The New Bees

Quick update on the new bees.

The Swarm

Without opening up the Nuc Box  but just having a look at how many bees were up in the feeder, things seemed to be going well.
This afternoon opened it up and they are filling the comb nicely. Another blank frame was added and I will leave them alone to get on with things.

Solitary Bees

In the previous blog I wondered if she would leave once she had completed the 'nest' she was working on.
A few days ago as  I came back from walking the dogs I noticed a bee at the entrance to the hive. I left it until today and took a quick peak.
She's a busy girl!

 

Swarm

Last week I got a phone call from someone in Stevington saying they had a swarm on their land and would I like it. 'Yes please' said I. Apparently it was 'easy to get to'.

Last year I bought a skep but haven't used it yet so I was keen to give it a go particularly as I didn't have a Stella Artois box to hand.

Things didn't go quite as smoothly as the Little Staughton swarm as you can see here.

Bee Awful News

Last year I mentioned I keep a look out for rubbish and/or ill informed reporting on bees and there's a lot out there. I had considered having a trophy and after a couple of articles that emerged recently, I think I will set one up.

The rules are simple, an article about bees that is mis-leading, dumb, has stupid puns or contains at least two factual mistakes.
Preferably all of the above.

Last year's clear winner was this in the Lancashire Evening Post with this wonderful article about swarms.
The small detail the LEP and Steve Ganner [who looks like a cross between a badly aged Mel Gibson and Darth Vader] seem to have overlooked is that bumble bees don't swarm. Despite this Steve has attended 300 bumble bee swarms in 10 years. I think he needs to adjust his medication.

So far this year we have had:-

An entry from the BBC that repeats the old chestnuts about swarming bees being  angry and liable to sting.
Wrong - swarming bees are at their calmest and least likely to sting.

The ITV's entry:-

Puntastic.

Swarms

It is now officially the Swarming Season.
I know this for two reasons. Firstly an article about a swarm appeared in the press. Congratulations The Evening Standard.
Secondly, as I was on the way to give a talk about bees I drove through a swarm and had bees bouncing off the windscreen.
In the talk I give I discuss swarms and make the point that the coverage given to them is invariably misleading, inaccurate or just crap - take your pick.
Recently I was persuaded to get the web site back up to date [thanks Angela!] so I have put something on it about the swarming process here.

Swarming season is a busy/anxious time for bee keepers and much time is spent trying to manage the process. I'm afraid two of my colonies have already swarmed, one happened right in front of me as I was going to inspect the hive. There are numerous methods that can be used but I have to admit I'm not brilliant at it. Someone I spoke to recently said 'I don't know why we just don't let them get on with it'.
This year swarms have become more relevant to me as I have met the area Pest Control Officer and discovered we have a mutual interest in motorbikes and bugs. He wants to keep bees so I help him with this and he teaches me about wasps , solitary bees etc.
As we are in swarm season he spends a lot of time collecting swarms but I was surprised how few of these swarms are taken up by local bee keepers so I intend using some of the field I have at Scald End to house these unwanted swarms.
The first swarm we went to was in a garden in Little Staughton. There were two small swarms in the same bush and in a convenient place and height to be collected.

We had a chat with the house owner and then just as Courtney decided to get his kit ready to collect the swarms, the smaller swarm [perhaps just visible to the left of the bigger swarm] decided they had something important  to do and left. In about 20 seconds they had all gone.
The remaining swarm was conveniently hanging on a small branch that was cut off with secateurs and dropped in the swarm box under which is laid a sheet.
As you can see from the photo the local authority provide highly specialised swarm capture boxes designed specifically for the purpose and the result of years of highly scientific trial and analysis.
I accept that to the untrained eye it might look like just an empty Stella Artois box with holes hacked out with a Stanley knife but don't be fooled.

There were still bees flying so the box is propped up with what the Council would probably call Miscellaneous Pest Holding Receptacle Inclinometer Adjustment Devices or what the the non-expert would call twigs. These allow the bees to get into the box.
Sometimes the problem with collecting swarms is you might not get the queen which would have meant the bees would desert the box and go back to where the queen was but we seemed to be OK as returning bees happily went into the box.

The box was left for the bees to return to and I went back to collect it about 9:30 that evening and took it back to the apiary at Ravensden.
The following day I transferred them to a Nuc box [basically a small bee hive] and put a feeder on the hive to get them started.

Apologies for the poor quality of the videos in full screen mode, I'm trying to sort this out.

The Great British Bee Count

The Friends of the Earth are carrying out a survey into British bees and details can be found here.



The count is done via an Android or Apple app for your phone
 which can be downloaded here.

I C A B

At the end of February I bought a Solitary Bee and a Bumblebee nest. Both were set up and I waited.
From time to time small wasps seemed to be checking out the SB box and a  couple were seen going into the box but nothing took up permanent residence apart from a couple of earwigs and an occasional fly.
I haven't seen anything coming or going to the BB box but it is now surrounded by nettles so I haven't had a proper look.

However a few days ago I noticed a bee flying around the entrance to the SB box and when she had gone I took off the observation panel on the side of the hive and found she had been laying eggs and depositing clumbs of pollen.
I left it for a few more days and had another look and found this

.
Looks like she has built 2 plugs of pollen a day. Its not easy to see but in the bottom photo she's just next to the last plug. There are lots of different types of SB and I will try and identify it.
The plugs are a mixture of pollen and nectar onto which she lays an egg. She leaves a space for the bee to develop into and then does it all again. And again. And again.
Once she's filled it up the nest it's plugged with mud and tomorrow I will put a pan of mud below the nest box.
Whether she then starts another series in the same nest box or moves on remains to be seen.
Either way I'm very pleased.