[google1] So the time has come. I have been keeping bees for a while and peer pressure has stepped in. The talk around the local association is now about taking beekeeping qualifications. This apparently seperates off the beeminders and the beekeepers and obviously I want to be included in the cool group; the latter
Little huddles of soon to be beekeepers are in one corner of the apairy and the individuals that are left over just mill around looking a little lost. I have decided now is the time that I need to step up to the plate and join the real beekeepers and take a simple qualification and be accepted as “one of them”! Read the rest of this entry »
Okay, so they can cost anywhere from £40 for a days course or over a £100 for a 10 week course, but are beekeeping courses worth it?
As many of you who follow this blog know, I initially thought that beekeepers were a certain breed of people and I was a little unsure about joining the party. I felt I would suddenly put on a few inches around the waist, be forced to grow a beard, drink ale (or occasionly cider) and have to start morris dancing as another hobby. I was pleasently surprised by the course I attended in that none of the above was mandatory and so I attended with vigor. What did I learn? Read the rest of this entry »
When I first stated beekeeping I didn’t have a clue. I thought you simply put a beehive at the bottom of the garden andthen simply drained the honey out of the side every so often from one of those beer tap type systems. I presumed beekeepers dressed up for a little bit of fun making out it was more serious than it was and felt it was more like a secret club of white boiler suited, bearded, morris men liking men over 50. How wrong could I be and especially when you consider you actually have to feed bees. Read the rest of this entry »
Aside from recieving four stings in 24 hours the move was relatively painless. After a 5.30am start to make sure the bees were in place I got up to the allotment and was immediately cursing as I realised some of the bees were still surrounding the hive underneath the bit of tape I had left there last night after my panicked retreat.
I am the type of person that likes to bury their head in the sand and I feel I have been doing this recently. Frustratingly my bees had started to put a little bit of honey in the super but had not actually capped it.
This meant my simple aim of producing one jar of honey was getting more distant each week until I finally accepted that I probably wouldn’t get anything this year. I described it as the equivalent of running a marathon and falling over, breaking a leg, 10ft from the finish line. I know I should really be thinking about the bees well being but there was definitely an element of disappointment there and therefore a resultant head burying went on.
However…..I have had a week off from work, went away with the family and I am back with a cunning plan (similar to those that Baldrick used to conjur up if you are a Blackadder fan like me) Read the rest of this entry »
Tomorrow I will approach the hive with my normal trepidation about what I might find. Until yesterday however it has been all about whether I will find enough capped honey to make a single jar of the stuff – currently this is not looking likely and hence the trepidation. Tomorrow however I will be on the look out for something entirely different however and wholly unexpected; one of the bee diseases.
When I did my beekeeping course I was shocked at the level of detail diseases were given but have since grown to understand that this is an integral part of the process of keeping bees. Knowing how to look out for, protect and if necessary deal with diseases has become a very real part of life. In fact I would go so far as to say that disease is now thought of ahead of anything else now when it comes to looking after bees. It really has got that serious. Read the rest of this entry »
I am a very rich green colour today with a mixture of both envy and jealously. All the signs are that the honey flow has stopped and I stand around with bated breath hoping that my little ones are still out there flying around trying to get the last of the nectar to make honey. The last two weeks of hive inspections I have been willing them to just make me enough for a simple jar of honey and have been practically begging them on bended knees to get a move on.
Then three separate beekeepers make comments that make we feel like my bees were like 100metre runners trying to run a 400metre race. They got out of the blocks fast enough but have been fading ever since! Read the rest of this entry »
My pride is hurt. I thought I was doing okay with my new hobby and was getting on well with my bees and the possibility of extraction was creeping ever closer. Until today that is.
The day started so well until my new edition of “Beecraft” arrived in the mail. Essentially this is the “Official Journal of the British Beekeepers’ Association” and is actually quite interesting to read. Imagine my surprise however when my wife picked it up and started reading it this evening. Read the rest of this entry »
Its pretty horrible outside today after having three days of absolutely stunning weather. In a way it is quite nice as it means that firstly the garden gets watered for you and secondly it gives me a little bit of time to ponder things. With Sebastian put to bed I have time to reflect on what it is I have done this last week – as predicted it has been an exciting one. There is one problem however, I have no real memory of what it is exactly I have done with the bees. Now this isn’t as daft as it sounds. I know I went to get the bees exactly 8 days ago and that I messed up pretty bad in giving them the wrong sugar but aside from that I cannot remember exactly what I have done. I knew this would happen and so today I did some rather exciting….. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the lessons I was taught during my beekeeping course was to speak to your local beekeepers. At some point,
Bee
because of the fact that your bees will be flying up to 3 miles to collect food, there will be the inevitable mid air collisions, turf wars and bees getting jealous of each others queens being prettier than theirs. Perhaps, more seriously, speaking to local beekeepers is out of politeness, communication and support networks and also, what was said to be the most important, to know, locally, what bees are doing; are there any local diseases, what is the honey flow like and simply to avoid any surprises locally. Read the rest of this entry »
talk around the local association is now about taking beekeeping qualifications. This apparently seperates off the beeminders and the beekeepers and obviously I want to be included in the cool group; the latter
