Tuesday April 12, 2005

Keeping bees

When I lived with my parents in Cambridgeshire I decided to keep bees. I have no idea what made me make such a decision but I did. Friends of friends had four hives but were becoming increasingly worried about the wife's strong allergic reaction to a bee sting. So the bees had to go. So one day four hives ended up in the bottom of our garden. I think they arrived during the early spring. The plan was for me to work with the old owner and he would train me. I had all the kit; bee suit, hat, gloves, smoker and other bits.

So we opened up one hive to take a look. My mentor was there. In the spring the bee numbers are much reduced with no drones and a reduced worker count. But I remember being shocked at how many of the little blighters there were. I think we saw the queen. It all seemed easy, pop a little smoke in - which causes the bees to panic, take up honey and become placid which means they are less likely to sting you or go crazy.

The next stage in the bee keeping cycle was to put what is called a 'super' on the hive during the summer months. The main chamber is for storage of food and also larva - the new generation of bees. The super is for honey only and a special trap stops the queen popping 'upstairs' and laying eggs there. All then went well. I remember opening up a hive on my own and panicking when things went slightly wrong. Too much or too little smoke I expect. One day I looked outside and a big ball of bees were buzzing on one of the apple trees. Either one of my hives had swarmed or another swarm had dropped into our garden. My mentor was out so a neighbour who kept bees came to my rescue. To catch a swarm you just need to get the queen into your temporary home. The workers will follow her. As they have raided their old home, they are placid. This swarming repeated itself for each of my hives. If I had been more on the ball I could have prevented it as the old queen (who leaves with the swarm) leaves behind her a few specially tendered lava who will become queens themselves (making an imminent swarm obvious). These can be seen to be developing before the bees swarm.

I managed to struggle on and late summer the trap between the main chamber and super is reversed which ends up with all the bees only being able to leave the super so you can remove it. We used a centrifuge to spin the honey out of the comb. You put the empty super back on the hive and the bees obligingly clean it up and move the remains of their winter food downstairs. You then need to feed them using sugar syrup. This is given to them using a feeder on top of the hive. By now it is autumn. The final stage of setting them up for winter is to put a metal grill over the entrance to stop mice invading the hive. The small colony then lives off the sugar mixture living in a ball and coming out for water when the weather is less cold.

After a busy first year I decided the beekeeping hobby was not for me. Looking back I should have teamed up with my neighbour ( who got four swarms FOC) and learnt off him. We got lots of honey but it was the honey you get from bees who gather a lot of nectar off oil seed rape. The honey is not lovely and runny but rock solid and a very pale colour. I learnt a lot about bees and that training is very important in any aspect of work or home life.