NO LOCKDOWN FOR THE HONEYBEE

Well, there’s no such thing as “Lockdown” for the honeybees, and thank goodness for that I say. Just look at all the pollen this young lady has gathered and I can tell you that my bees have been extremely busy. I’ve just spun the first harvest from 3 of my 4 hives and I think I have about 601b’s and already they’re filling up the new supers with nectar… clever girls. We have fields full of Field Beans but a stones throw away, so provided it rains, there should be more to come. Meanwhile they will be taking down the residue of the spun supers which will keep them going through the June Gap, that and the storesI made sure they had in their brood boxes, but more about that later.

The bees really have been busy, as have I. I’ve been putting lockdown to good use and am delighted to announce that I’ve finished the sequel to Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees. It’s currently being read by a better beekeeper than I, to make sure I haven’t made any mistakes or mislead anyone in anyway and once that’s all sorted and Tegan has completed the images then it’s off to the Publishers and hopefully it will be launched in Spring 2021. So that’s something to look forward to. Only one more book to write to complete the Trilogy and I promise you it’s all there, in my head, just bursting to be put down on paper, but first things first, I mustn’t get ahead of myself in all the excitement. The second book is lovely and you’re going to enjoy it and learn so much more along the way… and that’s all I’m saying now until it’s published. Vamos a ver as they say in Mexico… I’ll leave you to google translate that.

I think I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to dig out a little camera I’d bought and use it to take some photographs of the honeybees. Well I’ve been doing just that and below are some of the results. I need a better lens as I’m unable to get in close enough and retain the quality I would like, but It’s a start and has definitely re-ignited my interest in photography which is a good thing because that too has kept me busy during this period of lockdown. I’ve been greatly inspired by a wonderful Dutch Beekeeper called Pim Lemmers. His photographs are extraordinary, so clear and beautiful. So, hopefully more and better images to come from me in the future. I’m not a nature photographer, I was a portrait photographer for over 25 years and people are very different to honeybees, I’m not sure, to be honest, which are the most compliant and that’s all I’m saying about that!

Click on images below to scroll through..

And so, as the first ease of the lockdown was announced, my neighbours son Henry, who is 13 and very nervous of wasps and bees, came to see the honeybees for the very first time. Suited and booted and, may I say, bravely putting his fears behind him, he came to my apiary. It was brilliant and he really did enjoy the experience… dare I say… in spite of being stung… yes you heard me… he was stung. Not his fault, not the bees fault, he had cycling gloves on, (see first image), and I hadn’t spotted the material they’re made of and the honeybee got her leg caught in said material. He was incredible, he didn’t panic or disolve he very gently just said, “Meriet, I’ve been stung.” I was so upset for him but he insisted he was fine and wanted to continue so I gave him a spare pair of my long gauntlet gloves to put on and he boldly joined me to complete the hive inspection. Now here’s the thing, obviously getting stung wasn’t great and it would have been better if it hadn’t happened BUT he now knows being stung isn’t the end of the world! Here are some pictures of him post “StingGate.”

The Chalfonts Beekeepers Club Apiary is run by a lovely lady called Celia. It’s a lot to take on by yourself, there are now eight hives there! So those that live nearby are on a rota to help her out. It was a lovely day when I went up and the honeybees were were having a field day. One of the hives was clearly over-crowded and in desperate need of some space. I went through the hive to check they weren’t thinking of swarming, i.e., looking for queen cells etc and when I’d spotted the queen was there I added a super. Below are a couple of images of the the hive before and after the super was added. The lady in the first picture is Celia herself and the last picture shows that the honeybees were in such urgent need of space they had cleared an area in amongst their stores for the queen to lay her eggs, and yes, there were eggs in there. Clever girls.

I love these images from my Sister, who lives in Yarpole, of Darcy and Rupert showing a keen interest in Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees. But I love even more the message above I received from her neighbour Janet, who, she won’t mind me telling you is 90. She had just read “Betsie” and immediately went round to my sister, who has a few spare copies, and bought another one to give to someone, she didn’t know who yet but she just wanted to make sure she had one to give away!

Finally, yesterday I took the Spring Harvest of honey from three of my hives. Now there are those who might think this is cruel. But it’s not. The bees make so much honey that they cannot possibly eat it all. The fact is, they are wild creatures who now, due to various diseases, pesticides, herbicides and climate change, can no longer live in the wild and so they live in hives. It’s in their DNA to make honey and build wax. It’s what they do. There never come’s a moment when they say “hey, you know what girls, we have more than enough to see us through the autumn and winter, let’s take the rest of the year off.” They’re not called workers for nothing you know! If we didn’t harvest the honey it would go hard and to waste and no-one wants that! They still have the summer flow to come so they will be able to make plenty more plus! And, just a note, an important note, no hobbyist beekeeper worth his salt would remove the honey from the hive without first checking they have sufficient stores in their brood box to get them through The June Gap. The June Gap being the time between the end of the Spring flow and the beginning of the Summer one. Below are a few pictures of the process of uncapping the honey and spinning it and the final picture is of all the wax cappings, which, together with the spun frames, is returned to the bees to clean up. There will be more pictures to come of the cleaned frames and wax in a couple of days and you will be amazed to see what a good job they make of it all!

And so it is, I always like to end my blogs on an upbeat note, as if beekeeping isn’t upbeat enough! I treated myself to these rather gorgeous trainers, I hope they make you smile as much as they do me.. . See you next month!