Reporting from the battle front

On Sunday afternoon I togged up once more to enter the fray. It seems sad that I'm still fighting an internal battle of nerves; I literally have to brace myself before doing a Hive Inspection these days. I had so hoped that, after all the upheavals in the life of Itchy Knee this summer, they would have settled down by now, and that the temper tantrums of the past 6 weeks would be only a phase. But it seems that is not to be.

Liberally layered in wellies, 2 pairs of jeans, long-sleeved shirt and bee suit, having taken a cold shower beforehand to try and cool myself in the 30 degree heat, I was already bathed in sweat by the time I approached the hive, smoker in hand. The minute I removed the roof and the top 2 Honey Supers, I knew I was in for a tough time. I cuold already sense from the high-pitched buzzing noise that the bees meant to take their defence to a whole new level of aggression. I was determined to persevere though.

Honey Super 2 on top was empty, but Honey Super 1 underneath was so heavy I could barely lift it. It is absolutely stuffed to the gills with honey - how wonderful!

Then I removed the Brood Super and began inspecting the Brood Box. I saw lots of capped brood and 5 - 9 day old larvae. I didn't inspect each frame in too much detail; just popped it out, checked for brood and no Queen Cells, and placed it back quickly. The bee agression was so bad I still had to walk away at stages. I didn't stop to inspect the Brood Super, which I should've done and which I'm kicking myself for now. Why? Because it means I'll be worrying about Queen Cells developing in there again. I hate worrying about stuff ... I have enough of that at work these days. Too bad; what's done is done.

When it came to placing the Queen Excluder and Honey Supers back; I stood back for a moment to think about things, before deciding to try an experiment. Honey Super 1 underneath - stuffed full of honey; Honey Super 2 not. Why not try swopping the order around and see if the girls start filling the empty No 2 if it's down below? I really don't want to harvest the full one now, separately. I'd much rather harvest both Supers, full, at the end of the summer.

So I placed Honey Super 2 above the QX, and full Honey Super 1 on top of everything (man, it's heavy, and it's standing now as tall as I am!).

I had to retreat to the safety of the other end of the garden just to de-robe for a second and wipe the lakes of sweat off my face - ye gods, it was hot! The Bee Followers were really bad too; they followed and followed and followed me for up to 20 minutes afterwards. Funnily enough, it's only me they follow - my housemates they leave completely alone. Do they know it's me?!

Then back into the fray to check on San-Shi. What an unbelievable difference. The bees were noticeably quieter, more polite, accessible, easy-going and an absolute pleasure to work with. They have capped brood and larvae, and honey stores growing on either end. They are building too much brace comb because I'm short a few frames in there, but I'll live with it until Sunday (more on that below*).

Now I have to conclude that Itchy Knee's problem is definitely Queen-related. San-Shi has the old Queen (old, how can she be old, she was only born last summer?!), and Itchy Knee the new - the One I've never seen. My heart sank as I retreated from the hives to take a breather. I'm going to have to re-Queen, I thought.

Let me take a moment to tell you about the bees of Buckfast Abbey. There is a long and honourable tradition of monks as beekeepers, and one of the greatest was a man called Brother Adam. He is a legend in the beekeeping community because of his years of experimenting with Queen-breeding to raise calm and docile bee colonies, hardy bees and good honey producers. I have heard one story of how Hive Inspections are done at the Abbey - if even one bee stings, the Queen is immediately removed and destroyed, and replaced with a new one.

How could a colony of angry bees NOT be cowed into submission with a brutal strategy like that?!

It seems so cruel, and unfair. But then, I'm in a confined space; I am working with bees, and I have unsuspecting neighbours. While bees can be beautiful, and magically intelligent and yes, calm, they are also a danger. They say that 200 stings is enough to kill someone. I'm not willing to expose my innocent neighbours to a risk like that. After all, I have enough to worry about!

So. Re-Queening it shall have to be. Now all I have to do is work out exactly how to do that.

I guess I have a couple of different options:

• I could buy a new Queen. I would then have to go through Itchy Knee, find the existing Queen, destroy her, and place the new Queen - in her travelling cage - into the hive to go through the usual introductory process with the colony.
• I could wait a few weeks, until the end of summer, and combine the two colonies. Again, I would have to go through Itchy Knee, find the Queen and destroy her. Then I'd remove the 2 Honey Supers for harvesting and place the San-Shi Brood Box on top of Itchy Knee's Brood-and-a-Half, separated by a sheet of newspaper, which would allow both colonies of bees time to chew through the paper to "get acquainted" with one another.

So many questions to ponder though; is it wise to do this with the "old" Queen? Should I be leaving this problem for so long - ie at least another 8 - 12 weeks?

Well, in some ways there is a gentle, natural innate knowledge that seems to flow with the rhythm of the season and the bees. My experiment with the Honey Supers is an example; there are things to try, ways to work, options to consider. This is a craft in which every beekeeper has at least 2 opinions, and everything is fluid. I know now that time moves more slowly in the business of beekeeping, so I have time to mull over the issue and find solutions to the problem; see them from every angle before rushing in and just doing things, knee-jerk fashion.

* On Sunday I'm on the Rota for helping out at the Bee Hut monthly Trading Morning. I'm looking forward to it - a chance to chat to other Bee-Mad People; ask questions, buy some frames, be around bees.

And regardless of the war that's going on in my backyard, I do still like to be around bees!

Small steps

I checked in for an inspection on Monday and left 5 minutes later, humiliated and starting to panic. I don't know if it was the black shiny new trousers I was wearing (my wet weather hiking gear - yes I'm really starting to fear those stings on the thighs!) that got the ladies all riled up, but the minute I opened the hive, I had at least 50 bees hanging in front of my body. Complete intimidation, I tell you.

It's humbling, and hard. I've not done a full, proper hive inspection since the middle of May. I sent out agonised signals for help among the "beek" community, and people have been great - really supportive. It has also helped to read of others having similar experiences with grumpy, stingy bees.

I suspect the weather is playing a huge part; we have had a miserably poor start to the summer - the worst in all of the 5 years I've been here now. It has been getting progressively worse every year, and I can feel even my own mood altering; grumpy, miserable, aching for a decent spell of sunshine and warmth.

The bees must be feeling a thousand times worse ....

So on Thursday, I crept up to the hives again very, very quietly and spent only a few minutes at each one, but managed to achieve small constructive tasks. I cleared the entrance blocks off each hive and surreptitiously added a second honey super to Itchy Knee.

Amazingly, the bees were quiet. They almost ignored me. It felt wonderful.

Then, later on, off to do a practical lesson at the Apiary. I could not believe how placid the bees were. Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it quite so often - LOL!

Small steps, Margo, small steps ...

The Lady's not for hurrying

I'm on the brink of being overdue on the next Hive Inspection. The previous one, done the weekend before last, brought hugely relieving news:

Itchy Knee has a Queen!

Not only that, she is mated and laying; laying in beautifully ordered patterns across the frames. So all my mentors were right - wait, they said, wait, Margo. The Lady's not for hurrying.

Over the past few days it has been a pleasure to see the hives settle back into the calm routines of last summer; bees foraging peacefully, no more anger, no more following or intimidation. The garden is ours again.

I find myself loathe to disrupt their busy-ness with smoker and hive tool again; but part of me is suspicious of my motives - am I being fearful?

In a way, yes and no. No, it's not the stings I'm afraid of (well, not much, that is), it's more the fact that I've begun to hate working the configuration of the brood-and-a-half size hive. It's so clumsy and cumbersome; it takes ages to inspect 20 frames instead of the old 10. It feels awful to break the hive in half each time I want to inspect. And it all takes so long that it does nothing to improve the bees' temperament.

And also, the weather has been, well, sort of off. Not perfect. One day it's warm but threatening rain. Another day, it's sunny but just too windy. After the last 3 tortured inspections, and angry bees, I want to make sure the next one is good in every respect.

But if I wait much longer, events may overwhelm me.

I'm assuming they won't swarm again - Itchy Knee is reduced in size and San-Shi is too small. But the bees might be thinking otherwise. On the last inspection, Itchy Knee's Brood Super was skewed with honey - hugely heavy in the first 4 frames. I need to consider shifting things around in there. And on the last inspection, San-Shi looked suspiciously small. Why has it not grown faster? Surely, last summer, my first swarm grew much faster in the hive?!

Have bees been drifting back to the primary hive? I noticed one or two play cups in there; have I left it too late and they've been capped off, ready to swarm again? Surely they wouldn't? But then, of course, their Queen is last year's Itchy Knee queen; they might well decide to take off ...

What to do, what to do ....

The more I work with bees, the more I begin to see this progression of events as an extended game of chess played against - not many small minds - but against the Hive Mind of a Super-Organism. It's a strategic game of Cat and Mouse in which one is constantly trying to out-think and out-manoeuvre the other.

For the beekeeper, the strategy of the game-plan ties very tightly into a calendar of events and counting off days:

• What day did I inspect?
• How many days' growth is there in that Queen Cell?
• How many days before it gets capped off?
• How many days after that will they swarm?
• And how many days after that will the new Queen emerge?
• Then, how long will she take to mate and start laying?

Fraught, I tell you, it's fraught with tension!

I'm conscious too, of still having significant lessons to learn. While I may've missed the opportunity this summer to run an Artificial Swarming exercise (a strategic point in the game which anticipates the bees' urge to swarm and mimics the process in order to pre-empt it happening for real), I still have the opportunity to:

• Practice collecting a small package of bees in a box (a useful exercise in practicing the manipulation of individual bees, for sampling a colony for disease, and for preparing for my first beekeeping exam),
• Practice handling a drone (useful in developing sufficient skill to handle the Queen with bare hands, necessary when I decide to clip one of Her wings, or to mark Her).

Well, I plan to Inspect tonight or tomorrow. I must, I simply must, or I'll be letting things slide. And in my Inspection, these 2 exercises are planned self-imposed lessons to learn.

Wish me luck!

* * *

While I plan for this all-important Inspection, I've begun looking at other alternatives to the brood-and-a-half size hive - 14x12 is a deeper hive, more conducive to the bigger hives of modern-day beekeeping. Alternatively, I could simply "add on" to my existing hives by adding on a structure called an "eke" and then change over to 14x12 frames of foundation. Mulling these over ...

Also I am on the hunt in my local area for alternative sites for beehives. I don't want to subject my next-door neighbours to swarms every year! It will be Murphy's Law, of course, that the bees will head to the apple tree next door, every time. In my search, I've uncovered the huge grounds of our nearby Cemetery and Memorial Gardens. (I've heard of beekeepers keeping their hives in graveyards and calling their harvests "Tombstone Honey" - how cool.) I've chatted to Horticultural Managers and Head Gardners - many of them, funnily enough - from South Africa. Sadly, people in these types of environments are just too concerned with Public Liability. And everyone knows too little about bees.

How do you tell people - it's ok, they're not Killer Bees! It's ok, the liability is not yours, it's mine and it's covered (actually - that's a point, is it really!? More investigation needed ...). It's ok, bees will sting people no matter where the bees live.

On top of all this, I'm reading. Reading and reading and reading. One brilliant book I'm immersed in right now is this one:

"The Buzz about Bees: Biology of a Superorganism" by Jurgen Tautz

And finally, it was a joy to travel out to the Apiary once more on Thursday evening to meet up with other beekeepers again. Each time, it's a moment to stop and evaluate your own progress, to catch up on the adventures of others, and to put it all in perspective and see it all for what it is.

Yes, some of it is magic and romantic and filled with the poetic celebration of nature. But a lot of it too, is getting grubby and practical and spending money and getting stung. And having fun.

No more hanging about now, let's get that Roof off and our heads in the Hive, folks!

Questions

Is she going to sting me?























Is she collecting water on her proboscis, or sticking her tongue out at me?























Is it my imagination, or does this bee have a little dent in her thorax?
















Is this a cool shot or what?!


















Is that a little pollen basket on her left back leg, filled with foxglove pollen?



















Could this possibly be the best shot of a bee I've ever taken?

(And are those little varroa mites tucked on her body just under the point of her wing?)

... and this is Honey Money

At this rate, it's only going to take about a hundred years to pay back the cost of the capital expenditure and break-even.

What is Honey?

This is honey.

Happy Anniversary!

I turned 49 today. Today is also my first anniversary as a beekeeper. Thankfully, Guy kept things in perspective by giving me a Bubble Gun as one of my gifts, and a card that read

"Brace yourself for another year of silliness"

Yes well. I think that says it all really, don't you?