'What do bee keepers do in the Winter?'

Although the bees have settled down for the winter [they don't hibernate or even hivernate], what does a bee keeper do in the Winter?
Well there's plenty to do. Repairing, cleaning hives supers etc. Planning what you're never going to get around to next year. Buying stuff in the Thorne's sale you probably don't need. Oxalic treatments.

For me the main job of the winter is to worry. Not in  manic way just a small voice in the back of my mind nagging me asking 'Are they going to be OK?', "Are they going to make it through the Winter?'

Some years ago [2010?] we had a cold wet winter that seemed to go on for ever. When Spring finally arrived I nervously watched the hive entrances for the first flights. Nothing.
When I eventually opened one of the hives I found this.

Lots and lots of dead bees. All the other colonies had starved to death as well.

Recently it has been reported that a Siberian Bewick swan has arrived at a Gloucester wild life reserve; the earliest for over 50 years. In Russia apparently there is a saying 'the swan brings snow on its bill', because they tend to move just ahead of the cold weather.
The little voice got a bit louder.

Having given the hives their autumn feed and added some supplements, I considered insulation.
I once said to Isaac Newton, ' Isaac, did you know that for every bee keeping opinion there is an equal and opposite opinion?'. 'No Martin, I didn't' said Isaac, 'Thats an interesting idea I might be able to use on my work on forces and how they react to each other'.
And so it is with insulation.

If you don't insulate they can freeze, if you put on too much they keep too warm and consume their stores too quickly.
Then you have a problem on how to ventilate hives in the winter and you scarely believe the debates on the use of match sticks and lolly sticks on bee keeping forums.

Insulation materials like Kingspan are too expensive for me so I decided to go for bubble wrap with a hessian skin. Also at the same time I needed to do something about woodpeckers that damaged several hives last winter.

I'll blog some pictures when I get round to doing it.

Mead update

Some months ago somebody agreed on my behalf that I would make some mead which is a very ancient alcoholic drink made from honey.
After a bit of Googling, speaking my local home brewing shop in Bedford and buying the necessary kit, I got going.
The first thing I discovered that making mead isn't a quick process and letting it mature for up to a year is quite common but I managed to find some recipes that gave me an even chance of being alive to drink it.
Next ingredients. Coincidentally this year I decided for the first time to harvest all the apples on the trees rather than let them turn to puree on our garden and to stop the pigeons getting all the cherries, so I had all the raw ingredients and so far I have started orange and cinnamon, raspberry two batches of cherry and a  blackberry.

There are many types of mead and I have put together a leaflet for the day I actually get round to selling it at the Forest Centre which can be downloaded from here.
The first batches seemed to be doing OK so with the loads of apples I had from the garden, I decided to make a batch of the most ancient of the mead's, cyser.

For no particular reason I thought I might just log the steps in the making of the cyser covering  the preparation, fermentation, ageing and eventually the point where it is tipped down the drain to cause an ecological disaster greater than the Torrey Canyon, devastating the local countryside and moving Ravensden below Chernobyl in the list of 'Favourite Holiday Resorts You Might Like To Visit In 2016'.

There appeared no need to core the apples [a mixture of cookers and eaters] so they were chopped and then frozen as fruit that has been frozen gives up more juice apparently.
Once defrosted the next step was to pulp the apples. Fortunately a couple of years go my son in law made me a device to do this that rejoices in the name of a scratter. Like the other things Chris has made, its a lovely piece of craftsmanship, with everything fitting beautifully and works on the process of feeding the apple chunks into a hopper where a hand cranked drum studded with screws mashes up the apples.

Next step is juicing and I use a small aluminium hand cranked juicer.

It's bloody hard work. However eventually I have finished up with a bucket of brown juice. That smells of apples which is encouraging.

The apple juice, honey, yeast and some chopped dates are then put in a 5 gallon fermenting bucket and will be left for a couple of weeks.

The fermentation started very quickly and is very vigorous and my son's bedroom, where its being kept, reeks.

 

More later

North Bedford Honey Financial Statement announced

Secret papers smuggled out of the Treasury give a fascinating insight into the operation of the Chancellor's office and the hugely complicated financial structures that govern the finances of this fine country of ours.
In classified papers it sets out the wide range of economic methodologies employed used by Chancellor George Osborne  and his expert team of bean counters to try to manage the economy and its return to a new golden era after years of recession.
On careful examination of the documents, it is clear that the key economic indicator used by Osborn and his henchmen to measure the overall state of the economy, is the financial performance of North Bedfordshire Honey [Holdings] the global honey product conglomerate based in a shed in Bedford.

In an email to Greg Hands the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Osborne says:-
'Lets be clear about this. Much as its interesting to show how many jobs we can pretend we are making, how much cheap crap the supermarkets manage to flog and how many pairs of pants Marks and Spencer sell, we all know that what really counts is the amount of honey based products the great unwashed public consume. NBH's financial results are going to be announced shortly and if they're bad I'm screwed. And if I'm screwed, I'm taking you down with me. I'll have to take up a job on the board of a bank for half a day a week paying millions, but I really want to get rid of The Pig Head Fucker and become Prime Minister'

In a separate email to Angela Merkel, German Chancellor, Osborne said
'Hi Ange, hows tricks? Just a quickie, I know The Pig Head Fucker Prime Minister is sending you a list of things we want to stay in the EU but I would really appreciate it if you add to the list some sort of tax break thingy for NBH. I don't really understand this sort of thing but I'm sure you'll figure something out. Its important to us and they'll let you have a couple of bags of honeycomb, unofficially of course. Remember we did help to try and keep the VW thing quiet. Real shame that's gone tits up - mega bummer!!! LOL!!!
Laters fraulein.'

Therefore as Wayne Carr, CEO of North Bedfordshire [Holdings] prepared to make his financial statement in the opulent magnificence of the Press Room at Honeycomb Towers, , the financial world held its breath. It then felt a bit dizzy so slowly breathed out, had a sit down, a nice cup of tea and a biscuit, and feeling a lot better, waited for the all important news.

'Ladies, gentlemen and journalists' said Wayne.'The financial year just ended has been a difficult one. Like really difficult. Like a complete shit kicking, knee in the balls, pain in the arse difficult type of year. You can find a full financial analysis of this in the 'Why its been a a complete shit kicking, knee in the balls, pain in the arse difficult type of year' section of the Report and Accounts.
To summarise the year's performance, growth in our key honey retail markets has been slow and no amount of totally misleading advertising, dodgy accounting transactions [thanks to Google and Starbucks for their help with this] or bribes have had much effect. It certainly hasn't helped having the wrong price labels on our products at the recent Forest Centre Market.
Investment in the new honeycomb market has paid dividends although recent strikes at the honeycomb mines by workers making totally unreasonable demands like having weekends off and going home before midnight have affected production.
The fudge market remains sticky and the candle market gloomy.
Later this year we hope to roll out our new range of mead beverages and in case things don't turn out as expected, we have contingency plans to re-brand it as a disinfectant that can take care of the pesky 1% of germs nobody else seems to be able to cope with.
Therefore to cut the crap and get to the point, I am pleased to announce that NBH has made a.....'

He then proceeded to wait for ages like they do in things like Master Chef and The Great British Bake Off to try and build up the excitement, and smirking like a smirking thing, announced....

' .....profit of £128'.

another irritating pause '.......... and ', yet another irritating pause '.....63p'

Pandemonium broke out but someone managed to get him back in his seat [odd name for a journalist, Pandemonium].
In financial markets all over the world smug, silly bearded men waived phones and shouted at each other. The Honey Futures market collapsed and then immediately rocketed in value making several
silly bearded, phone waiving, shouting men very rich.The market then collapsed again. This carried on for about 15 minutes before the market settled at exactly the same point it was before the announcement.

Hyper ventilating journalists flashed the news around the worlds using equipment specially designed to flash news around the world and monkey faced irritant Andrew Marr hosted a tedious programme where people we have never heard off talked rubbish about things we weren't interested in.

Meanwhile Wayne continued....
'The coming year looks to be as much a complete shit kicking, knee in the balls, pain in the arse difficult type of year as last year and the gross income of £42 from the recent Charity Dog Show at G&M Growers is less than the estimated income stream our financial team had hoped for.
I am reluctant to make any precise predictions about the coming year as all predictions are dangerous, especially those about the future, and .....'

But Wayne's words fell on deaf ears, well actually no ears at all, as by now the press had moved on taking their ears with them and looking for something else to generate a trending Internet viral Twitter storm about.
So Wayne went home and had his tea.

Bees bounce back

A while ago I did a post about wasps attacking the hives and eventually I lost two colonies to them.
A third was just saved when I put a tiny entrance in the hive which enabled the bees to defend themselves against the wasps.
Sorting out stuff on my camera I came across a small video clip I made just after the entrance had been put on but there were still a few wasps around.

The clip starts with a wasp thinking about trying to get in before several bees patiently explain to it they would really rather the wasp didn't try and get into the hive as it probably wouldn't end up well for the wasp who has probably got something better to do anyway.
Eventually the wasp sees their point and leaves.

Then a little worker heroically drags a wasp out of the hive and gets rid of it and then another is ejected and dragged across the front of the hive and falls to the ground.

Bee alone

When Twitter is considered a form of communication and limits you to 140 characters [about 100 more than most people need to talk absolute crap] and Vine videos only last for 6 seconds, the day will come when books are no more than one page, records last 10 seconds and television programmes drag on for a whole 2 minutes.
After all we all lead such busy, busy lives.

Therefore to expect someone to watch a video that lasts seventeen minutes is probably a bit of a stretch. However I would strongly recommend you spend 17 minutes of your time to watch this video on solitary bees,
At markets I am often asked about bees and how they are struggling. In my opinion managed honey bees are not really at risk, its the solitary bees people need to worry about, These are probably what people see in their garden and think they are honey bees, are far more important for pollination than honey bees and are far better at it as well.
Their big mistake is not to make honey for human consumption, if they did I expect people would be far more interested in them.

 

I am about to buy a solitary bee observation hive and will hopefully next year will bring it along to markets as well as the honey bee observation hive.

Smoke gets in your hives

As has been often observed 'Life is just one dam thing after another' and you couldn't blame bees for thinking this with the news of another way we screw their lives up.

 Researchers from the universities of Southampton and Reading suggest that toxic nitrous oxide (NOx) in diesel exhausts could be having an even greater effect on bees' ability to smell out flowers than was previously thought.

NOx is a poisonous pollutant produced by diesel engines which is harmful to humans, and has also previously been shown to confuse bees' sense of smell, which they rely on to sniff out their food.
The study found that there is now evidence to show that, of the 11 most common single compounds in floral odours, five can be chemically altered by exposure to NOx gases from exhaust fumes.

Volkswagen announced 'Emissions from our cars are tested to the highest standards and don't contribute to polution in .........oh........ No comment'

What do you use it for?

I think most people know that honey bees make things that taste nice and/or are good for you.
The honey tastes great on its own and it can be added to a range of different things not least the award winning honey fudge and honeycomb available at a North Bedfordshire Honey outlet near you.
The wax they make is used to make candles and furniture polish [available at a North.......].
Honey also has medicinal properties, particularly for hay fever, and propolis makes a tincture or cream [available at a N ....] that mas many beneficial properties.

However from time to time I find people use bee products for unusual things.
I did a market at Willington and met a giant of a man, obviously military, who had to stoop when he came into the hall. He sported a very fine goatee beard and we had a general chat about bees. He was very interested in the furniture polish [available at a ......] and finally bought a pot. A voice from the clouds informed he he intended using it on his beard as it was perfect for keeping it in shape and it smelt nice.

At a market at the Forest Centre once there was a caravanning rally next to the market and a caravanner who came to the stall was delighted to see I sold bees wax blocks [available at ......].
Apparently the awning on his caravan was very stiff and he wanted the wax to lubricate the winding mechanism.

However the award for The Most Unexpected Use of a Honey Bee Product goes to someone who I first met at a small village market some months ago. It turned out he bred competition show rabbits and had been told by a very experienced successful breeder to use some pure bees wax polish on the rabbits fur that apparently make their coats very shiny and glossy and he bought a pot [av... oh, you know].
I met him again last week and he very proudly informed me that he had used my polish on his Black and Tan rabbits he entered in a national competition.

Not only did they win the Best in Breed competition but they were then entered in the Best In Show competition which they won.

So if there any bearded caravanning rabbit breeders out there my next market is at the Forest Centre on the 15th November.

I had thought of asking if you had any unusual uses for honey bee products but on second thoughts it's probably not a good idea.

Neonicitinoid ban

Almost 90,000 people have signed a petition calling for the government to clamp down on the neonicotinoid ban following a ruling that allowed four counties to use limited amounts of the pesticide.
The petition, which wants a complete ban on neonics pesticides to be maintained and enforced by government, will be considered for parliamentary debate if it reaches 100,000 signatures by the closing date of 24 January 2016.
Three neonics were banned for two years for use on flowering crops in December 2013, following concerns over harmful effects on pollinators.
To sign the petition go here

Well what a surprise

In June I did a blog on the latest in diseases that were heading our way or rather our bees way.
One of which was the Small Hive Beetle which has spread from Africa and was discovered in Italy in 2014.
The beetle is endemic in Africa but not considered a pest as African bees are able to deal with them. This is similar to the situation with varroa that has been imported from Asia where Asian bees are able to cope with the mite.
At the time the Italian government assured everyone the beetle would not be allowed to cross its borders and being the cynic I suggested:-

Doubtless controls and regulations will be introduced and strategies implemented to stop their spread.  I'm sure they will be effective.

The National Bee unit now inform us

On the 16th September 2015, 9 months from the last detection, an infested apiary was confirmed in the municipality of Taurianova, Reggio Calabria. This case is within the existing 20km protection zone of the first detection. Both adult beetles and larvae were found in an apiary of 32 hives. Eight of the hives were infested. The same eradication control measures were taken by the Italian authorities including destruction of all hives within the affected apiary.

 You will note This case is within the existing 20km protection zone of the first detection.. Obviously its working well. Not.
At the time of the first outbreak there were calls to ban the importation of Italian bees but as this is against the principle of free trade, it went nowhere.
You can buy your Italian queens from here, here and here

Although perhaps not as grisly as varroa SHB is equally dangerous. The beetles multiply to huge numbers, their larvae tunnel through comb to eat brood, ruin stored honey, and ultimately destroy infested colonies or cause them to abscond.

As we have completely failed to deal with varroa I'm not sure why we think we can control SHB, particularly as its able to fly. Its managed to get to Australia, something the varroa mite hasn't managed yet.
Perhaps the hugely irritating Jeff Goldblum had a point.


Should/when SHB arrives what can be done about it?
The National Bee Unit say:-

Could we eradicate the Small hive beetle from the UK?

Probably not. Unless the Small hive beetle is detected very soon after its arrival, it will rapidly spread into the surrounding honey bee population,making eradication very difficult.

Bee update

The season is now closing down and the work being done now is getting the colonies ready for winter.Two things going on at the moment, feeding and treating.

At this time of year a bee keeper needs to check the colonies to see if the stores the bees have built up will be enough to get them through the winter and if necessary feed them.
The latter part of this year has been terrible for bees and a while ago the National Bee Unit issued a bulletin saying

In many areas of the UK nectar flows have ceased and reports are coming in from Regional and Seasonal Bee Inspectors of starving bee colonies, where the beekeeper is not aware that the bees are severely short of food, or the colony(s) have already starved to death.

The feed normally given to the bees is either Ambrosia, a sugar liquid that contains consists of fructose, glucose and sucrose, or syrup of 2lb sugar to 1pt water.
As with most things there are very different views on how much to feed the bees; an eminent member of the Beds Bee Keeping Association tells me he gives his bees a gallon of syrup a hive and no more whereas another says she feeds her bees until they stop taking it.
At the moment, with one exception, they are slurping down everything I give them.

Touch wood they all seem OK at the moment but inevitably there are some colonies that are stronger than others. A little while ago one of the smaller colonies was attacked by wasps [I have lost 2 colonies to them already] but I fitted a tiny entrance that only just allowed one bee in at a time and it worked.

Also at this time of year the bees are treated for varroa.
There are a variety of different types of treatment, mostly based on a chemical called Thymol. These include Apiguard, Apistan and ApiLife Var.
The 'api' part refers to honey bees latin name apis mellifera mellifera. and I have wondered if anybody would market a feed for bees called Api Meal but I suspect McDonalds have patented it.

At the end of the year I will treat the bees with oxalic acid and on the advice of an association bee keeper I have brought a new toy called a vaporiser to dispense the acid.

More varroa stuff in the next blog.