Sustainable beekeeping, chickens, and cake
We are due some sporty weather over the net few days due to Storm Brendan passing through, and there is no sign yet of any spring forage, although I did notice the hazel catkins in the field opposite me, and the gorse shrubs - even though they are few and far between in my area … Continue reading More inspection boards
I went to check on my bees today and see if they were flying, as it is quite mild and the wind has dropped. There was activity with all of them apart from the very late swarm I collected in August. I noticed my stick entrance block had been dislodged so I presumed a mouse … Continue reading Hive Failure
At this time of year, I keep an eye on my bees by checking their flights and the Varroa board. Today was rainy and cool so I wasn't expecting any bees to be out, but I did want to check the boards. The Varroa (or inspection) board sits under the mesh floor of the hive, … Continue reading Inspection Boards
In a bid to protect my smaller colonies from the cool, damp British winter, a couple of days ago I transferred them from their single-walled Nationals in to double-walled WBCs. I couldn't do this with the National Trust oak tree bees as they had a lot of crossed comb and I can't move the frames … Continue reading The Value of Observation
I have my bees in National hives with a standard brood box, and have never thought it necessary to insulate them. However, since working with bees in trees and comparing the two environments, I can now see the vast difference in the thermal properties of a tree trunk and a National hive which is made … Continue reading Insulating hives for winter
I received a phone call yesterday for someone who appeared to have a swarm in their conservatory: hundreds of bees, all crawling up the windows. They'd arrived that afternoon and the gentleman had rung pest control who said they'd be along in the morning to gas them (!) but thankfully the homeowners decided against that … Continue reading Honeybees? No, ivy bees
I wrote a post back in January about a hive I had which contained the bees we rescued from a wall in a squash court in 2016. As it was free comb cut from the cavity in the brood box, I couldn't have access apart from 6 frames in the super above, from which I … Continue reading Hive autopsy, and spiders
I collected a number of swarms this year, and probably a third of them have gone on to be viable colonies. I am pretty ruthless with swarms in that I leave them to their own devices: if they don't get going or the queen doesn't mate well, I don't throw a lot at them to … Continue reading Summer Swarms
We've had a beautiful couple of weeks here in Sussex, and I was wondering how my bees were doing. We have had a distinctly unbeautiful patch of weather during June and I was appalled to see on Twitter that many people's colonies had starved, having been caught short following the removal of a spring crop … Continue reading Apiary Update
In 2015 I helped set up a community apiary with Andy Durling in Westham, East Sussex, with sustainable beekeeping at its core. The difficulty with setting up community bee activities is that there is often generous funding to establish the apiary - hives, bees, beesuits, smokers, extractors - but no money to fund the ongoing … Continue reading Forest Garden Bees