My beekeeping journey (so far) by Connie.

Introduction.

This week Connie shares her early beekeeping experiences with us. Many readers will remember Connie from the past blogs about my “wee bee apprentice” and it is very rewarding for me to see her progress from inquiring small child to resourceful and confident young lady. I’ve always admired the way Connie supports and protects her wee sister in such a kind way. Evangeline has a good beekeeping mentor. I miss hearing the girls playing and laughing in the garden where they used to live near me. In the summer they would have terrific fun sliding down a sheet of plastic slippery with water from the garden hose. I could hear them whooping and laughing long before I passed the garden on my daily walk to the crossroads at the top of the hill.

The blog ends with my story of what happened to the swarm that bivouacked for 8 days in a tree.

Connie.

I started beekeeping when I was 6. What inspired me to keep bees was a school assembly by my old headmistress Mrs Lewthwaite. We met Ann on a walk a few weeks later and she said that she had several beehives and that we were welcome to have a look in them if we wanted, and so that was arranged and I went to Ann’s once a week to look in her hives and learn about bees.

From Ann, I learnt a lot including; extracting honey, counting varroa mites, about various diseases I need to know to identify, marking the Queen and much more.

When we moved to Wales 2 years ago, I couldn’t go to see Ann anymore and so couldn’t see our bees either! It took us a little while to settle into our new house and school, but we all felt that we should try to have a hive of our own, even though we now live in a more urban area.

Ann put us in touch with Mary Ratcliffe (no, we are not related!) who lives nearby and has been a very kind and helpful bee friend, even raising a Neuk of friendly(ish) local bees for us, and giving us a queen.

While we were waiting for the Neuk to be ready, we spent a little time decorating the hive with pictures of flowers. 

It has been a slow start for our bees, due to a long period of dry hot weather when the nectar was drying out, followed by a lot of rainfall, so they didn’t get a chance to collect much stores.

We went away on holiday for 2 weeks and when we came back we opened the hive and decided the bees needed some help- not only had they not started on the super we’d given them, they had run out of stores and there were lots of capped brood ready to emerge with nothing to eat! We took the super back off and gave them a really strong sugar syrup (1kg sugar:625ml water). 5 days later it was ALL GONE, and we have given them some more!

When we first got our hive, I was very nervous because I hadn’t been near one for about 2 years. I had to give myself a little telling off to try to keep calm and take a deep breath. Mary was really understanding and helpful and said to take my time and remember not to flap my hands around! Now though, looking in the hive is something I love to do.

The rest of the family are enjoying it as well. Daddy can’t get his nose out of the book on bees and Mummy likes to inspect the hive with me. Evangeline (my little sister) is learning to keep bees too, though she is still quite nervous -which is understandable – but has held some frames and has been persuaded (mostly by me) to lift the crown board off.

Evangeline has to wear MY bee suit if she goes in the hive which I don’t particularly like but she would probably fall over in Mummy’s bee suit so I’ve got to LEND it to her. Beekeeping is a great hobby to have.

Thank You.

Thank you, Connie, for sharing your early experiences of looking after your own bees. I hope that one day you will represent your country at The International Meeting of Young Beekeepers https://www.bbka.org.uk/pages/category/international-meeting-of-young-beekeepers-imyb.

I’m looking forward to seeing you all later in August and showing you the observation hive bees.

A Swarm in July……..

One of the free-living colonies nesting in the chimney of the walled garden at my out apiary swarmed on Saturday 22^nd July. The landowner was picking fruit nearby at the time and saw them fly into an old fruit tree next to a luxuriant walnut. It was very high up and Sally remembered the old adage “A swarm in May…..so didn’t call anyone immediately. I first saw them on Monday. The day was chilly, grey, and glowering with rain not far off. I realised that I couldn’t reach them without a cherry picker which was not an option.

On Tuesday it was cool again with very heavy showers. I watched the swarm from the partial shelter of the walnut tree but still got pretty wet. It hung there in a tighter cluster than before by shrinking down and moving closer to conserve heat. Rain dripped off thousands of wings clamped down to abdomens creating the appearance of a hard shell. Then the rain stopped and the sky cleared for a while but the swarm hung quiescent supported by a network of branches.

Next day I brought another nuc box and a swarm lure. It was warm and sunny all day. I unfolded a deck chair and settled with a flask of water and BeeCraft magazine but didn’t get the newly arrived packet opened. I had binoculars this time and was riveted to the swarm. As the sun moved round onto it there was more activity. More dancing for sites in similar positions and I saw a couple of buzz runs with more movement in the cluster. A big change from the day of rain and today it was alive and pulsing with movement. Foragers were probably out getting nectar and I saw them land and disappear into the middle of the swarm. There was an air of excitement and I felt sure that they would take off any moment.

I heard a peregrine falcon nearby and watched it fly away to the west. I was sitting within easy reach of a raspberry patch and stretched out to pick a couple of juicy jewels. The ground was uneven and my chair tipped over downhill into some nettles which were difficult to extricate myself from. I lay on the ground with a handful of raspberries laughing and trying to eat them at the same time before they got squashed as I heaved myself up. Nettle stings have a horrid habit of bothering you in the middle of the night with their pulsating throb.

The sun moved off the swarm and I realised it was nearly 6 pm and it was not going anywhere today. Movement stopped so I packed up and went home feeling disappointed. However, my day ended with great excitement following a text message from my son telling me to look out of the kitchen window in 4 minutes as he was on his way back to base in Perth from Inverness. I ran out onto the back garden and watched with pride as he flew the yellow and green air ambulance high up over the house with the evening sun glinting off the helicopter.

On Friday (day 6) there was great activity at the bait hive but probably only bees from the nearby wall nests were visiting it. My friend Jane and fellow bee adventurer was with me and our mission was to put into practice what Tom Seeley had advised re swarm capture. We needed a long pole but there were none to be had at home. The landowner was not in when we arrived, but I knew that Sally would not mind if I borrowed an implement from her shed so I selected a sheathed saw on the end of a very long telescoping pole. I found a short piece of rope to attach a brood frame with. The plan was to raise the frame to swarm level in the hopes that some bees and the queen would walk onto our frame. It was a last ditch attempt to save what we suspected might be a doomed colony.

The plastic sheath covering the saw at the end of the pole had a hole that the frame lug fitted into perfectly and we secured a frame to the end. Raising it to the swarm and holding it there was another matter. It was incredibly hard work. We took it in turns holding the pole. Jane is a champion sea canoe paddler with very strong arms and I am strong from lifting hive boxes but our arm muscles ached. We managed well, I thought, to collect 2 frames with bees, but sadly no queen. I’d placed a shallow frame of stores so thought that the swarm bees might at least come back and feed on these frames to get a bit of energy for moving. The sun was starting to drop in the sky though and we were tired, so we went home. Next day Jane came second in a big 20 km sea race (very well done, Jane).

I returned on Saturday to see the swarm still in place, but on Sunday (day 8) which was hot and sunny all day, they flew off to their new home. It was not one of my bait hives. I hope it survives but the chances are slim given the lack of stores to make new comb and the poor weather that continues into August.