Wednesday 27 May 2015

Beekeeping Apprentice

I love it when someone wants to know more about beekeeping.  I can bore for England when it comes to talking about beekeeping, and I LOVE it even more when someone wants to come and look inside a hive.... and I LOVE IT BIG TIME when that person is young and strong and prepared to do some work...but they've gotta get suited up!!


I can't believe my luck! An apprentice to help with spring harvest! Mum came too and  took the photos...even getting her this far was a big achievement as she is distinctly skittish about the idea of being close to bees...


So I thought we's start on the smallest colony...a puff of smoke and a quick demo from me...

 

It must be the fearlessness of youth...but he was straight in there and looking for the queen...

 

Now, I've a confession to make.
I'd warned Jenny that she ran the risk of him enjoying himself so much that they wouldn't be halfway home before she'd get the predictable question..."Mum, can we get some bees?"
I was wrong....
We were half way through the first hive!!!


I obviously need to work my apprentice harder... onto hive number two...

 

or maybe we should make him carry a couple of supers full of honey to extract this afternoon...


Nope....he's still having too much fun.

Lets crack on with the uncapping and extracting, maybe a whole afternoon of being sticky right up to his elbows will put him off....

 
Apparently not...


It seems I've found someone who is nearly as happy as I am to have a jar of honey in his hands.  Clearly he'll be graduating from apprentice beekeeper pretty quickly!

Wednesday 20 May 2015

and then there were six....

I've been very happy with 5 hives for the last few weeks.  (That's my original three, plus a mini one temporarily homing an old queen to prevent her swarming, and Paul's swarm)  They've been developing nicely, looking healthy and not showing any signs of swarming, So I wasn't particularly looking for another.

So I was completely taken aback to walk down the garden and find this in the fruit cage...


Its a little swarm!

Good job I know what to do and have a box to do it with...


Unfortunately it was late in the afternoon and the weather forecast was threatening rain so these girls needed to get a shimmy on and get into the box.  They were going a bit slow, in fact they were distinctly reluctant to leave the ground...  good job 'im indoors was nearby and could lift the decking to shake them into the box...


except that with all of these ones UNDER the decking its not looking like such a small swarm anymore...


However I think the queen must have been in the batch that got shaken from the piece of decking into the box as they suddenly started to move towards the box...


in fact they positively RAN into the box...


Five minutes later ....not a bee in sight...


I think you've seen the next bit a few times now.  Its beginning to get like a Tommy Cooper magic trick; " Box, Bees, 



Bees in box.  Just like that"


So lets recap on the hive situation here...

The original three, plus Paul's swarm on the far left...


The old queen hiding behind the playhouse...


and now these girls, to the side of the shed...


So that's six.  Six times the work, six times the fun.....I wonder if it might also be six times the honey?

Friday 15 May 2015

Two bridges and two banks...

I had to go to a work based event today so a different walk to "work" was possible.  It started quite like a familiar one with a stroll across Vauxhall bridge, I'm heading somewhere behind Millbank tower...


Gotta get across the bridge first...


Always feel secure with this behind my back...


Walking along the north bank, with the sun on my shoulders always feels good first thing in the morning...



I really love the way great buildings pop out from behind the trees,


Other buildings could do with a few more trees to hide them...


Good job there are nicer ones in the other direction....


Talking of "other direction" coming home I decided to cross at Lambeth bridge and take the southern bank footpath back to Vauxhall... waving goodbye to this....


from several angles across the bridge....




Amazing that even from this far away the Shard is visible in the distance...


Gotta walk round this curve...all the way back to pretty much under that tower...


Loving the use of old boats to make seats along the river bank....


Keep on walking......keep on walking.....keep on walking...


Wave to the Tate....peaking out from the other side....


Halfway there..... bye bye Westminster & Lambeth bridge...


Helo Vauxhall..... you looked prettier in the sun first thing this morning!


Time to get back on the train ...


mmmmm maybe I'll get a bus next time...

Saturday 2 May 2015

Paul's swarm.....

It's not at all embarrassing to get home from a afternoon's beekeeping and find 'im indoors outside surveying his ability to capture a swarm...


I'd missed all the excitement but thanks to his handy camera phone P hadn't!

Firstly the swarm thought it might be a good idea to settle in the rosebush that separates us from next door...

 

But then some of them settled on the edge of the fruit cage....


They buzzed around between both sites for a while but then the queen must have settled with the lot on the  fruit cage and so everyone in the rosebush piled across the garden to join them....

 

 

Thankfully 'im indoors has had a fair amount of practice (*snigger*) at catching swarms so he knew exactly what to do!

Pop a box nearby, on a white sheet so that the inside of the box looks inviting brush a few bees inand hope the word spreads that they've found a great new place to live...be patient....and gradually they will all walk into the box...

 

See.....


Suddenly hanging around on a fruitcage support doesn't seem like such a great idea....


Anyway it was beginning to get a bit chilly so we decided that it would be a good idea to get the bees into a hive as soon as we could.  With swarms there is a bit of a "finders keepers" rule so he who gets to find the swarm gets to hive the swarm. So a nice clean box from my spring cleaning last month


open the box ....

 




Peak in to see just how many there really are...


shake into the box...(yup that's a lot of bees!)


add frames of foundation wax gently and then put the crown board and roof on...

 

Of course, after last year, I'll just be relieved to see them still there tomorrow!!

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