Until they think warm days will never cease.

HONEYBEE ON IVY

FEED THE BEES

I love the seasons. Having lived in Mexico for a year, where the seasons are hard to distinguish, it makes you appreciate them all the more. Each season that comes upon us - I always think - as it begins - is my favourite, but in truth I love them all! And yet, it’s a bit of a sad one for me because I’m saying goodbye to my bees as they settle themselves down for the winter months.

Once the temperature outside the hive drops to around 57ºF, the worker bees begin to cluster in the hive and seal off the entrances to maintain heat. However, settling down for the winter has taken them longer than usual this year. The weather has remained quite warm for some time which means the queen has still been laying and the workers have still been out foraging. ( As Keates says in the first verse of his poem ‘To Autumn’ And still more, later flowers for the bees, Until they think warm days will never cease. Ahhh what more could one ask for? Keats and honeybees…). But of course, there’s very little for them to forage on - apart from Ivy. As a result they’re using up their energy and are very hungry when they return to their hives. I have been feeding them with fondant icing which they’ve been eating rather than storing. In fact, this week, you will see in the video below, they’re just beginning store the fondant… at last!

Normally I feed my bees on sugar syrup but this year I decided to try fondant because, to be honest, it’s less of a faff! With sugar syrup you have to check the hives more or less every day until they begin to slow down. With fondant you only need check them once a week! Because my bees aren’t in my garden it’s easier for me and makes no difference to the bees. Boom!

And so, my beautiful bees continue to eat the fondant. Below is a video of me checking their food supply prior to the arrival of Storm Babet. It’s quite a long video so make yourself a cup of tea! Normally I would have pictures to show you and explain the process in words, but at this time of year you don’t want to have the hive open any longer than is absolutely necessary. The bees keep the average temperature of their hive between 32ºC and 35ºC. So, you can imagine when the temperature outside is 16ºC or less - the drop in heat - when you take off the roof - is massive and gives the poor bees so much more work to do. So, no photos were taken.

TREATING FOR VARROA

My work up at the apiary has nearly come to an end. All that remains, when the bees finally stop taking down the fondant, is to remove the Apiguard treatment, Apiguard being a treatment we use to control the varroa mite population in honeybee colonies. It’s a slow release gel containing thymol derived from the plant thyme. Once that’s been removed I can put the insulating jackets, I use during the winter months, on the hives and the rest is down to keeping an eye on the weather and the hives and letting nature take it’s course.

WHAT IS THE VARROA MITE?

The greatest threat to honey bees isn’t much larger than a pinhead. The varroa mite is a blind, eight-legged parasite that can kill enough bees to doom an entire colony.

In the past hundred years or so it has become the most serious pest of Western honeybees across the globe, particularly for the European honey bee Apis mellifera which lacks natural defences to be able to deal with the mite by themselves.

It first came to this country in 1992 and scientists have been working hard to try to find a way of eradicating them.

In order to keep healthy and productive colonies, Varroa mites must be controlled. When the honey has been harvested, we begin Varroa treatment. There are various methods of doing this. I tend to alternate between Apigauard, which I’ve used this year and Apivar, so the bees don’t become immune to any one treatment.

It’s a horrible parasite and the sooner we can erase it from our colonies the better.

And so it is I’m coming to the end of this blog and after all that talk of varroa I’ll leave you with this gorgeous poem by John Keats which sums up Autumn beautifully and even mentions the honeybee… Enjoy.

John Keats - To Autumn -

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;

To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,

   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,

   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

   Steady thy laden head across a brook;

   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,

      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?

   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

   Among the river sallows, borne aloft

      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;

      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

ADDENDUM

If you’re wondering what you can plant for your bees in 2024 - I can thoroughly recommend this gorgeous book, by a friend of mine, Sarah Wyndham Lewis. It’s available from Amazon and all good book stores!

See you next month!