Bee Quiet

6/28/2017 11:54:00 am 0 Comments

Our latest bee inspection took place under conditions which were comfortably cooler and calmer than last time.

We have some excellent news from the first WBC hive. The polished brood cells we observed a week ago now appear to have eggs laid in them, which means we were right in predicting that another queen was soon to start laying. Below you can see one of the queen cells that the new queen will have emerged from. Notice the rough edges where the queen has nibbled her way out of the cell. Next time I open this hive I'll search for the new queen, clip her wings and mark her up.


The second WBC is looking very quiet however, with plenty of stores but no brood or eggs visible. I’ll be relying on Chris’s advice about what to do with this hive and it may be that we have to introduce a new queen to rescue the colony.

The donated National hive is still doing well though. The queen was present and laying lots of eggs with plenty of brood visible. Since they have almost filled their first super I have added a new one for them to get to work on. 

Notice the additional super that has been added

The bait hive containing the old honey filled comb from the donated hive is also alive with bees still, which are no doubt still in the process of extracting the honey and transferring it back to the other hives.

So all in all, a good report.

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Making Sainfoin Hay While the Sun Shines

6/26/2017 11:39:00 am , , 0 Comments

In the Cotswolds a hundred years ago, sainfoin was grown in one in seven fields, for hay, forage and soil improvement. It’s almost died out now due to high input farming. However, our high pH of 7.8 and free-draining, brashy soil in the Cotswolds is perfectly suited to Sainfoin, so we decided to grow it, with the aim of producing a hay crop. 



It was sown two years ago, in Spring 2015, into a prepared seedbed, rather than under-sowing with a cereal crop. It was sown at 35 kilos an acre with a cereal drill. Because the plan was always to cut the crop for hay we also sowed it with a low rate of companion grasses, meadow fescue and Timothy, at 3 kilos an acre to help reduce the weeds and increase yield.

It was cut last Tuesday and with good hot weather and a stiff breeze, it was ready to bale after five days. The critical part of the whole operation was to dry the crop without losing the sainfoin leaves which improve the quality and the appearance of the bale, but which can become brittle during the drying process. After tedding the crop out, post mowing ,we used an old-fashioned ‘Acrobat’ with a gentle turning action which worked well.

We’ve produced over a thousand bales from ten acres and we are now looking to sell it in to several specialist markets.

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Queen Mothers

6/16/2017 03:03:00 pm 0 Comments

During our last inspection, the first WBC hive we looked at (on the right in the photo below) was missing its queen but fortuitously we found her on the ground. Sadly this was not such a happy ending, as even though we introduced her, she’s gone walkabout again. This hive did contain lots of stores and polished brood cells though, suggesting there is a queen either being mated or in the hive somewhere, preparing to start laying. This theory is backed up by the fact that there are two emerged queen cells, one of which had a clear puncture mark suggesting one queen has hatched and killed the other. Let’s hope this queen is successfully mated and lasts longer than the previous one! One of the supers on this hive is full, while the other which I added last week still has plenty of space for the bees to work on.


In the second WBC hive (in the middle of the photo above) we were hoping we would find a new queen and eggs, but instead the hive was very quiet with the majority of the brood frames were filled with pollen and nectar, with no brood or eggs visible. This suggests there is still no mated queen present. However, we did find two large and developed queen cells so hopefully these will hatch and we should have a new queen soon. There is only one super on this hive which is being filled slowly.

We have now completed the bailey comb change on the donated hive by removing the old brood boxes (see before and after pics). 

Note the use of straps to secure the hives in the recent high winds

These boxes do contain a fair amount of honey, but this is mainly early season rape honey and due to the nature of the comb it will be difficult to extract. So we decided to put these frames in our bait hive for now, so that the bees can harvest this and re-deposit it back into the main hive, hopefully in a much tidier fashion! The frames in the bait hive will be more likely to attract any swarms which enter the apiary. 


Bait hive temporarily housing honey-filled frames from donated hive

Back in the main hive brood box, the inspection revealed a healthy queen, lots of eggs & brood and well-drawn frames - the perfect result from our bailey comb change. This hive now appears to be our healthiest, on the grounds that it has a queen and is not trying to swarm!


Notice the nice new brood pattern on these brood frames

Chris also inspected his hives. One has swarmed but the others seem to be doing well with most now having supers on them. It was hot again today, but after having to call ambulance assistance last time, we but we tried to be as efficient as possible, stayed hydrated and took no risks when it comes to avoiding stings!

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A Cautionary Tale

6/01/2017 05:01:00 pm 0 Comments

Our bee inspection last week took place in thirty degree heat and proved rather eventful!

The first thing we noticed when we arrived were lots of bees hanging from the front of one of Chris’s hives.


We assumed they were just trying to keep cool and decided to leave them be while we got on with inspecting our WBCs. 

The first WBC appeared to have eggs but we couldn’t see the queen. We then noticed a very small cluster of bees on the floor of the apiary two metres away and incredibly one of these turned out to be our queen, just crawling around on the ground. I quickly scooped her up and re-introduced her to the hive. As her wings were clipped, she was prevented from being able to fly away with the swarm and the number of bees still present in the hive indicates that the swarm returned without her. What a lucky find. It’s now a case of watching this space, hoping she settles back in OK.

Our other WBC was the hive we feared may have lost the virgin queen that we introduced a few weeks ago. The inspection this week showed no real progress, no eggs present, but lots of stores, with little or no brood. We did see two large and healthy queen cups so hopefully they will hatch a new queen soon and the hive can get back on track.

We noticed that the cluster of bees around Chris' hive had disappeared from the hive and moved to a nearby tree!


There were lots and lots of bees flying around the apiary too but Chris thought that they might return to the hive after an hour or so, so we carried on with the rest of our inspections.

So to the special measures hive. The Bailey comb change is now nearly complete. We opened the hive and sure enough there were plentiful supplies of honey in the two old brood boxes which were so heavy we could barely lift them.




When we got down to the new brood box I was really happy to see that all of the brood frames had been drawn with comb, with lots of eggs laid and the queen present too. There were also some very pretty pollen stores.


Great news! We added a new super box, with frames and finally a crown board with bee escapes on them, followed by the old brood boxes on top. This will allow the bees from the old brood boxes to travel down into the new brood and super, but not go back up again, meaning we can remove the old brood boxes next time we inspect. Hopefully this will be the end of the bailey comb change and provide our first honey of the year!

As we finished, we turned around to see an enormous amount of bees in the air as the cluster in the tree disappeared. It was fascinating to watch the bees in the process of moving and see how quickly the swarm dissipated.



Back over to Chris' hives and underneath one, on the floor, we noticed another very small cluster. Unbelievably I once again found another queen, just mooching around underneath the hive on the floor. Again I quickly scooped her up and put her back into the hive. Chris will come to take a look over the next few days and see what to do next.

After packing up Elliot and I finished the visit to the farm by talking a walk over to the Sainfoin field which is now in full flower - truly a sight to behold - alive with bees!


Due to all the comings and goings at the hives, we’d been at the apiary all afternoon, in our bee suits in the blazing sunshine, and as I took my suit off I was dive-bombed and stung on my neck, just behind my ear. After several minutes had passed I began to feel very light-headed, and my face was swelling significantly (not a pretty sight). If I’m honest this was quite a scary experience. I’ve been stung before on other parts of the body and suffered no adverse effects so this was a shock. I felt very nauseous and passed out briefly. Elliot called an ambulance and the paramedics explained that the combination of heat stroke (dehydration) and bee venom in such a sensitive area can be dangerous, so my advice to fellow beekeepers is to stay as cool as possible on these warm summer days and make sure you drink plenty of water while working in the heat of the day. It’s common sense advice really but easily forgotten when you are concentrating on other things!

Elliot & I trying to be responsible!

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