HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A slightly belated Happy New Year to one and all!

Well, if I have one New Years Resolution, it is to never allow 4 months go in-between blogs. I was horrified to see the last time I wrote was in August. Huge shame on me. It will not happen again and that’s a promise.

So, go and make a cup of tea or pour yourself a drink, settle down and read. on. It’s going to be a long one!

As we all know 2020 was a difficult year and the firtst quarter of 2021 hasn’t got off to a great start with the new stream of Covid and inevitable lockdown that we are all in. It’s certainly affected me, as it has so many of us, in many ways. My husband decided it was time for him to retire and so, in order to capitalise on all his hard work, we decided to move further up the country. I’m from SE England and we now live in the Midlands. The beautiful County of Herefordshire, to be precise, where a drive to the local shops takes you past endless undulating hillsides… bliss. I have a wonderful new office in the garden, from where I’m writing this blog with endless views over farmland. Boom!

We moved in October, but the honeybees moved about a month before us, mid September. The weather was still very good, which didn’t work out to my advantage. By that I mean, waiting for the flying bees to be in took quite some time, I was working with a head torch on in the end trying to get them sealed up before their long journey the following morning!

My dear friend and fellow beekeeper, Keith Patton, duly arrived, with his pick up truck, (handy having a builder as a friend when you want to move honeybees!), and as we went to pick up the first hive - to my/our amazement - what seemed like an entire hive had formed in a cluster underneath the floor and they weren’t overly chuffed with being disturbed! I checked the other three hives and the same had happened on one of the other ones. Disaster, the trip had to be abandoned and put in the diary for the following day. I subsequently discovered, upon investigation, that two of the floors had a teeny-weeny gap in them that those canny little bees had managed to get out from but couldn’t get back in. Maybe not so sharp witted after all. Not to be deterred, I borrowed a couple of floors from another beekeeper, and another late night with said torch on my head, waiting for the flying bees to come home… all bees in the end were in and sealed up and Keith and I set off the following morning. I have to say I was very nervous about moving them, but Keith was great and we actually had a lovely day, stopping every hour to spray the bees with water to keep them nice and cool on their journey and it all went very smoothly. We unloaded them into my Sister and her Partners’ garden, (he too is a beekeeper), and opened up the hive and the girls duly came out to investigate their new surroundings. See the images below!

And so, back to Buckinghamshire sans honeybees. What a strange feeling that was, not having bees. First time in 10 years. I knew I’d left them in good hands and Chris, (my sister’s partner), would look after them so I could relax. Mission accomplished.

It was another three weeks before we arrived in Herefordshire and I was, again, united with my gorgeous girls. It didn’t take me long to get behind the hives and make sure they were still ok, which of course they were and indeed still are.

A few days after our arrival, there was a knock at my front door. Word had spread that I was looking for a permanent home for my bees and a lovely lady, who lives just down the road, welcomed me to the village and offered my bees a place in her garden. She too is a beekeeper, but finding beekeeping difficult and had been wanting another beekeeper to help her for quite some time and this seemed the perfect solution. Perfect solution? I should co-co. I went round the next morning and said a very definite “yes please” when I saw they would be in a wonderful apple and pear orchard, surrounded by farmland and sheep. Ok, I’d have to cross a stream to get to them, but hey, I like that. It gives beekeeping a whole new romantic feel. I know, I know, but you know how much I love honeybees!

It would be another two months before they could move. I had to wait for the temperature to really drop to ensure that the flying bees weren’t still venturing out of their hives. Why did I have to wait for the temperature to drop? Because…

During the warmer months there is a general rule, (not exactly set in stone), that you can only move a hive less than 3 feet or more than 3 miles.

Less than 3 feet. A honeybee navigates its way around by the recognition of landmarks and as they get nearer to their hives their sense of smell kicks in and they fly toward the odour of their own queen and colony and thus it’s this that directs them into the correct hive. Therefore, you can move a hive three feet or under. They will still be in the same area and a couple of feet won’t affect them.

Less than 3 miles. By moving a hive less than three miles they will leave their hives, recognise the landmarks and fly home to the original site and even though the hive will have moved they will recognise the scent of where it has been and stay there wondering where their queen has gone.

More than 3 miles. When a hive is moved more than three miles, it’s more than likely that the bees will not recognise the landscape around them and will re-orientate themselves to their new location.

As my bees were to be moved about 1/2 a mile I had to wait until the winter months, when the temperature would drop and the bees would no longer be out flying, thus ensuring that when the temperature begins to rise again towards the spring, they will have forgotten about the old location and re-establish themselves at their new Apiary!

And so it was the day dawned, when the local weather was set to be frosty over the next couple of weeks which made for perfect bee re-location. Together, with Chris we moved the hives to their new Apiary and joy of joys, it all went well. Three hives went down in the back of my car, (sealed up and strapped down of course!), and the bigger hive was duly taken down, by Chris, through the village, in a wheelbarrow!

And so it is, my faithful friends, thank you for sticking with me, now I can bring you up to date.

Last Saturday was the perfect day to visit my new Apiary and lift the lid off the hives and look to see if the bees still had enough fondant icing on top of their brood boxes to get them through the coming frosty, damp weeks. The fondant was put on just before Christmas. We put fondant on top of the crown board which sits on the brood box, just above the cluster of bees. To my mind it’s a “better safe than sorry” precaution. Sometimes they can have plenty of stores of their own but, maybe, by this time, the stores a bit further away from the cluster of bees and they’re too cold or lack the energy to go and get their stores, so if you put the fondant over the cluster they can easily get to it. Below is a video I made. It doesn’t show you everything as once inside the hive I had to work quickly so as (a), not to disturb the bees too much and most importantly (b), not let them get cold.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled to be here in Herefordshire. I will be even more thrilled when my children and grandchildren can come and visit and I can go back and see them. But for now, I will make do, like so many and cherish each Facetime I have with them!

Herefordshire is beautiful and the village I have moved to is positively delightful! The locals have been very welcoming, given the Covid restrictions, and my horse, Willow, has, like my honeybees, settled into her new home too! I have joined the Ludlow and District Beekeepers Association, who have also welcomed me and I’ve already attended a couple of really good Zoom Meetings. All is good.

I’ll leave you with an image of one of my girls, in the summer months feeling on top of the world. Let’s all look forward to those sunny days when, once more the bees will be flying and we’ll be with our loved ones.

See you next month!