HELLO FROM THE HONEYBEES IN 2024!
LITTLE WORKER BEE BRAVING A DULL DAY IN JANUARY - WITH THE TEMPERATURE AT A MERE 10° - TO GATHER POLLEN FOR THE CLUSTER.
Well, it seems as if it’s been a long time since I’ve sat at my desk tapping away chatting to you about life up my apiary. I’ve missed my bees and the blog. So let’s go!
My last post was in October and of course beekeeping, per say, had slowed down considerably. The drones had gone and the workers were feasting on the last remains of ivy,. I had to keep feeding my hives until at least the end of November. I’ve never had to do that before. Normally, by the first week in October, if not earlie, I’m done. But not last year. It wasn’t good for my girls. The weather was so unpredictable; heavy rain for days followed by a day or two of sunshine. The bees hid from the rain, came out to forage in the sunshine then ate all the stores they had gathered while it rained again. The result? Definitely not enough honey for me to harvest and very little for themselves, hence feeding them for so long to make sure thay had enough to take through the winter months.
Fifty/sixty thousand bees per hive were slowly reduced in number to about 5000, all of whom would cluster around the queen keeping her warm and fed until Spring. These are the winter bees. They’re slightly larger than the summer ones. and live for several months. They are ‘holding the fort’ until the warmer days return and the queen starts to lay again. They will be tired but as soon as the temperature starts to rise, the winter workers will appear on the snow drops and crocus flowers, gathering the nectar and pollen for the new bees and then their job will be complete and they will die, leaving the next generation to take over. I think that’s what they call The Circle of Life…
The picture above shows a worker bee, who has gone out on a day when the temperature was just above 10° to forage for pollen. Bees don’t normally show their faces until the temperature reaches 13/14°. But the weather has been so crazy lately, even the spring flowers are confused and have been seen here in Herefordshire much earlier than normal. Are the bees beginning to adapt to climate change? They are going to have to in order to survive. You would think, having been on this planet for 100 million years it wouldn’t be that hard. But 100 million years ago, we weren’t here, polluting the air with burning fossil fuels, taking away their natural habitat to build new towns and houses, spraying our crops with an assortment of pesticides… shall I go on?
Climate Change is an important subject for us all but we do need the bees and all the other pollinators. They play such a vital role in the survival of our ecosystem. So we do have to look after them in order to look after ourselves. Here are some tips for how we all can help - taken from UNEP environment programme -
Plant nectar-bearing flowers such as marigolds or sunflowers for decorative purposes on balconies, terraces, and gardens
Buy honey and other hive products from your nearest local beekeeper
Raise awareness among children and adolescents on the importance of bees and express your support for beekeepers
Set up a pollinator farm on your balcony, terrace, or garden
Preserve old meadows, which feature a more diverse array of flowers, and sow nectar-bearing plants
Cut grass on meadows only after the nectar-bearing plants have finished blooming
Use pesticides that do not harm bees, and spray them in windless weather, either early in the morning or late at night, when bees withdraw from blossoms
Back to the bees. I have a new smoker. Yay! It was a birthday present from one of my sons and it’s one of those things I wished I’d just gone out and bought years ago. I now realise I have been battling to keep the old one alight, during hive inspections for too long, thinking all the time I was rubbish at keeping smokers alight I think I even did a video of my pathetic attempts to keep my smoker going. But it wasn’t me, it was an old smoker. But you know, we beekeepers like to hold on to things as long as we can. Re-purpose things etc but I think I’d hung on to mine too long as this one is a dream… ye-ha!
On the subject of Smokers. A lot of people think they are used to calm the bees down. Wrong! Quite the opposite. But, it is the nicest way to keep them occupied while you inspect their hives. As you all know, if a bee feels under attack she will defend *herself by stinging you. I put attack and defend in bold letters because, bees are not aggressive they are defensive. We don’t want to be stung because, for us, it’s a little painful and causes a swelling around the area that’s been stung and for people who are allergic to bee stings, the venom can trigger a more serious reaction to their immune system. However, for the honeybee, using her stinger is fatal. Unlike other species, the honeybees sting is barbed and gets stuck in your skin and when she flies off she leaves the sting behind, effectively disembowelling herself and so she dies. Obviously we don’t want this to happen… we are in this game to save the bees not kill them! So by us;ing a smoker it does two things.
When the bees get a whiff of smoke about their hive it affects their sense of smell. This means they can’t detect the “alarm pheromone” released when they sense an intruder or disturbance.. The alarm pheromone gathers the bees to the point of disturbance priming them to sting.
It tricks them into thinking there’s a forest fire and their colony could be in danger of burning. They gorge themselves on honey, which obviously takes their mind off what you’re doing in their hive, and that makes them more docile. Some say they get a little drunk on the honey!
*herself Only the female honeybees have a sting. The queen can sting but her sting isn’t barbed, therefore she can use it as many times as she wishes. She doesn’t use it to defend the hive but uses it to kill any other rival queens. The worker bees are female and they have the barbed sting and the male bee, drones, don’t have a sting.
So, this January I have been visiting my apiary on a regular basis, once a week, to keep an eye on things; are the entrances blocked up with dead bees, leaves, snow? How heavy are the hives? Are they taking down the fondant icing? Do they need more?.
There’s no need to go inside the hive. The least amount of disturbance the better and the quicker you work the better. Just removing the thermal outer casing causes the temperature to drop inside the hive and gives the bees more work to do at a time when they are probably running low on energy. I remove the roof, so when I heft the hive (a gentle lift to gage how heavy it is), loosen the strap and slide off he thermal casing, You can immediately see the fondant which has been placed on top of the crown board, and, of course, you can see if the bees are taking it down. Four out of my five hives are still quite heavy and one is very light and yet all five are taking the fondant down.
Why would they all be taking the fondant down, even when the hive seems heavy with stores? Sometimes, if it’s very cold, honeybees won’t leave their cluster to go and get food and they can, in spite of having plenty of stores, starve. I can see from the Varroa Board, which is a board that slides underneath the open mesh floor, where their droppings are. And, wherever there droppings are, above that, is where the cluster will be. I can then position the holes in the crown board above the cluster and place the fondant on top. Even if the bees aren’t taking it, I know I’ve done my best to ensure they have food there if required. (see the video below of my girls taking the fondant icing.
Below are the images I took of bees during my last check on their feed. They were alright, they didn’t need any fondant, but there were quite a few dead bees lying on the landing board at the entrances to the hives. The winter bees had obviously been doing their housework, or maybe some of the girls had taken themselves outside to die. They do that. When they know they are going to die, they go outside of the hive so they don’t take up valuable space. It always makes me sad when I see dead bees. Then I saw, on the landing board of one of the hives, a solitary bee lying at the entrance to her hive and I felt really sad. Lord knows, it’s nature but hey-ho that’s how I felt, so I picked her up and took the photo below. I wasn’t sure whether to put the image up but literally, just now as I was looking for a poem or saying to copy and paste at the end of this blog, as I am want to do, I found this lovely article. It touched my heart so deeply as every line is how I felt when I saw this little lady at the entrance to the hive. It’s beautifully written. I don’t know who by. If anyone knows, please hit the contact button at the top of this blog and let me know. They deserve a credit.
Winter Bee.
Somber as this post may be, I hope you can appreciate it for what it truly is. For all of her hard work and for me being her keeper, it’s important I honor her. I want to show my appreciation for a little life that left this earthly plain without anyone really taking notice.I found her on an autumn-touched maple leaf, just as she is here, curled up and looking at peace. Bees, don’t live very long, when compared to human lives-maybe that’s a blessing. I considered for a moment, while admiring her as she was, that she is a winter bee, and the sky is often a luxury for a winter bee. Unlike her spring, summer and autumn sisters, her time spent reaching the sky is limited mostly to short cleansing flights and undertaking duties. During rare occasions she can go farther from home when winter temperatures are just right. Temperatures that allow her to fly just far enough to make it back in time before the sun sinks and the cold begins to bite. Where she’s able to gather from elusive winter pollen sources or enjoy fresh water.
Her last flight was done with a different purpose, or so I’d like to think. I want to believe she died doing what she loved, knowing her time was coming to an end and rather than leaving her failing body to her undertaking sisters, she chose to fly. She dared to touch the sky. See the horizon, see the world as it was, always beautiful no matter what season Mother Earth wears. She knew she would never see the earth in full bloom, buzzing flower to flower under the warm rays of a mid-summer sun. No, that wasn’t to be her fate, nor is it the fate of many winter bees who don’t make it through to early spring. Some of her winter born sister will be lucky enough to see early spring. They’ll be there in the beginning to help forage for early spring nectar and pollen to signal to their queen it’s time to begin laying the next generation.
To have wings and not be able to fly as much as one would like, must be a heartache for a creature born to fly. So, she flew, she kissed the sky to say goodbye. Soaking it all in, she followed the sun, knowing full well the bitter breath of winter would end her. This little bee wouldn’t be a burden for her undertaking sisters to carry away- she spared them the energy and effort- a martyr in her own way. All the while, she enjoyed her final flight kissing the sky and chasing the setting sun, answering the warm whisper of the universe inviting her home- or so I’d like to bee-lieve