ONE DELIRIOUSLY HAPPY BEEKEEPER!

Thermal covers off, mouse guards removed, queen excluders and supers on and they’re ready for the spring blooms.

What a great start to the April blog! One of my photographs featured in March’s Bee Craft Magazine as “photo of the month.” Huzzah to that!

As you will have gathered over the months, all these blogs are about the preceding month. So, although this is being read by you in April, it’s all about what I have been up to in March.

Of course, every time the sun comes out, so do the honeybees and so do I with my camera. My ambition is to get a perfect picture of a honeybee in flight. I don’t think I’m far off! You can judge for yourselves as you can see the pictures further down the page. You know what they say, practice makes perfect and there’s nothing I like more than strolling around on a warm day, with my camera in hand seeking that perfect image or maybe there is…

…Being up at the apiary with my Camera!

Well, it’s finally been warm enough to go to the apiary and prepare the hives for the Spring we are now enjoying. I’ve removed the thermal covers from the hives, made the entrances bigger so they can fly in and out more easily without, most importantly, losing a lot of the pollen from their legs on the Mouse Guards as they go in.

So sad to see all that pollen go to waste, although I did spot a honeybee swoop down and take some for herself. She darted off so quickly I couldn’t see which direction she went in. Maybe she was taking it back into the hive or perhaps to one of the other hives. Who Knows. As long as it stays amongst the honeybees I guess that’s ok. See if you can spot her, in the short Video “Spring is here.” A clue… it’s very early on!

One of my hives had a super underneath. I’d left this on, but put it underneath the brood box, last summer because, if you remember, as we came to the end of the season, last year, one of the hives had so many bees in, once the supers had been removed to spin the honey, I couldn’t squash them all in to the brood box. So, after taking advice, from those with more experience of these things than me, I didn’t spin one of the supers, I just put it underneath the brood box. Of course, now the spring is here, I don’t want the queen to start laying in there so I had to go through the hive, find the queen and then put the super above the brood box, with a queen excluder in-between. I started to look for her in the brood box. This proved quite difficult because it’s full of young energetic honeybees darting this way and that. I couldn’t find her, so, I covered the brood box with a cloth and lifted it to one side and placed it carefully on top of the roof. I did this just in case I’d missed her and if she was in the brood box, by placing it on top of the lid she couldn’t escape! I then went through the super. There were only a few eggs in there, mostly stores so I was pretty sure she wasn’t there. But never assume anything, especially when dealing with honeybees. I carried on looking right to the last frame and there she was! I gently lifted the frame out and popped it in the brood box. Boom.. queen now where she belongs! I took the super off the hive floor, put the brood box back in place, put a queen excluder on top and the super on top of that, followed by a crown board and roof. As there were only a few eggs I figured the house bees would maybe look after them and when they’re born they’ll go down to find their queen. Fingers crossed. But I was so pleased to have found her and know she is safe. All of this without being stung. Good girls.

The other hives were far more straight forward. I removed the outer thermal covers. popped a queen excluder on each of the brood boxes followed by a super, crown board and roof. Job done. All ready now for the Spring blooms. (See video “One deliriously happy beekeeper!”).

This is the first time I’ve done this so early, but this is also the first time I’ve ever had so many bees. I was so surprised to see each hive was heaving with honeybees on every frame. In this case it’s best to get a super on top so they have somewhere to put their stores in order to give the queen more space to lay. With all this in mind, I’ve ordered four more supers in anticipation of lots of honey! Herefordshire obviously suits my bees.

Talking of ordering things, I‘ve also ordered a couple of brood boxes, frames and foundation as I will be doing Shook Swarms on all my hives. It’s actually quite harsh, but it’s extremely effective. So what is a Shook Swarm and why do we do them? A Shook Swarm is done to replace old/diseased comb with fresh comb, giving the honey bees a good start to their year and freeing the hives of any disease and, of course, the varroa mite. It should be done early in the year, on strong hives with wax producing bees, but you do need good weather guaranteed for at least a week, because the honeybees literally have to start from scratch.

Of course, I will video it for next months blog.

On the 4th March it was World Book Day, when children normally dress up as their favourite characters from their favourite books to go to school. Before Covid 19 I always spent the day at a school with Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees. Talking about the honeybees and seeing all the projects they’d been doing about honeybees before my arrival. I loved it. Here is Amelie on World Book Day this year and a picture of her when she was two! Clearly honeybees were always going to be a part of her life, once a honeybee always a honeybee!

I was also sent this gorgeous video, (“World Book Day”), of a young fan. What delights me is she’s only 4 and her Mum had been reading her a chapter every night and she loves it. Here is a message she sent me along with the video.

“We have just finished the book - she (and I) both enjoyed it so much - and learnt so much. She’s been telling her daddy about how all the important jobs done by bees are done by the females”

So, when I’m asked “what age is Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees aimed at?” I say “any age.” And of course you can buy a copy of my book by going to the menu bar at the top of the page and clicking on ‘shop book’

As promised at the start of this blog here are some pictures of my bees enjoying the fruits of the Pussy Willow tree in my garden. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoy taking them, after all, who doesn’t love looking at our incredible honeybees?

March 31st… a beautiful day… and a wonderful opportunity to do my “First Hive Inspection” - Enjoy the video and, if you have any questions, go to the menu bars at the top of the page and contact me through the ‘contact page.’

And so, as lockdown starts to ease, I wish you all a wonderful month ahead. Remember, lockdown or not, you can always go for a walk and when the sun shines and your passing the beautiful blossoms - spring so readily hands out to us - on the shrubs and trees - take a closer look…you’re bound to see bees!

And finally, before I leave you for another month, I thought I’d upload the video - “DANCING BEES” - I took of my girls. Because of the ever changing weather I went up to the apiary to check on them - as I’d removed their thermal covers and made the entrances to their hives a little larger - and this is what they had to say!