New Beginning

On the night of the 12th May last year I got my first bees from MrB who then accompanied me through the year. "Accompanied" actually means he did all the work while I looked on!

Not an easy year - got the bees after the main crop, then we had the dreadful cold wet early summer with floods, I ended up in hospital twice and had 4 months of daily wound dressings, the queen bee died, the hive was split in the hope that at least one would manage to activate a new queen Went in to winter with 3 colonies, two rather weak and indeed they didn't survive.

Going in to this year I was not prepared and should have done some winter reading to find out what tasks faced me at the most important time of the year - I hadn't done this practical bit last year. I think from the colonies point of view I did it right, from a beekeepers, got it wrong. Basically ended up with too many bees and not enough honey for harvesting!

The problem was my reliance on MrB who rightly expected me to take responsibility and the initiative.

This week on my visit to the beekeeping supply shop, I got the message. Choice was basically give up or do it 100%. I have gone for the 100% and although as I wrote a year ago, the honey side remains a nice-to-have spin off, I am still mainly motivated by the conservation idea. However I have learnt that you can't succesfully do the "conservation" without doing the honey, an effect caused by us humans messing around with nature. Although I can't get to grips with the idea of Vegans (vegetarians, yes) who won't even eat honey, perhaps they are right that it belongs to the bees; but we then also have to stop beekeeping and return to relying on wild bees to do the vital work, especially to Vegans, in ensuring our crops are pollinated.

Additionally I was spurred on by photos of my two grandchildren and Pooh sharing the tub of honey I sent last week to Ireland and which arrived on Wednesday. I think I now have most of the equipment I need to ensure their future supplies, but still waiting for some more hive boxes to be made. Seems many bee equipment selling businesses including online shops, do their very best to uphold the belief that apiarists are a bunch of retired, quirky, sleepy, time on their hands, relaxed, mañana people quite happy to wait weeks and weeks for a delivery. OK in all but one matter, they are right.

Today started to get prepared for the first honey harvest. I was horrified by the number of bees in the hive and amazed they hadn't yet swarmed. So as to avoid this, have now split the hive, a mix and match process. Swarming happens for lots of reasons but one is simply it's getting crowded and the queen takes off with much of her folk. When splitting the hive, one hopes the queen is alive in one box which is simultaneously deprived of much of its content and forces here to start laying eggs like mad and banish thoughts of building a new home - and in the other queenless hive, hope there are some queen cells with larvae activated by the worker bees.

Next 10 days or so crucial and especially that it is warm when/if the new queen emerges and takes off for her virgin flight. If she doesn't join the bee equivalent of the Mile High Club due to bad flying weather, the colony will almost certainly die - the weather-grounded queen being able to kill off any potential rivals but without the "act" only able to lay male (drone) eggs. Only chance of rescuing this is finding the queen bee at the right time and see she isn't laying any worker bee eggs, not an easy task, and killing her in the hope another potential queen is about to be born.

I hope I have got the splitting done right, I may have "overdone" it and I know that when MrB sees the Blip he will bang is head against the nearest wall.

Aim is to slow things down while I get up to speed - the bees to have some time to regroup and build up their numbers rather than produce honey for humans. Perhaps in 2015, if things go well, I will be looking at the availability on an industrial estate to set up my honey bottling plant. Time will tell and as MrB said last year - there is no "right" way to keep bees but the bee's well being is always the priority.

All this blurb ought to be on the bee journal but as it is an important part of my "life", it has to be recorded here.

I am eternally grateful to MrB for introducing me to the world of bees. It was his initiative that started the whole thing. It was Flash, Luna and MrB's dog Donna who caused the accidental meeting. Not only did it result in me having a new hobby but introduced Angie & myself to two wonderful people, Mr & Mrs B, and allowed us to have a friendship which will hopefully continue and grow stronger. I will do my very best to look after my girls and now take full responsibility for them (but it's good to know MrB is only five minutes away!)