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Archive for the ‘Bee Present’ Category

Three Swarms Caught in Eight Days…. and Two Move On!

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping on June 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »

What an end of June it has been!  We caught three swarms in eight days – with not much time to blog in between!  They were: (Prior’s Heath (20th), Hawkhurst (24th) & Kilndown (28th).

The one from Prior’s Heath was superb – stuck on a pergola.  We placed one of the nucs that we got from the beekeeper from Essex earlier in the season upside down on top of the pergola and smoked the bees up into the box.  They were well behaved.  This system works well – and better than shaking them as they don’t disturb the bees so much.  At least that is what I reckon.  Sweeping or shaking them makes them fly more.

Used the same technique on the ones from Hawkhurst – this time the bees went in very quickly.  What also worked well this time was putting the lid on the nuc and turning it the right way up to collect the last remaining bees that were flying around.  We probably only left one or two bees flying.  Quite satisfying.

The third swarm from Kilndown had been in a tree for over 36 hours!  They were quite tired and ready to find a new home.  Again, smoking up into the box to get the queen in and then turning up the right way to put the lid on worked a treat!

We now have seven colonies in the apiary – including the four swarms we have caught this season.  Not bad from the start of the year with only one colony!

Faith also swarmed – and has left about half the bees.

At the same time we decided to get the outside of the house painted and on the day we caught the last swarm, the one that settled in our roof itself decided to swarm!  There is still a small colony there – but we might collect them in before the winter gets them.

June has surely been a month of swarms and lots of silver spoons!

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From Paul and Anna Mason – left on 24/06/08

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping on June 30, 2008| Leave a Comment »

A swarm of bees suddenly appeared in our garden at lunchtime today and settled themselves into our hedge. Not having experienced this before we “googled” Kent Bees and was pleased to find your website. Thank you for attending so promptly and making it a very educational and sociable “tea drinking” evening!!!

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A Swarm Arrives and Settles in our Roof!

Posted in Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on June 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Today at about 15.00 a swarm arrived outside our back door and settled in the eves between our neighbour’s roof and ours.  It was not a very big swarm – and is possibly a cast thrown from the large apiary that is about 500 yards from our house.

Having wondered whether or not to dislodge the bricks, smoke it and catch it and then put it in our apiary, we decided to leave it.  Coincidentally (though the bees probably worked this out already), the next door neighbour has just had a baby boy – and he arrives home tomorrw with his mother.  What good fortune for us all!  Double luck!  A new baby and a new swarm of bees.

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Two Thousand Year Old Advice on Siting an Apiary

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on May 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »

First find your bees a settled sure abode,
Where neither winds can enter (winds blow back
The foragers with food returning home)
Nor sheep and butting kids tread down the flowers,
Nor heifer wandering wide upon the plain
Dash off the dew, and bruise the springing blades.


Let the gay lizard too keep far aloof
His scale-clad body from their honied stalls,
And the bee-eater, and what birds beside,
And Procne smirched with blood upon the breast
From her own murderous hands. For these roam wide
Wasting all substance, or the bees themselves
Strike flying, and in their beaks bear home, to glut
Those savage nestlings with the dainty prey.


But let clear springs and moss-green pools be near,
And through the grass a streamlet hurrying run,
Some palm-tree o’er the porch extend its shade,
Or huge-grown oleaster, that in Spring,
Their own sweet Spring-tide, when the new-made chiefs
Lead forth the young swarms, and, escaped their comb,
The colony comes forth to sport and play,
The neighbouring bank may lure them from the heat,
Or bough befriend with hospitable shade.


O’er the mid-waters, whether swift or still,
Cast willow-branches and big stones enow,
Bridge after bridge, where they may footing find
And spread their wide wings to the summer sun,
If haply Eurus, swooping as they pause,
Have dashed with spray or plunged them in the deep.


And let green cassias and far-scented thymes,
And savory with its heavy-laden breath
Bloom round about, and violet-beds hard by
Sip sweetness from the fertilizing springs.

 

From Georgic IV by Virgil written c.29 BCE.

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What do Ceremonies and Wax have in Common?

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present on May 21, 2008| Leave a Comment »

One theory for the derivation of the word “ceremony” suggests that it is derived from the Latin word cera meaning wax.  It reflects the importance of wax in olden times.  Bees wax was involved in many aspects of life, and greatly used by the religious community.  Religion, which dominated life, was a great consumer of beeswax.  

Candles for light – for the souls of the departed, for the high altars in churches.  Beeswax  because of its smoke free burning and pleasant aroma was always in demand.  Torches, images, seals for contracts and wax coated tablets for writing and wax for medicine.  Such was the demand , wax suppliers were fully occupied in meeting the market requirements, and they became influential and prosperous.

From: http://www.honeyshow.co.uk/

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Given a Solar Wax Melter!

Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on May 21, 2008| 2 Comments »

Andrew made a solar wax melter (from the instructions below) and gave it to me for my birthday last week.  Very kind.  It it a good design and has been melting wax since the weekend to great effect.  The old comb from the brood box (which has gone very dark brown) does not seem to melt very well – but Andrew said it is better if you put it in the oven.  If anyone has any ideas on what to do with this dark residue (apart from burning it or throwing it in the bin), please let me know!

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Tonight I Caught my First Swarm!

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping, Bylaugh on May 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

A lady rang this evening to say she had a swarm of bees in her garden.  3 feet off the ground in a young oak tree.  Ideal!  I said I would be there for 18.00.  I used a nucleus box and shook the swarm into the box.  I forgot to put a sheet under the box – so some of the bees fell on the grass.  But the Queen must have been knocked into the box – so slowly but surely all the bees went into the nucleus.  An hour and a half later we left the garden with my first swarm.  What an evening!  I left a pot of honey with the owners.  It bought back so many memories of that evening when it all started for me when the bees swarmed in front of me and the lady beekeeper came to our Norfolk home to pick them up.  This incident first triggered my fascination for bees and beekeeping.  See the Bylaugh storyline for more detail on this!

I now need to name the swarm.  Any ideas welcome (ideally complementing the current three of Faith, Joy and Harmony).

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Two New Colonies!

Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on May 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Today we picked up two new colonies from a beekeeper in Essex.  He is a the third-generation beekeeper – but we did not meet him as he was delivering some other hives to the West Country.

The total round trip took five hours – and it was a hot day – but the bees travelled very well with a few sprays of water to keep them calm.

I put the two nucs into the apiary at about midday.  As soon as the stoppers came out of the holes in the temporary nucs, a few bees came out and looked about.  A few started flying.  I feel a lot better now that the apiary has three hives again.  We are going to name the hives Joy and Harmony.

Faith seemed to have a few eggs in the brood chamber when I inspected her – but still not sure if it is a queen-right colony.

Tomorrow I will put the five frames in each nuc into a brood chamber.  Can’t wait!

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5,000th Hit!

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present on May 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The site achieved its 5,000th hit today.  Thanks for all the interest!  Keep coming and adding comments!

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Weekend Inspection and Other Beekeeping Ramblings

Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on May 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

I went to see Faith, my last remaining hive at the weekend.  All was not well.  The bees were buzzing and bringing in nectar and pollen – but there was no sign of a queen or recently laid eggs.  And only two frames of brood.  Exactly this happened to two of my hives last year.  The weather has been very warm – and I put a pot of honey in the top of the hive last weekend to make sure there was enough food and a stiumulus for the queen to lay.

The good news is that next weekend I am going to collect two new colonies – so hopefully can put a frame of eggs into the hive and develop a new queen…..unless there is a new mystery queen who has not mated yet.

Strange happenings in the bee world at the moment……and not very good for this year’s honey production as there should be six or eight frames of brood by this time.

I put myself on the local swarm catchers list last year and have had three people ask about how to remove bees from their chimneys in recent weeks.  A friend called Malcolm also asked me today for honey for his new bride – who comes from Russia.  She does not like the honey that is sold in the supermarkets.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of honey left over from last year – so suggested he find a more local beekeper to where he lives.

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