Unknotting
20/02/12 13:31
THE BLACK ART
I have just been trying to sort out our Black Bees website. All sorts of things seemed to have become ‘Knotted’ and untying the knots is part of the ‘Black Art of Computing’.
You must have seen it in some of the messages you get “The resource folder should be kept outside the root folder but within the main site folder” etc. etc.
‘Onny rooad oop’, as they say in Lancashire, I think I have got it sorted and in doing so I found myself looking round the site and
discovering things I had forgotten. Most of you will know that I am not a beekeeper, merely Bill’s helper with the website. I think it’s known as the visually impaired leading the blind. However, there is some good stuff on here. For instance scroll through the entries in Bill’s Diary or take a look at recipes and procedures.
I think we all do it these days, merely skimming through websites and in doing so missing some real treasures.
Do let me know if you find any more ‘knots’ in the website or discover that I should have reconnected the external html source to the rw-common sitemap (No, I don’t know what it means either).
You must have seen it in some of the messages you get “The resource folder should be kept outside the root folder but within the main site folder” etc. etc.
‘Onny rooad oop’, as they say in Lancashire, I think I have got it sorted and in doing so I found myself looking round the site and
Do let me know if you find any more ‘knots’ in the website or discover that I should have reconnected the external html source to the rw-common sitemap (No, I don’t know what it means either).
Comments
Not Excited
19/02/12 08:47
I’M NOT GETTING EXCITED
Nothing very exciting happening at the apiary but it does seem as though things are progressing, even if
only slowly.
The main thing is that the stocks that are left after the death off the three I reported in the last diary entry, seem to be making some progress, even if it is only slowly. The progress I THINK I see is looking at the droppings on the varroa inserts. I would not care to open the hives and go into the bees properly yet. However, all look to have activity, some more than others, as you would expect.
We are now coming in to the time of the year when the bees need the food they have stored throughout last year. Up until now all they have needed was just enough to keep themselves alive, but the queen will
begin to lay eggs shortly and that will mean grubs to be fed. That is the time when lots of food really is needed. It is then up to the beekeeper to make certain there is food for them. Heft the hives and if you are not sure there is sufficient food, feed them with candy or better still fondant.
One thing I have done (and it should have been done before now), is to move all the hives that need to be moved to a different part of the apiary.
In my case I have six hives that I intend to unite around April when they start working, so I have put them close together now. This means they will reorientate themselves more easily, as they have not been flying for weeks.
The idea is to unite the weak stocks together, selecting the queens that I prefer and killing the others, in the hope that they will build up more quickly and perhaps be able to get some honey from the Dandelions and trees which, in my neck of the woods, always seem to come into bloom before my bees are up and running.
I shall be short of stocks but can make them up at swarm time.
Apparently this is how they do things in Russia, where they get the same situation me, that is to say an early nectar flow before the stocks are up to strength and with the ability to go out and gather it.
Don’t try uniting this way unless you feel competent to do it successfully.
Best of luck to you all.
Nothing very exciting happening at the apiary but it does seem as though things are progressing, even if
The main thing is that the stocks that are left after the death off the three I reported in the last diary entry, seem to be making some progress, even if it is only slowly. The progress I THINK I see is looking at the droppings on the varroa inserts. I would not care to open the hives and go into the bees properly yet. However, all look to have activity, some more than others, as you would expect.
We are now coming in to the time of the year when the bees need the food they have stored throughout last year. Up until now all they have needed was just enough to keep themselves alive, but the queen will
One thing I have done (and it should have been done before now), is to move all the hives that need to be moved to a different part of the apiary.
In my case I have six hives that I intend to unite around April when they start working, so I have put them close together now. This means they will reorientate themselves more easily, as they have not been flying for weeks.
The idea is to unite the weak stocks together, selecting the queens that I prefer and killing the others, in the hope that they will build up more quickly and perhaps be able to get some honey from the Dandelions and trees which, in my neck of the woods, always seem to come into bloom before my bees are up and running.
I shall be short of stocks but can make them up at swarm time.
Don’t try uniting this way unless you feel competent to do it successfully.
Best of luck to you all.
Roll on Summer
10/02/12 10:33
ROLL ON SUMMER!
It is February 9th and there is too much snow for me to go up to
the allotment to check on the apiary today. I simply nipped up to throw some feed over the fence for the geese.
Three weeks ago when I went to treat the bees with oxalic acid, I found three colonies dead!
There was no time to try and find out the cause, so in order to stop any robbing, I simply stopped up the entrances to make sure there was no way any bees could get in, and the hives were left to be looked into at a later date.
It was no great shock to loose the stocks as they were in a poor shape when they were packed up for Winter, a disappointment nevertheless.
An old farmer once said to me “If you keep any kind of live stock, you must expect to have dead stock” How very true!
Last week Eddie Jackson came to talk to me about bees and beekeeping. We decided it was a good time to do a post-mortem on one of the stocks I had brought down to my garage for that
purpose. Eddie was given the job of stripping out and making his own diagnosis. He could find no sign of starvation and although there was a slight sign of diarrhoea it could not have been responsible for the death of the stock. There was a lack of dead bees and Eddie and I decided the cause of the collapse was a shortage of worker bees when they went into Winter.
Looking through my record cards, we found the stock was formed from a swarm late in the year, at a time when we had a fair amount of rain and cold weather to go with it, so we guest that the Queen had not been fertilised properly or possibly not mated at all.
One reason for us coming to this decision, is that I find I have less success in getting queens mated than I used to do in the past. There seems to be a greater number of queens that are miss-mated, as though they have not received enough sperm. They start laying and after a short time supersedure cells appear in the brood frames if this happens in the later part of the year there is no satisfactory remedy. Who the fault lies with the queens or the drones I have no way of knowing.
We would love to know how you are getting on. Have you lost any stocks? Please do add a comment.
It is February 9th and there is too much snow for me to go up to
Three weeks ago when I went to treat the bees with oxalic acid, I found three colonies dead!
There was no time to try and find out the cause, so in order to stop any robbing, I simply stopped up the entrances to make sure there was no way any bees could get in, and the hives were left to be looked into at a later date.
It was no great shock to loose the stocks as they were in a poor shape when they were packed up for Winter, a disappointment nevertheless.
An old farmer once said to me “If you keep any kind of live stock, you must expect to have dead stock” How very true!
Last week Eddie Jackson came to talk to me about bees and beekeeping. We decided it was a good time to do a post-mortem on one of the stocks I had brought down to my garage for that
Looking through my record cards, we found the stock was formed from a swarm late in the year, at a time when we had a fair amount of rain and cold weather to go with it, so we guest that the Queen had not been fertilised properly or possibly not mated at all.
One reason for us coming to this decision, is that I find I have less success in getting queens mated than I used to do in the past. There seems to be a greater number of queens that are miss-mated, as though they have not received enough sperm. They start laying and after a short time supersedure cells appear in the brood frames if this happens in the later part of the year there is no satisfactory remedy. Who the fault lies with the queens or the drones I have no way of knowing.
We would love to know how you are getting on. Have you lost any stocks? Please do add a comment.
Can you tell the difference?
29/01/12 11:28
CAN YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE?
If we are serious in our attempt to improve the quality of our bees and get back to where the dominant bee in our area is
the good old fashioned British Black Bee, then we need to know what we are looking for and how we can pick out the bee we want.
In our ‘Recipes and Procedures’ pages you will find two ways of tackling this problem. The first is a quick and easy way of visually comparing bees as they forage in our garden.
The second is a more detailed study of the various characteristics.
Take a look HERE for the quick and easy way or click HERE to see the in depth way of recognising the British Black Bee.
By the way, how long since you looked at ‘Recipes and Procedures’? There’s some really interesting stuff in there. Click here to see the full list RECIPES AND PROCEDURES
If we are serious in our attempt to improve the quality of our bees and get back to where the dominant bee in our area is
In our ‘Recipes and Procedures’ pages you will find two ways of tackling this problem. The first is a quick and easy way of visually comparing bees as they forage in our garden.
The second is a more detailed study of the various characteristics.
Take a look HERE for the quick and easy way or click HERE to see the in depth way of recognising the British Black Bee.
By the way, how long since you looked at ‘Recipes and Procedures’? There’s some really interesting stuff in there. Click here to see the full list RECIPES AND PROCEDURES
Fish and Chips
21/01/12 14:32
FISH AND CHIPS FOR BEES !
Not quite but Bob Bradshaw uses a salt shaker from the fish and chip shop, filled with icing sugar, for his bees - please read on.
The new year is already here and the oxalic acid treatment still hasn’t been done.
It makes you wonder what to do.
We have not yet had the frost that is recommended before
giving the treatment. I have just had a phone call from Bob Bradshaw who has, this very morning, treated his bees with oxalic acid and he reports the bees were not in a proper cluster - sort of half and half. He fears he may have done more harm than good. I must admit I have no advice to offer him.
You are dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t in this situation. Personally I think I will wait for the frost then give it ten days for most of the grubs to be capped over and then treat. If we don’t get the frost, I will abandon the oxalic treatment and treat with Hive Clean or whatever as soon as is possible.
The weather being what it is, the bees will most certainly be consuming their stores faster than is normally the case, so heft the hives and put candy on, or better still sugar fondant if you are in any doubt about the weight.
We are still talking about the dreaded varroa. Let me tell you about a talk I had with Bob Bradshaw the other week. Bob does not use any chemical treatment on his bees - ever! For the last two years or so he has had no problem with his bees. They over Winter well, produce a reasonable amount of honey and do well all-round.
Bob just uses icing sugar to which, JUST ONCE in a series of treatments, he adds oxalic acid.
Bob took me through his method in detail and this is it.
He thinks the excessive amount of icing sugar he uses is the reason for his success. When he gets into the hive he takes out two or three of the empty frames from the sides to giving him room. Still in the hive, he can now pull two frames apart at the top but holding the frames together at the bottom so as to form a ‘V’ between the two frames.
Using an old fish and chip shop salt shaker, he shakes the
sugar on to the bees on both frames very liberally. He agrees it looks to be excessive but he believes it is doing no harm to the bees. He continues making a V with each pair of frames until every bee in the hive is well covered in icing sugar. This he does about every three weeks or so throughout the Winter months.
He tells me that very little of the sugar finds its way down onto the varroa insert and the day after treatment the varroa can easily be counted to see just how many have been knocked down. He also says that if the hive is opened a couple of hours after the treatment there are very few signs that the sugar was ever there, and all the bees are clean and tidy.
Bob is very enthusiastic about this way of ridding his hives of varroa so I may give it a try on one of my hives this year.
As I am a fanatic black bee keeper, I received an invitation to a jamboree at Burnley town hall organised by Off Shoots to celebrate a very prestigious award. They have won Third prize in the International Best Green Educational and Sustainability Awareness Project
I suppose it is comparable with wining a bronze medal in the Olympic games. They are very proud indeed. Their latest video on beekeeping at Towneley is available at www.gwpl.co.uk Click on You Tube icon (Bottom right of the screen) then Bees in the Borough. It is well worth a look.
All the very best to you all in the coming New Year
Arthur and Bill
The new year is already here and the oxalic acid treatment still hasn’t been done.
It makes you wonder what to do.
We have not yet had the frost that is recommended before
You are dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t in this situation. Personally I think I will wait for the frost then give it ten days for most of the grubs to be capped over and then treat. If we don’t get the frost, I will abandon the oxalic treatment and treat with Hive Clean or whatever as soon as is possible.
The weather being what it is, the bees will most certainly be consuming their stores faster than is normally the case, so heft the hives and put candy on, or better still sugar fondant if you are in any doubt about the weight.
We are still talking about the dreaded varroa. Let me tell you about a talk I had with Bob Bradshaw the other week. Bob does not use any chemical treatment on his bees - ever! For the last two years or so he has had no problem with his bees. They over Winter well, produce a reasonable amount of honey and do well all-round.
Bob just uses icing sugar to which, JUST ONCE in a series of treatments, he adds oxalic acid.
Bob took me through his method in detail and this is it.
He thinks the excessive amount of icing sugar he uses is the reason for his success. When he gets into the hive he takes out two or three of the empty frames from the sides to giving him room. Still in the hive, he can now pull two frames apart at the top but holding the frames together at the bottom so as to form a ‘V’ between the two frames.
Using an old fish and chip shop salt shaker, he shakes the
He tells me that very little of the sugar finds its way down onto the varroa insert and the day after treatment the varroa can easily be counted to see just how many have been knocked down. He also says that if the hive is opened a couple of hours after the treatment there are very few signs that the sugar was ever there, and all the bees are clean and tidy.
Bob is very enthusiastic about this way of ridding his hives of varroa so I may give it a try on one of my hives this year.
As I am a fanatic black bee keeper, I received an invitation to a jamboree at Burnley town hall organised by Off Shoots to celebrate a very prestigious award. They have won Third prize in the International Best Green Educational and Sustainability Awareness Project
I suppose it is comparable with wining a bronze medal in the Olympic games. They are very proud indeed. Their latest video on beekeeping at Towneley is available at www.gwpl.co.uk Click on You Tube icon (Bottom right of the screen) then Bees in the Borough. It is well worth a look.
All the very best to you all in the coming New Year
Arthur and BillIs anybody there
21/01/12 11:27
IS ANYBODY THERE?
Now don’t get me wrong, Bill and I enjoy keeping this little website up to date. Bill is always on the lookout for new recipes and procedures and ‘Bill’s Diary’ is intended to remind us of what needs doing in the apiary.
Almost forty people a day visit the website but we only know this because of internet statistics which tells us how many people have taken a look at us. We have no idea who they are or what they think of the wsbsite
We know that life seems to get busier by the day and there is so much to do and so little time. However, It would be nice to hear from you, either by an email or preferably by a comment on Bill’s diary page.
Any suggestions (Polite ones!) would be welcome and the few comments we have had have been useful to everyone - it’s always good to know what other beekeepers are doing and to hear of their successes and failures.
So, please, tell us, “What do you think of it so far!”
Simply click on the comments button and have your say. You can be anonymous if you wish.
Almost forty people a day visit the website but we only know this because of internet statistics which tells us how many people have taken a look at us. We have no idea who they are or what they think of the wsbsite
We know that life seems to get busier by the day and there is so much to do and so little time. However, It would be nice to hear from you, either by an email or preferably by a comment on Bill’s diary page.
So, please, tell us, “What do you think of it so far!”
Simply click on the comments button and have your say. You can be anonymous if you wish.
A Cold Snap
17/01/12 11:26
A COLD SNAP
Maybe the weather is still not suitable for administering oxalic acid but for those who have waited, this coming Friday Saturday and Sunday, the 20th 21st and 22nd look likely to be just right for it. If you miss this weekend, watch out for another sharp snap before the end of January.
I am often asked what is so important about BRITISH black bees? Why should we make all the hoo-ha about it? A black bee is a black bee isn’t it?
Well, no it isn’t. The bee that is most often brought into
our part of Britain is the Carnica or Carniolan bee. This bee’s homeland, where it has lived very successfully for thousands of years, is in Mid Europe, South of Austria into Slovenia, around Croatia Hungary and smaller Countries.
I have no doubt it is a very good bee for beekeepers in Slovenia but it’s not so good in Pendle or anywhere in England for that matter. Slovenia and England are worlds apart as far as weather, geography, agriculture, nectar and pollen. Bringing those bees here is equivalent to you and me being dumped into some place like Greenland or the middle of Africa. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I would do very well.
And it is the same with bees, the best bees for English conditions are bees that have lived in England for millions of years. The best bees for the Pendle environment are not just bees that are used to England but bees that are used to Pendle. I am sure that must make sense to you, as it does to me.
The downside for the beekeeper who buys these foreign bees, is that most stocks will not make it through the first Winter and he will find himself on a merry-go-round. Import bees; lose bees; import; lose and so on. OK, it will work to some extent but you will end up paying out a lot of your hard earned money to the foreign bee breeder and the importer.
The downside to the likes of you and me is that these foreign bees come with foreign drones who, given half a chance, will mate with our English Queens and undo all the good work we have done in trying to improve the quality of our bees. Our only defence is to flood our area with the best British black bees we can.
We also need to eliminate, where possible, the drones that are not British black drones or, at least, not British black enough. Here, you can kill two birds with one stone.
Take a look at your bees and if there is a stock which is
not up to parr you can eliminate the drones as you uncap the drone brood to look for the easily seen varroa on the white grub.
If this is ethnic cleansing, I stand convicted.
In the next diary, I will try to tell you how to identify foreign bees.
Best of luck with the Oxalic acid.
I am often asked what is so important about BRITISH black bees? Why should we make all the hoo-ha about it? A black bee is a black bee isn’t it?
Well, no it isn’t. The bee that is most often brought into
I have no doubt it is a very good bee for beekeepers in Slovenia but it’s not so good in Pendle or anywhere in England for that matter. Slovenia and England are worlds apart as far as weather, geography, agriculture, nectar and pollen. Bringing those bees here is equivalent to you and me being dumped into some place like Greenland or the middle of Africa. I don’t know about you but I don’t think I would do very well.
And it is the same with bees, the best bees for English conditions are bees that have lived in England for millions of years. The best bees for the Pendle environment are not just bees that are used to England but bees that are used to Pendle. I am sure that must make sense to you, as it does to me.
The downside for the beekeeper who buys these foreign bees, is that most stocks will not make it through the first Winter and he will find himself on a merry-go-round. Import bees; lose bees; import; lose and so on. OK, it will work to some extent but you will end up paying out a lot of your hard earned money to the foreign bee breeder and the importer.
The downside to the likes of you and me is that these foreign bees come with foreign drones who, given half a chance, will mate with our English Queens and undo all the good work we have done in trying to improve the quality of our bees. Our only defence is to flood our area with the best British black bees we can.
We also need to eliminate, where possible, the drones that are not British black drones or, at least, not British black enough. Here, you can kill two birds with one stone.
Take a look at your bees and if there is a stock which is
If this is ethnic cleansing, I stand convicted.
In the next diary, I will try to tell you how to identify foreign bees.
Best of luck with the Oxalic acid.
Click on RSS
08/01/12 11:24
WHAT IS AN RSS FEED?
You have probably seen the logo on this website (This is what it looks like) but hesitated to click on it.
RSS is a bit like JCB, we have all seen the letters and perhaps have an idea what they are but how many of us know what the initials stand for.
Well, RSS can stand for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary according to where you look. RSS is useful if you would like to be informed when something on a website changes, you can then go and look at those changes on the site or have it automatically displayed in your browser.
It can be most useful for blogs or diary pages such as Bill’s Diary on this site. The changes can also be picked up and read on some of the new mobile smart phones as well as on your computer.
So, how do you use an RSS feed? All of the common browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc. have this capability built into them.
The simplest way is to click on the logo on the website. You will normally be asked at this point how you want to read the feed, this is usually by using your normal browser and you get something like this:
feed://www.blackbees.co.uk/files/feed.xml
at the top of your web browser.
Bookmark it and from then on if you select this bookmark you can see the latest changes.
EMAIL
You can also set RSS so that it sends you an email notifying you of any changes. the way you do this varies according to which email programme you use, so I’m afraid it’s over to you for that one.
You have probably seen the logo on this website (This is what it looks like) but hesitated to click on it.
RSS is a bit like JCB, we have all seen the letters and perhaps have an idea what they are but how many of us know what the initials stand for.
Well, RSS can stand for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary according to where you look. RSS is useful if you would like to be informed when something on a website changes, you can then go and look at those changes on the site or have it automatically displayed in your browser.
It can be most useful for blogs or diary pages such as Bill’s Diary on this site. The changes can also be picked up and read on some of the new mobile smart phones as well as on your computer.
So, how do you use an RSS feed? All of the common browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari etc. have this capability built into them.
The simplest way is to click on the logo on the website. You will normally be asked at this point how you want to read the feed, this is usually by using your normal browser and you get something like this:
feed://www.blackbees.co.uk/files/feed.xml
at the top of your web browser.
Bookmark it and from then on if you select this bookmark you can see the latest changes.
You can also set RSS so that it sends you an email notifying you of any changes. the way you do this varies according to which email programme you use, so I’m afraid it’s over to you for that one.
Orchard Cottage
17/12/11 11:21
A STORY FOR CHRISTMAS
There had been a few nods and winks when Harold had moved in with Brian at
Orchard Cottage, forty-odd years ago. Now it was simply accepted - nothing strange about two men living together. For most of the people in the nearbvillage it was assumed, quite wrongly, that they were gay.
In the early days there was speculation that they might be brothers and although they were both tall and as thin as rakes, “Like two yards of pump ‘watter’” as the landlord at the Nags Head described them, the idea was dismissed by the women of the village. Vera Hardcastle at the grocers shop summed it up by saying “Unless their mother has been up to no good, I can’t see her having a blue eyed blond one with a face like the back end of our bulldog and a black haired one with a nose like Charlie Bergerac, or whatever his name was”.
However, the two men kept themselves to themselves, only visiting the village to use the shops and to sell their honey to Vera. They hardly spoke and didn’t get involved in the village gossip. The veiled questions they were asked in the early days were responded to with polite but noncommittal answers.
People had long since stopped walking by the cottage to see what they were up to. Nothing seemed to be ‘Going on’ and as far as anyone could see, they spent most of their time tending what could only be described as a small holding. Tidy vegetable patches, a well cared for orchard and the bees. These were in an area at the back of the orchard and consisted of twenty or thirty hives.
Occasionally the two men could be seen tending the hives but they never wore the white bee suits and veils that other beekeepers used almost as a badge of office. A beekeeper from over Westbury way once called on them when they were working at the hives. He called out to them from the gate and they left what they were doing and came over to him. He was expecting to be invited in to look at the apiary and spend an hour or so talking bees. Harold and Brian were quite friendly, or at least polite, but didn’t invite the beekeeper in, explaining that the bees were a bit lively this morning and were better left alone. After a few minutes desultory conversation the beekeeper left and the two of them returned to the bees.
Had the beekeeper, or anyone else for that matter, been able to observe them for any length of time they would have seen two men working together in a quite normal manner but with something just a bit odd. They hardly ever spoke and both of them had the odd habit of tunelessly humming all the time.
Hive parts and various tools were passed between them without a word being spoken. They were surrounded by clouds of bees but they worked in their everyday clothes and the smoker, such an essential part of any beekeeper’s kit, was nowhere to be seen.
Even with so many hives, they never took more than a hundred pounds of honey in a year. The main concern was the care of the bees. Sugar was never used as a feed as the bees were always left with sufficient honey to see them through even the hardest Winter.
More and more over recent months they had to share the job of lifting a hive. Where they could easily have lifted the heaviest of hive single handed, they now turned, wordlessly, to one another and shared the heavy loads between them. They were both in their late seventies and Brian in particular was beginning to feel his age.
It was coming up to Christmas, Harold and Brian would pay little attention to the holiday and would spend the evening, as usual, sitting in the respective arm chairs, quietly humming and reading. On Christmas day they would go out to the bees, place a few crumbs of cake at the entrance to each hive. They would hum to themselves as they listened to the buzz of the bees. They firmly believed that the bees celebrated the Nativity by waking from their winter sleep and humming a song of praise to Christ. It is said that only those who have led a blameless life could hope to hear their song, the 100th psalm:
“Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
Know that the Lord is God...”
Perhaps Harold and Brian joined in the song with their humming.
This Christmas day was cold and Wintery, with a light covering of snow and Brian was obviously feeling the cold and returned to the house whilst Harold spent the next hour or so making sure the hives were secure and all was tidy.
He then went back to the house to make breakfast for Brian. He found him laid back in his chair with eyes closed. Harold realised that Brian was no longer humming. He touched his cold face and realised that his old friend had died.
Neither of them had ever showed emotions and Harold merely stood looking at his old friend for a few moments. He went out to the bees and touched each hive in turn as he hummed to himself, he felt it necessary to tell the bees of the passing of Brian.
He took a last look round, returned to the kitchen, sat in his own arm chair, closed his eyes and joined his friend.
There had been a few nods and winks when Harold had moved in with Brian at
In the early days there was speculation that they might be brothers and although they were both tall and as thin as rakes, “Like two yards of pump ‘watter’” as the landlord at the Nags Head described them, the idea was dismissed by the women of the village. Vera Hardcastle at the grocers shop summed it up by saying “Unless their mother has been up to no good, I can’t see her having a blue eyed blond one with a face like the back end of our bulldog and a black haired one with a nose like Charlie Bergerac, or whatever his name was”.
However, the two men kept themselves to themselves, only visiting the village to use the shops and to sell their honey to Vera. They hardly spoke and didn’t get involved in the village gossip. The veiled questions they were asked in the early days were responded to with polite but noncommittal answers.
People had long since stopped walking by the cottage to see what they were up to. Nothing seemed to be ‘Going on’ and as far as anyone could see, they spent most of their time tending what could only be described as a small holding. Tidy vegetable patches, a well cared for orchard and the bees. These were in an area at the back of the orchard and consisted of twenty or thirty hives.
Occasionally the two men could be seen tending the hives but they never wore the white bee suits and veils that other beekeepers used almost as a badge of office. A beekeeper from over Westbury way once called on them when they were working at the hives. He called out to them from the gate and they left what they were doing and came over to him. He was expecting to be invited in to look at the apiary and spend an hour or so talking bees. Harold and Brian were quite friendly, or at least polite, but didn’t invite the beekeeper in, explaining that the bees were a bit lively this morning and were better left alone. After a few minutes desultory conversation the beekeeper left and the two of them returned to the bees.
Had the beekeeper, or anyone else for that matter, been able to observe them for any length of time they would have seen two men working together in a quite normal manner but with something just a bit odd. They hardly ever spoke and both of them had the odd habit of tunelessly humming all the time.
Hive parts and various tools were passed between them without a word being spoken. They were surrounded by clouds of bees but they worked in their everyday clothes and the smoker, such an essential part of any beekeeper’s kit, was nowhere to be seen.
Even with so many hives, they never took more than a hundred pounds of honey in a year. The main concern was the care of the bees. Sugar was never used as a feed as the bees were always left with sufficient honey to see them through even the hardest Winter.
More and more over recent months they had to share the job of lifting a hive. Where they could easily have lifted the heaviest of hive single handed, they now turned, wordlessly, to one another and shared the heavy loads between them. They were both in their late seventies and Brian in particular was beginning to feel his age.
It was coming up to Christmas, Harold and Brian would pay little attention to the holiday and would spend the evening, as usual, sitting in the respective arm chairs, quietly humming and reading. On Christmas day they would go out to the bees, place a few crumbs of cake at the entrance to each hive. They would hum to themselves as they listened to the buzz of the bees. They firmly believed that the bees celebrated the Nativity by waking from their winter sleep and humming a song of praise to Christ. It is said that only those who have led a blameless life could hope to hear their song, the 100th psalm:
“Sing joyfully to the Lord, all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful song.
Know that the Lord is God...”
Perhaps Harold and Brian joined in the song with their humming.
This Christmas day was cold and Wintery, with a light covering of snow and Brian was obviously feeling the cold and returned to the house whilst Harold spent the next hour or so making sure the hives were secure and all was tidy.
He then went back to the house to make breakfast for Brian. He found him laid back in his chair with eyes closed. Harold realised that Brian was no longer humming. He touched his cold face and realised that his old friend had died.
Neither of them had ever showed emotions and Harold merely stood looking at his old friend for a few moments. He went out to the bees and touched each hive in turn as he hummed to himself, he felt it necessary to tell the bees of the passing of Brian.
He took a last look round, returned to the kitchen, sat in his own arm chair, closed his eyes and joined his friend.
Are you ready for Winter
13/12/11 09:18
ARE YOU READY FOR WINTER?
When I secure my bees for the winter I put an empty super bet
ween the brood box and the varroa floor. Why? Well, I decided to do this to allow the bees in the brood box room to cluster on the bottom of the brood frames. That is where they should be at the beginning of Winter, with lots of food stored above and around them.
They then work their way up through the food stores, eating it so they can feed the brood the queen starts to lay as Winter turns to Spring.
In spring time, about May, you will find the bees pushed up against the cover board around the feed hole, having used all the food to feed all the brood that is in the hive. It also keeps the brood away from the draughty holes in the varroa floor and the entrance
WINTERING
I have been on the internet again, this time looking at some research from Canada dealing with Wintering success. Bees kept in single brood boxes with single walls, kept out in the open all died out. Double brood boxes with single walls did better and double brood boxes fully insulated did best of all.
When given some shelter from the wind, single brood boxes with
single walls survived It was suggested that an empty brood box between the floor and the brood box could be as good as a shelter from the wind.
So it looks like I might have got it right all those years ago but not for the right reasons. As the saying goes “All’s well that ends well”.
DO YOU GRUNT WHEN YOU PICK THINGS UP?
There is still time to put an empty super under the brood box if you have the courage and you can get a bit of help to lift the hive and gently drop off the floor. Put the empty box in place and put all back together without the bees knowing any thing has happened. Mind you, if your hives are reasonably well sheltered it should be OK and you can avoid straining your back..
Happy Christmas and a honeyfull New Year
When I secure my bees for the winter I put an empty super bet
ween the brood box and the varroa floor. Why? Well, I decided to do this to allow the bees in the brood box room to cluster on the bottom of the brood frames. That is where they should be at the beginning of Winter, with lots of food stored above and around them.
They then work their way up through the food stores, eating it so they can feed the brood the queen starts to lay as Winter turns to Spring.
In spring time, about May, you will find the bees pushed up against the cover board around the feed hole, having used all the food to feed all the brood that is in the hive. It also keeps the brood away from the draughty holes in the varroa floor and the entrance
WINTERING
I have been on the internet again, this time looking at some research from Canada dealing with Wintering success. Bees kept in single brood boxes with single walls, kept out in the open all died out. Double brood boxes with single walls did better and double brood boxes fully insulated did best of all.
When given some shelter from the wind, single brood boxes with
single walls survived It was suggested that an empty brood box between the floor and the brood box could be as good as a shelter from the wind.
So it looks like I might have got it right all those years ago but not for the right reasons. As the saying goes “All’s well that ends well”.
DO YOU GRUNT WHEN YOU PICK THINGS UP?
There is still time to put an empty super under the brood box if you have the courage and you can get a bit of help to lift the hive and gently drop off the floor. Put the empty box in place and put all back together without the bees knowing any thing has happened. Mind you, if your hives are reasonably well sheltered it should be OK and you can avoid straining your back..
Happy Christmas and a honeyfull New Year
It's Warmer inside
04/12/11 10:10
IT’S WARMER INSIDE
I haven’t been up to the Apiary for a couple of days, instead I have
been sitting in front of the computer browsing round some of the beekeeping sites.
The first one I let on was a commercial site in Texas. As well as trying to sell me stuff (All priced in American Dollars) there was some fascinating reading on the various bee products. Honey, of course but also propolis, beeswax and bee pollen. http://www.texasdrone.com/propolis.htm
I suppose a lot of people would describe it as ‘Useless information” but it is another insight in to the fascinating world of the Honey bee.
PROPOLIS
The late Dave Cushman’s site (http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/propolis.html) is still on line and he talks abou
t propolis curtains at the hive entrance to keep everything very safe, no intruders. I was speaking to Ken Pickles at Adingham last week he has a hive just the same, the entrance blocked from end to end with just a lot of holes just sufficiently large for a bee to get through. This is the sort of thing black bees do, so I have made him promise some eggs from the stock next year.
Another beekeeping blog refers to Gin and propolis (Makes a change from Gin and tonic). They suggested it as a cold cure I leave it to you to decide http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?212576-We-have-been-using-Propolis
HONEY MAKES (YOU) SOME PEOPLE LIVE LONGER
Somewhere, in one of the Slavonic countries, there is a honey producing area where the population live much longer and stay fitter than most. It was suggested that their longevity was due to eating the residue honey after the cleaner stuff had been sold. Their honey contained bits of propolis, wax, pollen and other unmentionables. Which leads us on to comb honey. Although I’m not saying comb honey contains unmentionables, far from it, comb honey does take a lot of skill and effort on the beekeepers part to produce. It’s a bit chewy to my taste if eaten off the spoon but on hot toast or a buttered crumpet, something a bit special. Another blog http://www.honeybeesuite.com/how-to-eat-comb-honey/ Talks about nothing else.
LEGENDS AND FOLK TALES
Then there are the history and folklore sites. http://
paganwiccan.about.com/od/beltanemayday/p/BeeFolklore.htm has some interesting bits and pieces. And did you know how professor Dumbledore got his name? http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-dum1.htm
A website at http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/war_bees.htm talks about bees in warfare. On the other hand http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/health-benefits-of-honey.html is all about the benefits of honey. It seems to suggest honey will cure everything. Does this mean if I start eating honey I will live forever? Perish the thought!
CHEERS !
Then there is http://www.meadmadecomplicated.org/ which will tell you more about 
mead than you probably want to know. Or take a look at http://www.honeyrecipes.org.uk/ which is full of all kinds of recipes using honey.
There is some fascinating information about beekeeping out there on the web but the number of sites and pages is enormous. I entered honey bee in Google and it came up with about 25,900,000 results. Just entering honey gave 420 million results but I think ‘Honey’ might also refer to areas other than beekeeping !.
Incidentally, it gave me that information in 0.10 seconds - I wonder how they do that?
If you have found an unusual site or one that contains something a bit different, why not add the link in a comment.
I haven’t been up to the Apiary for a couple of days, instead I have
The first one I let on was a commercial site in Texas. As well as trying to sell me stuff (All priced in American Dollars) there was some fascinating reading on the various bee products. Honey, of course but also propolis, beeswax and bee pollen. http://www.texasdrone.com/propolis.htm
I suppose a lot of people would describe it as ‘Useless information” but it is another insight in to the fascinating world of the Honey bee.
PROPOLIS
The late Dave Cushman’s site (http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman/propolis.html) is still on line and he talks abou
Another beekeeping blog refers to Gin and propolis (Makes a change from Gin and tonic). They suggested it as a cold cure I leave it to you to decide http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?212576-We-have-been-using-Propolis
HONEY MAKES (YOU) SOME PEOPLE LIVE LONGER
LEGENDS AND FOLK TALES
Then there are the history and folklore sites. http://
A website at http://www.beekeeping.com/articles/us/war_bees.htm talks about bees in warfare. On the other hand http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/health-benefits-of-honey.html is all about the benefits of honey. It seems to suggest honey will cure everything. Does this mean if I start eating honey I will live forever? Perish the thought!
CHEERS !
There is some fascinating information about beekeeping out there on the web but the number of sites and pages is enormous. I entered honey bee in Google and it came up with about 25,900,000 results. Just entering honey gave 420 million results but I think ‘Honey’ might also refer to areas other than beekeeping !.
Incidentally, it gave me that information in 0.10 seconds - I wonder how they do that?
If you have found an unusual site or one that contains something a bit different, why not add the link in a comment.
From Arthur's Diary
22/11/11 17:02
A SNIPPET FROM ARTHUR’S DIARY
I know, I know - it’s supposed to be Bill’s diary but I saw this today (November 22nd) and thought it might interest some of you.
The three photographs were taken on the West coast of Scotland. It’s a remote part of the Highlands with a narrow road with passing places.
The first picture shows the house in relation to the wind swept sea loch. The black arrow is pointing to three beehives.
The second shots is a bit closer and you can see the hives are protected from the West wind by a mixed copse of birch and oak. Behind and to the North is a range of low, wooded
hills but there is nothing to protect them from the South and East winds and they really can blow.
I’m told by local beekeepers that they have never suffered from Varroa but they do suffer from wind (If you’ll forgive the expression). It must be quite a concern for, as you can see from the last picture, it really is a case of battening down the hatches.
I know, I know - it’s supposed to be Bill’s diary but I saw this today (November 22nd) and thought it might interest some of you.
The first picture shows the house in relation to the wind swept sea loch. The black arrow is pointing to three beehives.
The second shots is a bit closer and you can see the hives are protected from the West wind by a mixed copse of birch and oak. Behind and to the North is a range of low, wooded
I’m told by local beekeepers that they have never suffered from Varroa but they do suffer from wind (If you’ll forgive the expression). It must be quite a concern for, as you can see from the last picture, it really is a case of battening down the hatches.
PS This is a couple of days later, it may not look rough but it is a sea loch, well inland and it was blowing a ‘Hooley’. The hives are still secure but the ropes and rocks were certainly needed.
