Today has probably been the first chilly morning, the temperature is beginning to turn. However, it is dry and sunny, so a chance to gather in some of the nuts.
We have a small young nut orchard with cultivated varieties. Primarily, hazel nuts, but also walnuts and sweet chestnuts.
Before Mr & Mrs Squirrel take my hazel nuts, I thought I would get in there first and pick them.
The walnuts and chestnuts aren’t quite ready yet, so will leave them for another day.
This year, the bees seemed to have produced a large amounts of propolis, which has made working the hives quite difficult.
Bees use this to seal up small holes and gaps in the hive. Quite often the small gap between the frames are glued together making inspection a bit harder as the frames have to be unstuck and the propolis scrapped off.
Proplis is a product of bee saliva, wax and tree resins. It is meant to have anti-bacterial and fungal properties and can be found in the use of health and healing products.
This picture was taken on a warm day when the propolis was really sticky and flexible. When colder it can become quite brittle. The picture shows the propolis after I had scrapped it off the top of a frame. The frame was stuck to the crown board (a board that covers the top of the frames).
As we move toward the winter months, the hive is beginning to prepare for the colder weather. Having gathered their honey as winter food to keep them going until the first spring flowers, the winter bees are beginning to emerge.
If you look closely, you can see some bees just poking their heads out of their cell. They are removing the capping from the cell where the egg was laid and they have transformed into a bee. Once emerging they will join the rest of the colony.
These new bees are potentially the bees that will take the colony through the winter until early spring. Winter bees tend to live for 5 months, whereas the bees hatched out in spring and summer live for about 6 weeks!
As the season draws to a close, it gives me a chance to undertake some final checks on the colony and perform some house keeping.
Today was a chance to mark some of this year’s queens. The queen bee is larger than the workers, but is often difficult to find amongst all her daughters. Being able to easily see her speeds up the hive inspection.
Queens are colour coded depending on the year, this helps you remember their age. For 2019 the colour is green.
Yesterday afternoon one of our geese was killed by a local fox in Bickington.
This year we have now lost to foxes two ducks, a chicken and now a goose. We have not had loses like this for the last 7 years.
Fortunately, each time it has only been a single bird taken, and appears to be an opportunist always attacking in broad daylight in the afternoon. I suspect a young brazen fox, or a parent feeding cubs.
A warning to any other poultry keepers, or small pet owners in the Bickington or Fremington area, be vigilant!
I have a two acre field, I really want to turn into (revert to?) wildflower meadow. How do you do it? Can anyone help?
It seems really complicated and expensive.
Done the research over a few years and got the facts, just spent £40 on seed! (mixture of perennial and annual from Pictorial Meadows #PictorialMeadows) only does 10 square metres. 2 acres is equivalent to 8,000 square metres …… so at a price of £32,000 …. not really achievable????
A lot of money, but it needs to be done right, so hopefully this autumn we will get started. I then just need to work out how to do it affordably over the next 5 years ….. yes a 5 year project ….
#RHSGardensRosemoor have stared a wild flower meadow, and it is looking good. They are just down the road, if they are reading, perhaps someone could help out, after all we are members. I could pay in honey, vegetables or fruit ….. but I suppose that is coals to Newcastle???
Anyone any thoughts on how we can do this in an environmental way, for little cost, to achieve a native meadow.
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.
Today I collected my second swarm this week from the Bideford, North Devon.
A large swarm collected yesterday in a plum tree and was still present today, so I nipped along at 12:00 and picked it up.
It’s now located in my quarantine apiary, ready to be put in a hive tomorrow.
When collecting swarms, people, often ask me: “what happens next”?
I’ve decided to write about this swarm, so that anyone who is interested can track it’s progress. Check back to my website for updates: www.ChilcottsFarm.co.uk/news/ or follow the tag #BidefordHoneyBeeSwarm on Instagram.
I have just collected this nice little swarm of Honey Bees from a building site in Barnstaple.
I got a call from the Site Manager. The bees had been clustering underneath some scaffolding since yesterday. Conveniently located at ground level, I put them in a box and brought them back to our isolation apiary.
Remember, if you have a Honey Bee Swarm that needs collecting and the swarm is in the local area of Bickington or Fremington, contact me. My details are below, or go to my webpage: https://chilcottsfarm.co.uk/bees/local-swarm-collector/ to find out more and to check it is a Honey Bee Swarm.
Contact me if you have a Honey Bee Swarm that you need removing:
Telephone: 07403 311920
Or, email me using the form below:
If I am not available, or you need a Swarm Collector for another area, please go to the British Beekeepers website and put in your post code: https://www.bbka.org.uk/swarm This will provide a list of Honey Bee Swarm Collectors near to you.
If you have had a Honey Bee Swarm collected and wish to make a voluntary donation toward expenses, please complete the form below:
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.
