This year, in our garden (North Devon, UK), the New Zealand Flax’s have sent up some beautiful long flower spikes with small tubular flowers delicately displaying in reds and oranges.
The anthers protrude from the top of the tubular flower. Here the high protein orange coloured pollen can be collected by the bee.
But where the bees seem to spend mot of their time is climbing right into the flower to collect the nectar.
This little lady, is on a pebble at the waters edge taking a drink. You can see her little proboscis sticking out and taking up the water.
Bees not only need water to live, but also use it to rehydrate their honey.
The #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm, collected from Bideford in Devon, has settled into its new hive nicely.
With the poor weather, I have continued to feed the bees, which has enabled them to build comb quite rapidly.
I inspected the bees last Sunday to discover a whole frame (both sides) full of sealed brood (bee larvae) and a large Healthy Queen bee walking around. This is a very positive sign!
I often get asked “What does the Queen look like?”. In this picture, in the middle, you can see a Queen Bee that has just returned from a mating flight.
Surrounded by attentive workers, she will soon get slightly bigger to the extent that she is unable to fly. At her peak she could be laying in the region of 1,000 eggs a day!
The third installment of the #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm.
On day three of collecting the swarm from Bideford, the bees have bee put into a new hive, and are now being fed with sugar syrup. At this point I would typically medicate the bees against the Varoa mite, but haven’t had the chance to do this yet.
In the picture, you can see the bees coming up from the hive below into a feeder.
The feeder is essentially a dish with a lid, that I fill with sugar syrup. The feeder sits on top of the hive in a box that I cover with the roof, so its normally in the dark inside the hive.
The sugar syrup is 1 part sugar to 1 part water and is typically fed to the bees during spring and summer to encourage the queen to lay.
In this instance I have given it to the bees to encourage them to build out comb in the hive, but also at this time of year (May/June) there may not be too much forage (flowers) around for the bees as we are on the cusp of the summer flowers coming out.
The second part of #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm. A couple of days ago, I collected a swarm of honey bees from Bideford.
The small colony of bees collected from the plum tree have been put into a small hive (Nuc) and placed in the quarantine apiary. Here they will be treated for disease and on day 3 fed a light sugar syrup to help them build in size.
Currently I have placed the Nuc next to the hive where they will be housed.
The bees have started leaving the Nuc and familiarising themselves with the surrounding area. You can see this by their behavior. When the Nuc was first positioned and the bees let out, they would emerge from the Nuc and fly in ever increasing circles up into the sky.
This is to allow them to spot landmarks and orientate in relation to their new home.
The next step will be to feed and medicate the new colony.
The geese have finished laying for this year, so we no longer have goose eggs for sale. We have a broody goose sitting on the last eggs laid, so maybe some spring goslings? Hopefully more goose eggs available from late February next year.
We still have plenty of duck eggs for sale. Please knock if you want to buy.
The first swallows arrived at Chilcotts Farm on 21st April. Over the past week they have been busy searching out nesting sites in the out buildings repairing last year’s nests.
Its great to see them swooping around the beautiful blue sky.
