Sleeping bees

I knew honey bees didn't hibernate but went into a torpid state where the workers slowly moved around the queen keeping her warm and taking it in turns to be on the outside of the cluster.
Because of this and the 'busy bee' ethic bees are supposed to have,  I sort of assumed they didn't sleep either.
I read somewhere that bees rest and a video showing the difference in activity rates during the day and night is here.

However it seems they do sleep after all and this was first suggested by Jurgen Taulz in his 2007 book 'Buzz about the bees' [awful title].
His work has been taken on and a recent article about it is here.

A Ghost in the Making

A rather nice video about a bumble bee here

The first step towards failiure

The first stage in queen rearing is to collect or prepare the larvae that will become the queens.
The traditional way of doing this is to take a frame of open brood from the hive.

You then have to select larvae that are the right age, under 3 days.
You then use something called a grafting tool to extract the larvae from the comb with the little puddle of royal jelly the larvae has around it.

The tool has a spring mechanism which pushes the larvae off the tool into something called a queen cup.
The chances of me doing this sucessfully is in the region of less than the square root of f....a....

So the way I intend doing is is to firstly use what is known as a Nicot cage. This is a plastic cassette thats mounted in a brood frame.
The front and back have removable plastic covers and inside the cassette are a series of holes.

The idea is that the queen is put in the front of the cassette and the lid put on, trapping her inside. She then lays her eggs in the holes in the cassette that mimic the normal comb.
What she doesn't know is on the reverse of the cassette the holes end in brown plastic cups which act as a receptacle for the eggs which are taken away for the next stage. At which point she is released back into the hive.

The front lid has slots in it like the queen excluder allowing the worker bees to come and go but not allow the queen to get out of the cassette.

I have decided to use one of the new queens that came in one of the nucs as she is marked so easily found [hopefully] and also she is young and seems to be a good layer.
But before this can all happen the cassette has to be cleaned by the bees so the queen accepts it and is happy to lay in it. Its put in the hive with the front cover removed for a few days for them to clean.
The cassette was put in the hive today [23rd June] and weather permitting, I will get the queen into it on Sunday or Monday.

The end of a career

I've never met Jill Odom and probably never will.. She is the associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a company in Alabama. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism.

I'm afraid to say Jill's career in journalism is now at an end as she has written an article that directly contradicts all the requirements of the American Wildlife Reporting Regulations [Miscellaneous Provisions].
Jill's crime is that she has written article about honey bee swarms that:-
 - is factual rational, and informative,
 - contains complete sentences
 - has a photo relevant to the article.
As if this isn't bad enough the article utterly fails to contain the words 'buzzing', 'terror', 'panic','angry', 'fear'', biblical', 'apocalyptic', or 'supermarket'  in clear contravention of the Regulations.
There is also not a single simple minded bee pun.

Considering the article comes from America, another shocking breach of the Regulations is that Killer Bees are mentioned and the article gives clear and useful information about the differences between them and European bees.
No attempt is made to whip up a bit of hysteria by claiming they are sweeping the country looking for small children, puppies and kittens to kill or any attempt made to needlessly scare the crap out of the reader.
Shame on you Jill.
The article is here.
I wish Jill well in  whatever career path she chooses to take.

For those who prefer a more red of tooth and claw approach there is always the ill informed, scare mongering rubbish produced by the Mail, Mirror or Express, the favourite publications of people who own cat litter trays or bird cages.
However not lets forget the the Daily Star who recently have proved themselves capable of award winning crap untainted by reality or evidence.
On the 23rd May they produced this.  Numerous references to 'killer bees', 'like something out of a horror movie', 'deadly stinging bees', 'mad bees'' ensures full compliance with The Regulations.
Also in a stunning display of stupidity it attempts to ramp up the terror levels even more as it goes on about 'killer hornets' and 'toxic caterpillars'.
Obviously pleased with themselves two days later they managed to find space in their production of sport, 'celebs', soft porn and bigotry to  produce this
More killer bee nonsense and as anyone who read Jill's article would know, an American phenomenom. UK swarming bees are not 'killer' they are 'calmer'

The 23rd May article is a clear front runner for the Bee Awful 2016 award

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

associate editor for Total Landscape Care, a Randall-Reilly brand based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Odom graduated from Troy University with a degree in English and a minor in journalism - See more at: http://www.totallandscapecare.com/author/jodom/#sthash.zp7iGuFD.dpuf

Queens and queen rearing

My attitude towards queen rearing can best be summed up by a couple of Homer Simpson quotes

and

I did attend a course on queen rearing a few years ago which convinced me that grafting [collecting eggs with a tiny spoon] was not for me. I therefore bought a load of kit, tried and failed.

However in those days things were a bit different as I had only a few colonies.
Now I have a lot more and three of the queens at Scald End have been there for a couple of years and conventional wisdom says queens need to be replaced after three years or else they will become 'drone layers' i.e. they only produce drones [male bees].

Also a couple of colonies at Ravensden have become queen less and not having anything suitable to hand and wanting to do something while the hives had enough bees, I bought a couple of queens.
A single queen normally costs about £40 and can be bought over the Internet.
The bees are packed in a small plastic cage with ventilation slots and she comes with about 6 retinue bees who take care of her. There is also a plug of sugar fondant in the cage to keep them going.
Clip here
Paul my postman was intrigued to deliver a pacel with 'With care live bees' on it.
-

I took the cages out of the package and took a couple of photos. Then I heard something I had never heard before - a queen piping. This is a sound a queen makes when she's looking for a fight with another queen and she could probably smell the other queen. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera to record it she stopped.
However a video of a queen piping is here,

The process of introducing the new queen to the hive is quite straightforward [famous last words].
The new queen has a different smell to the old queen and if she was just dropped in she would probably be killed so she has to be introduced gradually.
A frame from either end of the hive is removed to make space for the cage which is put in between two frames in the middle of the hive. It has a loop in the top so its suspended by putting a nail through the loop and putting the nail across a couple of frames.

The cage is left for 4 days and a feeder added to the hive. Hopefully she and her retinue will have chewed their way through the fondant into the hive.
More later.............

This all has persuaded me to have another go at queen rearing.
As with all things related to beekeeping there are a vast array of methods, each with its fervent devotees who claim all the other methods are rubbish.
The method I will use starts with a plastic cassette set into a brood frame. This is put in the hive for the bees to clean it up and make it small nice. This takes a couple of days.

More later............

Bumblebees and Swarms - update

Bumblebees
The Bird Box bumblebees are now hatching and there are loads of bees coming and going from the box.
As for the Ice Cream Tub bees ,when I put them in the spare bird box I thought I ought to put some bedding/nesting material in there. It dawned on me that my posh Bumblebee box would be where I should put them so I retrieved it from the nettles, put the eggs in it and put it next to the Bird Box Bumblebees.
Both appear to be doing well as can be seen from the video here.
The Ice cream Tub bees are much younger and seem to be hatching now.
I'm no expert on bumblebee identification and they could be:-

Garden Bumblebee

Buff tailed Bumblbee

White tailed bumblebee

Little Staughton Swarm.
I've been putting syrup in their feeder from time to time and they are taking it down.
Stupidly when I put the bees in the nuc I left a space at one side of the nuc and they have built comb to fill it up. It will have to be left there for now but I might get a little honey out of it when I transfer the frames to the main hive.

Stevington Manor Swarm
Same for this one. Syrup has been added and taken.

At the beginning of the week I got another call from Stevington Manor. There was another swarm in an apple tree in a house across the road.
I turned up to find a sizeable swarm very high up in a tree, out of reach of my step ladder.
Fortunately The Manor had a much bigger ladder but even then it was very difficult to get to.

I couldn't get loppers near enough to cut the branch so just held the skep out in front of me, shook the branch and hoped for the best.
I slowly descended and put the skep on a blanket on the lawn and watched.
After a little while a clump of bees started to form back up in the tree so it was back up the ladder with the skep, shake the branch, get down again.
This seemed to be sucessful and after a while the number of flying bees reduced and there were numerous bees out side the skep fanning.

Bees communicate by pheromones and when a swarm has found a suitable new home there are bees at the entrance secreting a pheromone that tells the other bees 'this is our new home, come inside its lovely'. They flap their wings to disperse the pheromone and other bees can smell it and know where to go.
The following morning I went back collected it up and took it to Scald End. The next day it was transferred to a nuc with a feeder on top and left to get on with it.

When I put the bees in the nuc I didn't have enough frames to fill it up.
Today I put the extra frame to find the bees had done what bees do - fill it up with a lovely sheet of snow white comb.

Solitary Bees

I thought she had finished her nest making as nothing seemed to be happening for a while.

However when I had a quick look I saw she had finished off the tunnel.

 

I took the cassette out to have a proper look and on the top most tunnel on the other side there was another row of eggs.

They must have been started earlier as there are live larvae.

 

Just when things seem to get a bit mad, they lurched completely out of control.
I was contacted by someone I know who also keeps bees. Unfortunately he has now developed a severe reaction to bee stings. He has been told he shouldn't keep bees any more and did I want them?
I'll spare you the gory details but suffice it to say the collection and transportation of the hives to Scald End was no fun.
My friend had a very hand off approach to the bees.- he hardly ever inspected them, never treated them for varroa nor did any swarm control but they were active and look OK.
One problem is going to that because they haven't been looked at for well over a year, the bees have propolised the hive into a solid block.
There is something on the website about propolis here,
When I had finally set them up I tried to get the roof off one of the hives but it wouldn't move.
Another possible problem is that the comb in the hives, which will have been in there for a very long time, will be in a bad state and will need to be changed.
The process by which this is done is called a Bailey Comb Change but this involves finding the queen which may not be easy.

Who are YouGov?

A couple of years ago I did some bird watching at the RSPB in Sandy and an instructor pointed out the various types of bird we came across.
She described one as a 'LBJ' which apparently is the description used for the numerous small birds that are difficult to tell apart -  a 'Little Brown Job'.

There is quite a lot of coverage of 'bees' in the press and yet I have long thought that people can't tell the difference between the main types of bee. There are about 250 types of bee in the UK only one of which is a honey bee. There are 26 types of bumble bee and I have always thought these are very easy to identify from their size and shape. The other bees are Solitary Bees that are different shapes and colours.
There are a lot of LBJs [Little Bee Jobs].

Recently YouGov carried out a survey on behalf of Friends of The Earth about bees and one of the questions was to identify a honey bee from four photographs.

I have taken the questions to the markets I do and when I say two-thirds of the votes were wrong people are surprised.


Part of the reason for this I think lies with The Great British Press.
Today the Daily Mail, admittedly the journalistic equivalent of a landfill, published this.

An interesting if not exactly earth shattering article about bumblebees pollinating abilities.
You may not be aware that all journalists are required to comply with the Wild Life Reporting [Miscellaneous Requirements] Regulations by including at least one silly pun in any article about bees and the  DM complies with a fantastically original example.
I am awaiting corrective surgery on my sides that have split.

In the article, about bumble bees remember, comes this, a nice colour picture.

That's not as Bumblebee.
That's not a honey bee.
It's a tawny solitary bee.

Unfortunately this sort of thing happens all the time; the Express produced this article about honey bees.

I have no idea what its supposed to be.

The Western Daily Press produced this.

An article about honey production with a picture of a bumblebee.

And its not just the lower end newspapers that get it wrong.
This appeared to be in a scientific journal.

Article about bumblebees with a picture of a honey bee.
Oh dear.

Its not just honey bees

Courtney, the county Pest Controller and I are on a bit of a mission.
Despite apparent public concern about the plight of bees, Courtney tells me most people with a 'swarm' [which could be anything], just want rid of them from their garden, dead or alive.
Courtney would like the latter but the houseowner often prefers the former.
Although honey bees are more 'saleable' even they are not easy to get rid of so most have to be destroyed.
This seems a terrible shame and so any unwanted honey bee swarms are going to be taken to Scald End.

A local school reported a 'swarm' in a bird box on their grounds. It turned out to be bumblebees.
Bumblebees do not swarm and they are the least aggressive bee there is. Despite this they had to go. Why they couldn't just stay there I don't know.
The bird box was put in a box which I collected and stuck it on a post at the end of my garden.

Next thing I know Courtney is called out to another bumblebee swarm and I find an ice cream container of bees and eggs on my doorstep.
There were lots of eggs and some live bees and these were put in an empty bird box and added to our growing collection of bee nests in our garden.

I am very very confused

Neonicitinoid seeds in the UK

For new readers:-

 - In 2013 the EU banned the use of neonicitinoid seeds. The UK voted against the ban based on a report produced by Defra that they refused to make public and was co authored by someone who then went to work for one of the main seed producers,
 - In 2015 the NFU made an application to allow a partial use of neonic seeds to combat pests on Oil Seed Rape.
 - The application was refused.
 - A few months later the NFU made another application which was accepted. The reasons for the initial refusal and content of NFU's second application were not made public,

Since then ......
 - Oil seed Rape production UK went up by 7% in 2015.
 -  The NFU have made another application to allow use of neonic seeds.
 - Its been refused

Shouldn't be too long before they make another application and its accepted.

Bees by post

It is rumoured I can be a bit obsessive about things and have a habit of occasionally letting things get a bit out of control. Beekeeping is an example of this and I realised that perhaps things had gone a bit too far when I was asked by somebody at a market on Monday how many bees colonies I had.
I didn't know.

The interweb is partly to blame for this. Its just too easy to press a little button that says 'Click here to buy' and the item is yours. No trying to find somewhere to park near the shops, no scrabbling around for debit cards, cash etc, or having to deal with shop assistants who are either bored to death or unbearably customer focused.
All you have to do is just click a button. Dam you eBay. Dam you Paypal.
Things then arrive at your door.

In a previous blog I mentioned I intended getting my Top Bar Hive functional. In a forthcoming blog there will be more about this but the process is helped by using a colony of bees in a special type of container, known as a package.
Not too many people provide them but a beekeeping equipment supplier I use a lot do, so getting one was just a matter of clicking the 'Add to Basket' button on their website.
Then comes the moment of decision. Whether to press the 'Proceed to checkout' button or the 'Continue shopping' button.
Normally I just have to check there isn't something I need or perhaps something I didn't know I needed and click 'Continue shopping'.
I had a catastrophic year back in 2011 when all my colonies starved to death and since then the winter time is a period of worry. In truth I haven't done too badly since then but my Eeyore tendency told me I was bound to have a bad winter soon so at the end of last year I ordered a couple of mini colonies as well to replace the expected losses in the coming winter. I only had to click a button.
There weren't any losses.
Then I met Courtney and picked up two swarms.
Then someone I knew had a few colonies for sale that I knew were top quality. I couldn't resist.

Then about a month ago I got an email to say my two nucs were ready for collection. You can buy a single queen with a few retinue bees for about £40 and these can be sent through the post in a special container.

Nucs are a different matter and normally have to be collected from the provider. However after a series of comically silly cock ups it was finally decided they would be sent by courier.

The delivery drivers who cover my area are used to delivering weird packages and the Parcel Force driver cheerfully admitted he had never delivered live bees before.
One of the nucs was taken to Ravensden and the other to Scald End.
A video about the Ravensden nuc is here.

As if that isn't enough out of the blue I got a message from someone I know who keeps bees. Apparently he has developed a bad allergic reaction to bee stings and can't keep them any more.
He's asked me if I want them, For nothing.
A few days ago I met someone who has a paddock and is interested in keeping bees but as a first step asked if I knew someone who might want to keep a couple of hives on his paddock and he would help with them until he had more time to start beekeeping himself.
I think you can guess how this will end up.