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!
Archive for the ‘Beekeeping’ Category
Given a Solar Wax Melter!
Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on May 21, 2008| 2 Comments »
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).
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!
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.
Bluebags and Beestings
Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping on May 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »
It’s now springtime here in Australia … my favourite time of the year. Not that winter in Brisbane is too bad mind you – shirtsleeves weather for much of the time.
Anyway, springtime invariably brings strong memories of my childhood, growing up in a sleepy seaside suburb full of old timber houses that time forgot (mostly gentrified now and worth a million dollars).
Backyards full of citrus trees and vegetable patches. Trellises loaded with sweet peas and climbing beans. Wild patches at the bottom of the garden overgrown with lantana and canna lillies and bordered by rampant nasturtiums. Tumbledown chook sheds (chicken runs) and clumps of bananas and pawpaws.
It was a Huckleberry Finn type of growing up. We’d disappear from home after breakfast and reappear for dinner. Our days were filled with sailing, fishing, swimming, beachcombing, climbing cliffs, playing games in the parks, annoying neighbours and generally engaging in the sort of mischief that most small boys (and tomboys) get up to.
One of our occupational hazards in spring was bee sting. Bees were everywhere in our overgrown world of backyards, parks and beachside jungle. The clover sprang up in most gardens and footpaths – and of course we never wore shoes.
Everyday, one or other of us was down yowling and trying to pull the sting out of our foot without squeezing the poison sac attached to it (this was an intricate and hard earned skill). After that it was either a dunking in the water and some hobbling around or else a call for the universal remedy if we were within sight of home.
My memory of this was triggered a few days ago when a little kid down my street stepped on a bee on the footpath. His sister pulled out the sting and then went searching for something exotic in an aerosol can to spray on it. It reminded me of the gulf between now and then.
Back before automatic washing machines and washing powders with space age ingredients, we had boilers or coppers that contained very hot water and were ‘stirred’ with large wooden implements. Most shirts and sheets were white then of course and rarely made out of synthetic blends, so boiling the hell out of them and then wringing through manual devices like mangles was the order of the day. Wash sheds resembled medieval torture chambers.
There was one magic ingredient however that my grandmother added to the wash. It was called a blue bag. It was a small muslin wrapped bag of synthetic ultramarine and sodium bicarbonate. Ultramarine is a very blue, blue and strangely enough (probably because it absorbs yellow light) clothes came out fantastically white. Not that I cared much about that of course.
Its great magical use was on bee stings. Whenever the inevitable happened, one of our mothers or grandmothers would produce a wet blue bag, place it on the wound and … no more pain. None of us knew why of course, but we were grateful for this piece of passed down lore.
The other day as I watched the little fellow wriggling around while his sister was obviously rummaging around inside looking for some anti-sting product or other, I thought of my grandmother, always having to hand a simple product used everyday for washing and able to be deployed for other reasons. We’ve become a society of specialists – in needs and expectations.
Oh for the world of the generalist, analogue solutions, and grandmothers who were prescient when it came to the casualty needs of junior Huck Finns.
Kindly donated by Paul Holland from his blog at: http://erraticmusings.typepad.com/
How to Catch a Swarm of Bees
Posted in Bee Law, Bee Present, Beekeeping on April 28, 2008| 2 Comments »
(Interested to know if there are any beekeepers who agree/disagree with this)
Things You’ll Need:
- NUC Or Hives With Frames
- Bee Brushes
- Beekeeper Gloves
- Protective Clothing
- Drop Cloths Or Old Sheet
- Duct Tape
- Butcher Knife
- Cotton String
- Ropes
- Ladders
Catching a Swarm Near the Ground
Step 1
Remove two or three frames from a beeless hive and position them at a height below your head.
Step 2
Shake the limb or bush holding the swarm to dislodge the bees.
Step 3
Replace the frames and lid of the hive after the swarm enters the hive.
Step 4
Leave the hive for a few hours while stray bees find their way into the hive.
Catching a Swarm High in a Tree
Step 1
Gather your equipment: lemon-scented furniture polish; ladder or rope and weight (such as a rock or any heavy object); drop cloth; and an empty hive body.
Step 2
Spread a sheet or drop cloth on the ground under the cluster.
Step 3
Place the empty hive body on the drop cloth under the swarm. You can use the drop cloth to gather up the swarm if it misses the hive body.
Step 4
Remove the top of the hive.
Step 5
Use the ladder if possible, or tie the weight to the end of the rope end and throw the weight over the limb where the bees are clustered.
Step 6
Jerk both ends of the rope to dislodge the cluster of bees.
Step 7
Replace the top of the hive after the swarm drops into the hive body.
Step 8
Leave the hive for a few hours while stray bees find their way into the hive.
The original instructioins from: http://www.ehow.com/how_2120_catch-swarm-bees.html
– however I have removed the lines which suggested spraying Lemon Furniture Polish as I had some comments on this and have not found this a necessary addition. Once the queen is in the box, the workers will follow. Such is Bee Law!
End of April Inspection
Posted in Bee Present, Beekeeping on April 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »
I went to visit Faith – my last remaining hive – on Saturday. It was a beautiful day. This was the first time that I have opened her up this year.
The bees were flying well. I took the bottom half-brood chamber and placed it on top of the larger brood chamber. The bottom only had half a frame of honey left – enough to over-winter the hive – though the queen is now in her third year – and as a local beekeper said “she is on her pension”!
There were three or four frames of brood – and signs of a laying queen with eggs on the edge of one of the brood patterns – however, the queen is not laying anything like as well as last year.
I managed to order two new colonies at the end of March – and am going to pick them up from a beekeeper about one and a half hours drive north this time next week. So hopefully they will rebuild my apiary to allow me to get a reasonable amount of honey this year.
What a change from this time last year April when we had a very warm April and Faith already had four supers on her! This April has been much colder – with frost on one or two mornings.
The blossom on the apple trees in the orchard where the bees are is just coming out. So with a bit of luck the bees will start piling-on the honey in the next couple of weeks – weather permitting.
I also had a neighbour ring me saying they had a swarm. It was actually a very well-developed colony on which had benefitted from the central heating giving them a kick-start through the cold spring mornings. Trouble is, the colony had not swarmed – it was thriving – and it needed a bricklayer to take out the bricks before the bees could be removed. There is only one guy I know who is both a beekeeper and a bricklayer. Perhaps I should learn to be a bricklayer!
Missing Honeybee Mystery
Posted in Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on April 26, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A funny cartoon about a more serious problem. This time last year I had three hives. Today I have one.
Found at: http://www.hive-mind.com/bee/blog/2007/04/beecalpyse-now.html
St. Ambrose, Patron Saint of Beekeepers
Posted in Bee Lore, Beekeeping on March 25, 2008| 3 Comments »
Apparently St Ambrose didn’t have anything directly to do with bees, but had the title “Honey Tongued Doctor” because of his speaking and preaching ability. This led to the use of a beehive and bees as his symbols, as you can see here:
More at: http://membracid.wordpress.com/2008/03/12/beekeeping-patron-saints/
Honey for Tea!
Posted in Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween, Bylaugh on March 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »
The beekeeping lady then worked quickly. She put a large sheet on the ground and put the box with the bees on top. In a very short space of time all the bees were gone and there was no more noise. She slowly lifed the box and put it back into her car.
She then removed her veil and her beuatiful face shone as she presented us with two pots of unlabelled honey! It was very kind of her, since I thought we might have to pay her to take the bees away. Sometimes Dad paid our gardener, Jack, a little extra to help him trap the moles. And Mum had paid the rat catcher last year to come and remove the rats from the back sheds. Why should the Beekeeping lady actually give us a present for taking these stinging insects away from our garden? All these unanswered questions.
Mum asked the beekeeping lady if she would like a cup of tea. (Mum always offered visitors a cup of tea). However, the beekeeping lady said that she had to get the bees into a hive before the sun went down. She left quietly, efficiently and gracefully, almost like an angel might vanish behind a cloud.
And we were left with the two jars of honey. We opened one of them straight away and had honey on toast for tea in the chairs which had been laid out by Mum next to the Willow Tree. The honey was delicious! And what an eventful afternoon it had been!
Bee Lore 
