We had a look at some bees on 28th April at Cornhill, fifteen miles inland, and found that they were doing well on the wild cherry blossom known locally as ‘the gean’. There were many young bees taking flight for the first time and making a lot of noise as they orientate on their hives…
I came across this photo of 24 wild white clover sections and thought about it. There were beekeepers (3 brothers) who lived locally at Crookham who constantly selected their queens for excellence and this included the bees ability to make a perfect job of sealing their sections. It was never easy to persuade bees to…
In response to an enquiry from Eire regarding overwintering of honeybee colonies (30% year on year winter losses). A good way to minimize winter losses is to get the hives into sites that are totally suitable. It is important that the fronts of the hives are exposed to the winter sun all day and that…
We went to a wedding knowing that a swarm of bees was hanging high up on the 11th century church. I left the empty hive on a dustbin and, when we came out, they had taken up residence. The swarm would be hanging on the church because the ‘scouts’ would have identified a place to…
I am surprised to learn that a small sample of our black bees have shown themselves to be 90-94% Apis mellifera mellifera as a result of genetic analysis undertaken by Dr Mark Barnett of Beebytes Analytics CIC. During the 1950’s very many Italian queens were imported into this country and so it was very normal…
There are many animals found in beehives. The pygmy shrew often spends the winter in the inner cover of a beehive where he eats dead bees and leaves a pile of black excrement in a convenient corner. When we find the pygmy shrews they are often dead, probably from ingesting too much venom. They do…
Honeycomb is made of beeswax. Beeswax is made by young bees from the nectar of flowers. Generally they make it during hot weather in the Summer when there is a ‘honeyflow’ and nectar is being secreted by flowers. The wax is kneaded into honeycomb which is then used to store the honey which is being…
TREES – By Willie Robson of Chain Bridge Honey Farm I was thinking the other day about the sycamore tree and the other trees that will soon be flowering. There are already tassels laden with pollen on some of the willows and the alder will also provide plenty of pollen. Much more prominent in…
All the bees are now home in their Winter quarters. We try to put them into sites that can see the sun between midday and 2pm, given that the morning sun warms the hive up and the midday sun will make the front of the hive much warmer. A sunny site improves the morale of…
At present we are wondering how the bees are coping with the Winter. All of them have been brought down from the hills and put into Winter sites, often in disused walled gardens and other sheltered locations. It is important that winds from the North West (piercing) and the South East cannot get at the…
