Something in the Super!

Although it was late - around 7pm - I thought "let's do it then, old girl" and went off to suit up and battle with That Blasted Smoker. It's been bang on 10 days since my last inspection, and I felt a twinge of trepidation. That made me double up on the gloves and I'm glad I did.

And yet today everything went well. That Blasted Smoker behaved itself immaculately; no trouble at all with lighting it, and it lasted perfectly right through the inspection and died right at the appropriate time. The bees had been busy all day, but seemed quiet as I approached. Smoked the hive, popped the top and crownboard off and peered into the Super.

Awwww, thought I, still empty. I pulled frame 6 out and lo and behold! A little foundation has begun to appear. I had not smeared anything into the frames, like sugar water, to attract the lasses to start working in the super, and I'm glad I didn't now. As I've progressed along through the summer, I'm more and more inclined to be less interfering and simply ease along together with the bees - letting them get on with the job. So the honey harvest from the Super will indeed be a very little, but that's perfectly ok with me. (The only problem now is how to feed the masses - all my mates who've asked for honey! They're just going to have to come and share my one slice of honeyed toast, aren't they!?)

I popped the Super off and went through the Brood Box. Frame 1 is still completely empty and unworked. It's the one closest to the entrance, which surprises me. Frame 2 has some foundation on it, and Frames 3 to 11 are absolutely loaded. I could see tons of honey and pollen. I could see lots and lots of capped brood. I saw lots of fat juicy white larvae. And I saw lots of little white rice grains - brand new eggs. So the Queen is still actively laying; present, safe and busy. I never saw Her, but I know She's there.

All through this brief, smooth, calm inspection the bees buzzed and hummed around me; some stung me (I felt nothing through the double-gloves, although I found at least two stings afterwards. One stung me on my legging - I felt the heat of the sting, but no after effects). But at no stage did they feel as grumpy and peeved as they have seemed the last two visits. The only twinge of nervousness came when my nose brushed against the veil, and I felt a little exposed. This time I walked calmly into the light with each frame and was able to see absolutely clearly, with the evening light shining onto the foundation in front of me - a good idea from Ron and Mary.

The garden is looking chaotic, with the lawn covered in clover flowers, everything wildly overgrown, but the flowers are everywhere. Even my blasted hydrangea has finally flowered - four years of effort on that dang thing.

And our front porch has become a jungly greenhouse, where two of Guy's tomato plants have fruit. As yet, no chilli - Don and Tam are way ahead of us on that one!

Guy's bought a bicycle and has headed off to Tesco. I'm envious! This has been a great summer so far ...

Captain's Log - Star Date 15.07.2009 18:08

I continue to go where no Bekkering has been before. Perhaps not quite so boldly as when I first started, but our journey continues, and it continues to present me with mystifying and wondrous sights.

To summarise today's expedition:

Objective: to ensure the Queen continues to have enough room to keep laying.

Hidden Agenda: I wonder if the ladies have started drawing foundation and storing any honey in the super!?

Having wrestled with That Blasted Smoker again, and pitched 3,000 matches all over the garden for good measure, I bravely ventured down to the bottom of the garden in my bee suit once more. I find myself filled with a mixture of emotions this time, and strangely a reluctance to keep disturbing my little friends in their home. I am also, I ruefully admit to myself, a little scared. I hate myself for my fear, and use this anger to steam up That Blasted Smoker and make sure the hive is smoked thoroughly.

I pop off the roof, crownboard and super. It's empty - my heart drops a bit. I find about a hundred bees sat firmly on the Queen Excluder. They do not take well to me brushing them off as I remove the Excluder. I hear the ominous rising hum with a bit of an inward quiver. Coward, I think to myself, get on with it, you twerp!

I'll describe what I see in the brood box, frame by frame. I call the frame closest to the Entrance - Frame 1, sides A and B.

Frame 1, sides A and B: completely empty. One or two bees, no foundation, no action whatsoever.

Frames 2 - 9, sides A and B: humming and chock-solid with bees. Classic pattern of honey round the top third, capped brood all over the rest of the frame - full to the brimming. Some fat white larvae to be seen, some rice-grain eggs but not as many as I expected. But lots and lots and lots of capped brood. Some of the cells that appear to have rice-grains in them are black, which seems strange to me. Also in one of them, I think I see two rice grains. Sign of a missing Queen; worker bees attempting to lay? But I am loathe to assume the worst this time - I'm aware of the mystery of all the things I am seeing.

I see no sign of the Queen at all, but I do see two or three Queen cells being constructed - am I imagining it or are the ladies crawling all over these in layers thick enough to appear to be hiding these from me!?

Frame 10, Side A: all honey. No brood, nothing but honey from top to bottom, side to side.

Frame 10, Side B: foundation being pulled in the centre, with some honey. No brood yet.

Frame 11, Side A: ditto

Frame 11, Side B: a couple of bees appear to be starting to pull a little foundation.

No honey on the Super frames. I read somewhere that the bees sometimes need a little incentive to start working in the Super; like a smear of honey on one of the frames. I'm aware I haven't been focusing a lot on learning, reading, researching my bee venture, so inwardly I make a commitment to read up on this.

Halfway through my Inspection, That Blasted Smoker dies on me. So too does my phone camera (my other camera is in for repairs; don't tell Guy but I ended up stepping on it by mistake during my last Bee Inspection. Oops! However, he is so lovely, he arranged to send it off for repairs as it's still under warranty - what a honey xx). So I have to stump off down the garden to the Halfway Station and re-light That Blasted Smoker, which proceeds to smoke up the hive, the garden and the laundry for at least the next hour. Foul thing!

During my Inspection, I felt distinct pangs of fear and nerves going through the frames. Those stings have been a bit of a hard lesson, what what. I have been wearing much tougher gloves, but every now and then I felt my face brush the front of my veil and felt completely exposed and scared about being stung. I hate my own fear! The ladies definitely stung my gloves this time; I could feel my little finger feeling warm but not sore, and it was intriguing to go and sit down at the Halfway Station across the garden and look at my gloves, pulling out the stings that had been left in them and inspecting the venom pumping system on the sting up close.

I was relieved to close up the hive; I placed the Queen Excluder on upside-down to how it had previously been placed and could feel where the propolis left on it bumped along, misaligned. I should have flipped it over, but wanted to close up quickly so left it as it was. Super back on, and crownboard and roof back on too. This time I made sure to gently bump any bees off, to try and avoid crushing them.

This time the bees were also not as charming and accommodating as they were in the early days; I just feel so klutzy and interfering; I feel tempted to allow them to manage more by themselves. As bees have done, after all, successfully for thousands of years without some kak-handed StarTrekkie like myself ...

Captain's Log - Out.

Bee Day out

I spent Sunday morning at Woodcroft Wildspace, where the Beekeeper Association that I belong to is involved in developing a new apiary. These are the things I love about Londoners; that they love wild spaces so much, they volunteer their personal time to help turn any small abandoned space in London back into "wild space", and that they love to get out into the green spaces (like me), where you can lie back in meadow grass and look up at the cloud shapes in the sky, or walk through wild paths where tennis courts have been reclaimed by nature, to go blackberry-picking or bird-watching.

It was so lovely to see a wild meadow with children running through waist-high grasses, and to see Fred herding a group of children in a delightfully chaotic version of the bottom-waggling bee-dance ...

In the meantime, back at home, I've kept a careful distance, keeping my well-stung nose out of the Bee Hive busy-ness. I've been dropping in to take a look at their activities every morning and evening and noticed that, after a couple of weeks of no pollen, the bees appear to be stuffing their little baskets full again. So we are all gathering clean, empty glass pots - ever hopeful of a small honey harvest this summer.

I will check the hive again on Wednesday evening - the day before I start my new job. I hope there's honey in the super! M and R have also suggested I keep a jar aside to submit in the Novice section of the Enfield Association's Honey Show.

Those of you who know me well must be loving this; me - the one who never liked the domestic arts - cooking, cleaning, gardening. The one who liked to travel; drift around the world, never settling, new adventures on every horizon, always preferring the life of the unconventional Bohemian.

Welcome to my new Bohemia :)

Possible new winner of A Darwin Award*

I have been forced to tell this story. I really didn't want this to get out. It's so very undignified. Really, it wasn't my fault.

After all, how was I to know that my prolonged inspection of the morning would piss the lasses off quite so badly?! How was I to know that thunder lurking about in the background would make the ladies even more peeved on top of that!? And honestly, how was I to know that sticking my face up so close the mouseguard would precipitate so much disaster and misfortune!?!?

What turned out to be the most swollen, lumpy afternoon of my life got even worse when I realised I was due to get new passport photos the next day.

Who knew that two small stings - one on my forehead, and one on the tip of my nose - would swell to such engorged proportions?! And why couldn't they have stung on my lips instead, so I could have bee-stung lips like Angelina Jolie's?! Or Mick Jagger ...

It's a relief, at least, to know that no one will ever recognise me from my passport photos. The only problem now is - will I ever be allowed to cross a border again, with that passport!?

* Darwin Awards