3 miles away from where they were then they may get confused and when they leave the hive return to where they previously were. I searched the internet and asked a few people and the general consensus was that winter is actually a fairly good time to move the Bees anyway. This is because the Bees aren't flying much at the moment due to cold weather and when the good weather returns (he says optimistically!) the Bees should re-orientate them selves to their new location.

All this week has been snowy and freezing so luckily me and my Dad timed it just right by moving the Bees just before the weather turned. I'd already ordered some straps to put around the hives to make sure they didn't separate in transit and I took some cardboard to block the entrances with tape to hold it in place. When the hives were strapped up it was as simple as putting them in a wheelbarrow then move them to the car to then be taken to the new site. Below are the photos I took during this.

My Dad wheeling a hive to the car

Both hives in the car ready to be moved

A nice big steaming pile of horse manure ready to be dug in to the land!

A nice row of trees planted, will look better when in full blossom covered in Bees!

The hives in their new home

Straps removed, tape off and entrances unblocked

The row of raspberries has grown some what

I took the lid off the hives to see how much fondant they had left

If you look carefully you can just see a little bee flying near the entrance