Buzzy Buzzy Busy

Well I have neglected my blog haven't I??
I am so sorry but it has been a little hectic to say the least!! My etsy shop is now doing well and I have lots of quotes and sales coming in, so I shouldn't complain.
I have also had a full page feature included in the North Wales Wedding guide which I am totally thrilled about, and hopefully this will bring in a few local sales.
http://www.northwalespublishing.co.uk/wedding-guide/

 

It seems funny that I can send all over the world USA, Canada, Sweden and Australia and many parts of England but get very few sales in my own local area. With a bit of publicity now and some contacts made this should be rectified soon. You wouldn't believe I work in marketing would you?

Anyway back to the bees which is not such good news!
Like many UK beekeepers who have reported losses in bees and the honey production down almost 50%,we have had a few disasters too. The awful summer we have experienced this year has had a disastrous effect on us we have lost 4 hives due to the new queens being unable to get out and mate resulting in the colonies dying out.

The other 8 hives are doing Ok and we managed to take a fair crop of honey from them, but had to leave enough to sustain them through the winter so the price at the gate has now gone up in order for me to reserve honey for the wedding favours.

We inspected the hives this weekend and have now supplemented their honey with syrup to ensure they make it through the winter but it looks like they have closed the hive down earlier this year so it is a bit hit and miss if they take the syrup down or not. Another inspection next week should let us know how they are fairing before we to stop activity until the Spring.

Happy Easter to all the bloggers out there, I hope you have a lovely relaxed weekend.

I don't think for one minute I will be relaxing but this weekend I really don't mind as the family are visiting, sons,daughters, partners and gorgeous grandchildren what more could I want!!

With the weather turning colder it is not a good idea to open up the bees this weekend so I will leave them alone and take a quick look as soon as it warms up again, just to check their stores of food in case they have exhausted them.

Happy Easter!!

Glorious March, Bees and Blossom

What a beautiful weekend it has been, glorious weather and so good for the bees who would believe it was still only March. I am happy to report that after inspecting our apiary all 12 hives have come through the winter.The bees are already extremely busy bringing in  the pollen and nectar from the dandelions, damson blossom and ribes from what  I can see in the garden.

 The opportunity today was to good to miss so I stopped my chores for half an hour in the garden watching the bees and managed to get some lovely photos.

http://www.photobox.co.uk/album/1195836298

Bees Butterflies & Blooms

Bees Butterflies & Blooms by Sarah Raven on
Have you watched it? you must!!

We need more people like Sarah to help the plight of the Honey Bee and get everyone doing their bit.

If you have missed it watch it on iplayer now and catch up BBChttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pw23


Do not underestimate what you can do to help, even if it is only one pot of insect friendly flowers on the patio it all helps our bees and insects.

Keep up the good work Sarah

Talk at the WI

Happy New Year to you all !

It has been a bit quiet on the bee front during the last few months as there has been little activity from the hives. This is only to be expected however, we did see a few venturing out just before Christmas when we had that mild snap of weather.

I was asked by my local Women's Institute to do a talk this year on my beekeeping experience and I was happy to say yes, thinking it would be sometime in the summer. As this was a newly formed WI they were struggling for speakers so they asked if I could do the talk in January.

January!! oh goodness me, could I really go through with it so soon !!

Unaccustomed as I am to speaking in public, I set about writing myself some notes on bees so that I had all the information to hand should anyone ask me a question, ( my greatest fear, being asked something I didn't know the answer to). However my daughter got to hear what I was doing and told me not to be so boring!!

People don't want to sit there and listen to you spouting out a lot of boring facts, give them a summary of how you got involved with bees, she said and then take it from there.

So with her advice ringing in my ears and a few props to show them , off I set to the meeting. Surprisingly I was not nervous at this point as I thought I wouldn't be needed until half time, I would get a nice cup of tea and then I could prepare myself.

It didn't quite happen like that and I was called upon to do my talk within 30 minutes of arriving, no time to get nervous I was on!

I wont bore you with the details, but I can tell you that I had re-read all my blogs and used these snippets to tell my story, almost in the same format and it went down extremely well. With questions coming at me from all angles, I felt very proud to have been able to answer them all, thank goodness for my cribbing before hand.

During our tea break, (well earned I think) I was congratulated by everyone and thanked for telling my story, even the regional representative, wanted to put my name forward on the circuit to do talks.

So who knows I may be doing it again sometime in the future!!

Beeswax from the cappings

I have read a few articles about using the capping's that were left behind after harvesting the honey, all agreed that you needed to make sure you get the last drop of honey out of them which we did,

 and the yield was 10lb, can you believe that?

Next they tell you to let the bees clean the capping's, so we put them out on a tray and in a bowlon the patio to see what would happen! It was like a swarm, the bees came from nowhere, the smell of the honey obviously was so strong that they came and found it. It took them just 2 days to take away every last drop of honey leaving me with what looked like shavings (the wax).

As I have never dealt with beeswax before I decided to have a go last night whilst Mel was out, the last thing I needed was his opinion or to be told I was doing it wrong!! I like to make mistakes on my own lol

With a large saucepan of water on the stove, and another pan to act as a double boiler on top I placed some of the shavings into the pan, slowly and surely they started to melt but instead of a nice clear wax that I should be getting, I had a lot of debris and some sludge in the mix,

 time to read about it again!! what was I doing wrong?

I soon realised that I should have washed the capping's first, to late now! so I continued on but added a mug full of water to the pan, apparently the wax separates easily in the water.

The liquid then needed straining to remove all the bits/sludge so I found an old jelly bag from my preserving days and strung it up so I could empty the hot liquid into it, placing a silicone tray below I pored it in slowly to avoid any splashes of wax.

Soon the wax/water mix started to drip out the bottom of the bag, leaving the gunk behind and as it cooled the wax hardened and the water separated. I was onto a winner!!! or so I thought.

I finished that whole batch and then took a look at my wax, it was clean no debris, so that had worked but something was still wrong, the wax was pliable not brittle so back to the text book I went.

I cold smell honey in the wax and that should all have been washed out, so I decided to re melt it all again in the double boiler and add more water in the hope that it would separate.

This time the colour of the wax was a lovely pale shade of yellow and the water that was left behind had the distinct honey smell I think it is now OK.

This morning I had another look at my handiwork and I am quite pleased the wax is hard and brittle and looks like it should with no smell of honey.

Next time though I will definitely wash it first, it would have made the process so much more easier and quicker. You live and learn don't you!!

Now, what to do with that lovely wax, candles, tea lights or polish??  any of them would make great Christmas presents, but what to choose....

The deed is done- golden nectar extracted

The rain didnt stop all this morning and heavy showers were forecasted for the afternoon

Do we do it or dont we?

Yes of course we did, we couldnt help ourselves it was so exciting!!

Mel and Gary went to check the hives and see how many supers we had, whilst I prepared the utility room for the extraction process. I had been warned it could be messy job.

If you have never extracted honey before then be warned it creates a wholly sticky mess everywhere, despite how careful and prepared you are!

I had all the work surfaces scrubbed clean, all the utensils and buckets sterilised and the extractor thouroughly cleaned, the floor was covered in cardboard and newspapers, plenty of cloths and hot water at the ready.

 All set to go!

The supers were brought in and stacked ready, the first frame was picked out ready to be uncapped to allow the honey to flow freely when placed in the extractor.

You need a steady hand and a jug of hot water to dip the knife in and a board over a container to place the frame on whilst you cut away the cappings. Tilt the fram forward so the cappings drop into the container as you cut them away. Normally this can be done in one sheet if the comb is evenly drawn out, if not it will take several goes to do it. Remove as much of the cappings as you can, but try not cut to far into the honeycomb. Have more than one container at the ready as we ended up needing three.

As the cappings are removed hand them to a helper to place them into the extractor, repaeat until the extractor is full.

Now slowly start it up and watch the honey start to spin out, hitting the sides and flowing down into a golden pool at the bottom.

Watch the bottom of the extractor as the honey slides down, dont let the honey pool in the bottom to much before opening the gate and filling your bucket.

 Dont forget to place the strainers on first though!

Next close the gate on the extractor and carry on with the rest of the frames until all done, meanwhile the bucket of collected honey now needs to go through a very fine mesh strainer to catch any missed or remaining tiny bits of pollen before being left in a settling tank to let all the bubbles rise to the top.

The extracting process is quite long depending on how much honey there is to extract but dont try and rush it or cut corners, instead give yourself plenty of time and have few cups of tea in between as you stop and admire the golden nectar flowing into the buckets.

We filled to buckets then ran out of containers to store it in so had to improvise and put it in saucepans, thank god for stockpans and preserve pans dont underestimate how much honey you may get and get caught out like us.

Next there were the cappings to deal with lots of honey in the bottom of the basins there too!! and the wax is to valuable to waste but thats another story.

The biggest job was the clean up after, but we managed in the end. Now it's time for a well earned glass of wine whilst I admire our very own honey

How much honey did we extract??

Would you like a jar?

Guess the amount correctly and I will send the person who guesses the nearest,

wins a jar of Melys Honey.

Royal Welsh Show 2011

We had a great day at the Royal Welsh Show, in Builth Wells yesterday, it is a few years since we have been and it has changed so much. The show is just growing and growing in size and stature, apparently it is one of the best shows in Europe.

I had gone down primarily to show my rabbits, but I also had another agenda! I wanted to have a look at the Honey classes and the competition that I will have next year if I get my way!

Honey Exhibits at the Royal Welsh Show 2011

Whilst looking at the fabulous honey, mead, candle and polish exhibits we also watched a demonstration of how to make your own beeswax polish. I will be trying this my self in the near future if I can get hold of any turpentine.

More exhibits - Well done all !

There was also an exhibition hive for the general public to see the insides of a working hive, this is a great way to see what goes on inside with the eggs laid, brood at all stages and the honey and pollen coming in. I am not sure if everyone understands the complexity of the honey bee but even for beekeepers it is great to watch.

Winner of a frame of Honey, doesn't it look good- Well Done

Well done and congratulations to everyone who entered the show and especially to the winners of each class, as I know only to well how hard it is to get a red card at the Royal Welsh.
From my experience it takes months of planning and weeks of preparation just to enter a show and I am talking about livestock

Tonight we opened up a few hives to see how they are getting along, and we were nicely surprised.

Hive #2 last week, was thought to be queen less, now although we haven't seen the queen nor was there any eggs we now believe her to be there but just not mated. The reason for this is the frame of brood that was placed in the hive last week, should have had an emergency queen cell built on it if there was no queen there, and it didn't.

We have made a decision tonight to move the hives from this apiary as there seems to be a problem with the queens mating there for some unknown reason. So they will be moved the the field apiary as soon as we can do it/

Hive # 4 was also checked and I am pleased to say it was the same result as #2.

In the field apiary we checked #12 the latest acquisition, this was the last swarm collected, with a virgin queen and already she has eggs and capped brood in her hive and is doing well.

Can We Save the Hive

Tonight, we decided to remove one frame of brood at all stages from the hive number 6 and give it to hive number 1 in order to try and save it.

Hive number 1 has now got a laying queen (she was found at he weekend when we spotted eggs) and when we opened it up tonight there was a frame of capped brood, but not enough nurse bees to help see it through until these grubs hatch.

It has taken an awful long time for this quessn to go out on her mating flight and start to lay, but fingers crossed we will now save it.

We also fed it a solution of sugar syrup so they dont have to work to hard finding food or robbing their stores in order to survive.

Getting out of hand!

After finishing of my ramblings yesterday, I had just started to do the housework when I was called outside.

Come and look at this, was the shout!!
So the vacuuming had to wait once again whilst I went outside to see what was up.
Where are you?
Over here, I followed the voice and went into the field , look over there!
I looked but could not see anything, what am I looking at?
A swarm of bees,
You have got to be kidding me,I said
No honestly, I saw it it must of just landed in the hedge said hubby
If that is the case we had better get our bee suits on again and take a look

Do you know I might as well get dressed in my bee suit every morning, because I seem to constantly have to keep putting it on, it is getting out of hand!!

So when kitted up, we crossed the field,manoeuvring our way over a fence and under the barbed wire without getting our suits stuck or ripped, not an easy task. Once in the field, we walked up the hedges to find the swarm.We didn't have to go far before spotting it, as there was still several hundred bees flying around the hedge.

We decided to shake this one straight out of the hedge and into an empty Nuc box, not the text book way of doing things, but for ease we thought we would give it a go.

Most of the bees landed in the Nuc box but with several hundred still flying around our heads we decided to go for a cuppa, whilst the rest landed and hopefully followed her majesty inside.

Thirty minutes later, we went back to collect it to find some neighbours in their gardens enthralled at what they were watching, we explained what had happened and why we were looking like spacemen before leaving with the Nuc box back to our field.

That now makes 12!!

The Nuc was sited in a nice sunny position, now all we had to do was drop in the 6 frames without hopefully losing the swarm. Carefully we slipped the top off and then we slowly moved the crown board over to one side, far enough to drop in very carefully one frame then slide it over to drop in another and then another.

Feeling quite smug with ourselves we stood back and admired the new acquisition.

Hive Number 11 another swarm

Yes that's right Hive number 11 another swarm caught tonight in Conwy,

This time it was in a swarm box so very easy to collect and to handle. The box had been placed in a dark corner of a garden by a friend of ours Cyril. He phoned us up today to say that there was a lot of activity around it, so after dinner we set out to collect it, taking with us a gift of a jar of Melys Honey as a

 thank you.

Back home we were lucky to be able to hive it straight into a brand new hive that Mel had spent all last night putting together, just in case! Lucky for the bees he had, guess what he will be doing

 tomorrow night!!

All the bees were tucked up nicely in their new home before dark.

Free Bees

Yes you guessed it, we have caught another swarm tonight, I still get absolutely fascinated by them. This one was in a hedge on a solitary branch. It was a prime swarm and quite large, you can see from the photos how big it was.

Once we were suited and booted, the branch was cut and then shaken into the box waiting below.

When the bees were safely gathered in the box they were taken to the hive.

 Off comes the lid

 The box is emptied onto the sheet

And we wait for the bees to walk up the board into their new home

Lots and lots of free bees!

A closer look

Here I am in my new suit, trying to spot the queen, unfortunately I didn't see her so we will wait for a few days and let them settle in their new hive and we will then try and find her when we check all is okay in a few days time.

Here they are making good progress of going into the hive, the queen must be inside now as they are really going in fast.

Extremely happy to have such a prime swarm, we may even get some honey out of this hive this year!! fingers crossed

Got A Swarm of Bees?

Do you have a swarm of BEES?

First of all you need to establish exactly what you have got!

Bumblebees

Bumblebees are often confused with honeybees. However they are rounder, larger and furrier and come with a variety of coloured stripes across the end of their tails. Are they in a bird box, under the decking, in the compost?

Leave them alone if possible. Bumblebees are an important pollinator and rarely sting. Bumblebees are under threat of extinction.

Beekeepers will not collect/remove Bumblebees.

For more information contact the Bumblebee Conservation Trust

Solitary bees

Are there lots of small bees popping in and out of the wall or very small holes in the ground. Do they have a reddy/brown bottom? Are they almost black?

These are Solitary Bees, they are harmless and as their name suggest live more or less alone. They aren't interested in you and should be left alone.

  Beekeepers will not collect/remove Solitary Bees.

   

All the above information has been sourced from the British Beekeeper Association, for lots more information about beekeeping please use the link on the right side of the blog to visit their site

Wasps

Is it bright yellow with black stripes? Very smooth mainly yellow with black stripes? Is it in the roof of your house? Are they coming from a round nest in a tree? Is there a nest in the shed? Do they have a high pitched buzz? Are they after all things sweet? Then these are probably Wasps.

Beekeepers will not collect/remove Wasps.

For more information about Wasps go to BWARS.

Hornets

Are they very big with a loud buzz? Are they black and brown with a hint of orange? Living in the roof or shed? Do they have a very big curved tail? These are Hornets

Beekeepers will not collect/remove Hornets.

For more information go to BWARS.

Honeybees

Honeybees are small and vary in colour from golden brown to almost black.

If you are looking at these then please contact your local Swarm Collector who will come and collect your Honeybee swarm.

A new beekeeper is made

I have been assisting with the bees now for many months and although reluctantly at first I will  confess, now I cant get enough of them.

It all happened quite by chance really, my hubby had wanted to keep bees for many years and decided to go on a beekeeping course to find out the pros and cons. Armed with this knowledge and having read every book he could get his hands on he bought his first hive.

 Gary a good friend of ours also started mentoring him and his confidence grew and grew. He also helped when there was a swarm caught last year and this can be seen on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyuBtNfTHGk

At the beginning of the year a half suit was bought for me so I could watch from a safe distance behind a wall, I didn't like the thought of all that buzzing around my head. Over the first few weeks I was encouraged to watch every time they made an inspection, then one weekend a neighbour knocked on our door and told me that there was a swarm of bees in the hedge near by.

 Hubby was out for the night, Gary couldn't be contacted, what to do!!

I knew that my hubby would be gutted if he missed catching a swarm, so I decided I would have a go. Luckily the neighbour also kept a hive in his garden so offered to assist me. I found the full suit, gloves and a box to put them in while I waited for him to come back suited and booted and hopefully know what to do next.

Two of my grown up sons thought it was hilarious, that I was going to attempt to catch a swarm, but I did.

I have to say it was one of the most thrilling things I have ever done, buzzing, what buzzing I was in awe of those little flying bees I didn't even notice the sound or even worry about the hundreds that where flying around my head.

The bees had collected on an old branch in a hedge that surrounds our field, it looked like a rugby ball. First job was to place the box directly beneath them, then with tree loppers the branch was cut and the majority of bees landed in the box. As there was still many bees flying around and another clump on the floor we waited half an hour for them to decide that the queen was in the box. Having realised were she was they all then decided to enter the box too. within 20 minutes they were all in. Box was sealed and taken to the apiary. If you watch the youtube footage you will see how a swarm then marches into a hive, fascinating!!

That day changed my outlook on bees and took away any fears I had, I cant wait to get in amongst them and find out what is happening each week.

I am happy to say I have assisted in catching another swarm very recently, this time it was 3 miles away on a housing estate, in a ladies garden and I took the lead on capturing this. Its funny now every time I go for a walk I am looking in trees hedges and in peoples gardens just in case there is a swarm of bees I can take home.

Melys Honey - The begining

Welcome to my new blog, this is all about my honey bees and the honey products that I will be selling under the brand name "Melys Honey". Ranging from Edible Wedding Favours that are suitable for men, women and children, they are unique, unusual and can be completely personalised. New ranges that will launch in the Autumn will be gifts for Christmas, so come back and grab yourself some.

I aim to update the blog regularly throughout the season for anyone interested in beekeeping (from a novices point of view) and I hopefully will share the happenings of the hive and any new things that I learn along the way.

My camera will be out and about so I can share some images too. If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will try and answer the best I can.