Bees

[Blackswanwood]

Has anyone else noticed a much reduced number of bees around this year?

We have deliberately planted plenty of bee friendly flowers over the last couple of years and usually around now lavender and cirsium would be covered in them but there are next to none.

 

[AJB Temple]

I've seen plenty of bumble bees like that in our garden, but honey bees have struggled with the late season and very wet weather.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

My wife keeps bees and it has been a very difficult season as they keep swarming, which in many cases will lead to them finishing themselves off. I think there are still quite a lot of bees about. My parents discovered a nest of bumble bees in their compost heap which is keeping their raspberries well pollinated.

 

[Woodbloke]

I cut down some rough old grass the other week, much of which contained dandelions. Within a few minutes of cutting, the place was alive with bees which homed in the said dandelions - Rob

 

[Mike G]

No, I'd say the opposite in fact. It's been a good year for bees in our garden. As an aside, an unfinished bit of boarding on the outside of my workshop has meant that I have a good sized and loud nest of small blackish bees right next to the door. The noise makes me keep checking to see that I haven't left something on inside!

 

[NickM]

I feel as though we've got lots of bumble bees around this year including some nests in the garden (one of which has been dug up by a badger).

My wife's hive of honey bees was going great guns but she has lost the queen (could have been a swarm, but she wonders if she might have died/been killed by the bees who want a new queen!) so is now trying to sort that out. Her current bees have a very nice temperament which has meant she has moved the hive back to the garden from a more remote location in a local farmer's field. Unfortunately they aren't very prolific in terms of honey production. A previous colony were very prolific but were vicious little blighters. If one latched onto you, there was no option but to go inside and the thing would be at the window trying to get in :shock: .

No wasps which is good. The odd hornet (not Asian) which I don't mind.

 

[AJB Temple]

We keep bees as well. 3 years in and still novices. There is far more to it than meets the eye (we did a course with the local bee club first). It has been very difficult this year and I ended up giving the bees extra sugar mix in the spring. We do it mainly as a conservation thing rather than to harvest lots of honey.

The frequent torrential rain and quite low temps is an issue this year. I have had to rebuild the top of the hive (National but with a pinched metal clad roof) to keep the inside dry, and have added insulation to help them keep the temperatures up. Swarming issues with us not a problem this year, as the hive is not overpopulated and the Queen is young (first year) from a fresh nuc and we got the nut rather late in the season. (Having lost a hive last winter).

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... she has lost the queen (could have been a swarm, but she wonders if she might have died/been killed by the bees who want a new queen!) so is now trying to sort that out.

If the queen was ageing and weakening the workers would have brought on another. Was the queen marked?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

The frequent torrential rain and quite low temps is an issue this year. I have had to rebuild the top of the hive (National but with a pinched metal clad roof) to keep the inside dry, and have added insulation to help them keep the temperatures up.

The old chap who started us off 40 years ago said for the Cornish climate there was no better hive than a WBC, they were more rain and wind proof than any others and better against extremes of heat and cold (not that we get the cold). They are more expensive to produce, which is mainly why they fell from favour. I took a hundred and twenty pounds off one hive in one year, and still left enough that I didn't have to feed them. I got a 3rd prize for comb honey at the Royal Cornwall Show - which is or at least was the fifth biggest honey show in the Country. The auctioneer who sold us the first colony was a beekeeper - he'd not taken that off one hive (he kept 30 - 40) in thirty five years. Then came the serious anaphylactic shock ...

 

[AJB Temple]

Does not sound good Phil...

The bee clubs push you down the National hives route and as a novice it seems wise to just go with the flow. Some commercial outfits use bigger ones I think. There seem to be quite a few polystyrene hives around our area (orchards and quite a bit of linseed and rape). They are susceptible to green woodpeckers though and we have them (woodpeckers) in our garden too.

I seem to recall Monty Don uses those horizontal hives with no supers et. They look like less fuss to me and easy to make.

If I had known that bee keeping is as involved as it is I doubt we would have started. The reality seems to be that you can't have just one hive, as you need to have capacity to deal with swarming. Then when you have two hives you still need a spare ....to deal with swarming and so it goes on and grows like Topsy. I just wanted a few bees.

 

[Woodster]

Is it possible to have a small hive that doesn’t require human intervention. Although I consume quite a lot of honey in tea and coffee I’m not interested in harvesting it. It might just be nice to have a few more Bees around?

 

[Dr.Al]

Is it possible to have a small hive that doesn’t require human intervention. Although I consume quite a lot of honey in tea and coffee I’m not interested in harvesting it. It might just be nice to have a few more Bees around?

If you're not interested in harvesting honey, have you thought about getting (or making) a load of "Bee Hotels"?

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-m ... hotel.html

They won't attract honey bees, but they'll give other bees somewhere to nest.

 

[Woodbloke]

Is it possible to have a small hive that doesn’t require human intervention. Although I consume quite a lot of honey in tea and coffee I’m not interested in harvesting it. It might just be nice to have a few more Bees around?

I’ve recently grown very, very fond of honey, but have stopped putting it my my coffee as it appears that once it’s subjected to heat at around 40deg C and over, it looses all it’s health giving benefits. ‘Raw’ unprocessed honey which hasn’t been fiddled with appears to be the healthiest option, but it ain’t cheap unlike most of them you buy in the supermarcardos.

The other day we had a wander round Stourhead and on the way back we stopped in the NT shop and I bought a jar of their raw, Lemon Zest honey. Didn’t last very long :shock:

Current favourite is this stuff from Holland Barrett: https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/shop/ ... lsrc=aw.ds

I have a spoonful just before I go ‘up the wooden hill’ as it appears that honey is turned into Melatonin by the liver (so Google informs me) which goes some way to trying to get a sound night’s kip. A little research also revealed that surprisingly, no organic honey can be produced in England (Scotland etc may be different) as the hives are too close to environments with pesticides and insecticides - Rob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

‘Raw’ unprocessed honey which hasn’t been fiddled with appears to be the healthiest option, but it ain’t cheap unlike most of them you buy in the supermarcardos.

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/r ... -900g.html

Good firm to buy from. Register for the mailshots and get the freebies on a certain spend - I've had the honey free on a £50 order, which I share with a friend. We alternate according to the freebies. Other nice honeys as well.

 

[Woodbloke]

‘Raw’ unprocessed honey which hasn’t been fiddled with appears to be the healthiest option, but it ain’t cheap unlike most of them you buy in the supermarcardos.

https://www.buywholefoodsonline.co.uk/r ... -900g.html

Good firm to buy from. Register for the mailshots and get the freebies on a certain spend - I've had the honey free on a £50 order, which I share with a friend. We alternate according to the freebies. Other nice honeys as well.

Ta, useful to know; looks like they have some nice stuff - Rob

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You realise when you have herbs and spices from them how old and stale a lot of supermarket stuff is. I use a lot of dried stuff for convenience - onions, onion powder, garlic flakes, leeks, mushrooms. sun dried tomatoes ...
if you have two email addresses, register both - sometimes the offers will be different.

 

[AJB Temple]

Thanks for the link. I think I will try their raw honey. (All of ours will sustain our bees this year through the winter - I hope).

 

[droogs]

i think a Layen's horizontal hive seems to be the best style to use. both in terms of beekepper ergonomics and also for the bees themselves. Never been a fan of the National design and Langstroth would be better than a national, if i had to.
The Layen's styles is much more suited to swarm management by you easily splitting the hive to create a second nest yourself. Very good channel about it here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-f3vMIA_USM&t=266s

 

[AJB Temple]

I replied to this and yet again it has disappeared. This site drives me crazy!

Long hive looks interesting and simple to manage and easy to make. Not sure how the bees gain entrance and remove debris. Not keen on allowing the bees to make comb without foundation as clearly he has an issue of inspecting the frames as the bees build all over the place.

In a later vid he loses the entire hive. Maybe it swarmed (not helped by failing to spot it through not removing frames?) and hive beetle and moth has ravaged the entire hive.

Intersting point about not using plastic foundation (I use wax, but it seems in the US a lot of it is contaminated with pesticide).

Very interesting videos. Thanks Droogs.

 

[Blackswanwood]

It looks like they are just late visiting us this year … they are here in abundance now…

 

[Lurker]

Is it possible to have a small hive that doesn’t require human intervention. Although I consume quite a lot of honey in tea and coffee I’m not interested in harvesting it. It might just be nice to have a few more Bees around?

If you're not interested in harvesting honey, have you thought about getting (or making) a load of "Bee Hotels"?

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-to-m ... hotel.html

They won't attract honey bees, but they'll give other bees somewhere to nest.

I keep meaning to make one or three.
Does drilling lots of holes in a bit of wood work ok?

I can easily reproduce one of the commercial ones that you see every where but assumed that they were to catch punters rather than ideal homes for bees