bee | A Castle in the Sky

August 18, 2014
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Harvesting honey (Aug 18)

The end of the summer means the end of the honey flow. So last week we took the first honeycomb from the hives. When I say ‘we’ I do mean we, as this time I borrowed Ed’s spare bee-suit jacket and hat. Intrigue took over. I was charged with stacking the frames which meant I could keep some distance but in the event I felt quite protected. I did suffer a psychosomatic attack of itchiness though – just enough to keep me on red alert…

We removed all the honeycomb from the stacks at the top – 10 frames in all – and reduced down the size of each hive. Only a third of the cells on our frames are ‘capped’ or sealed over with bees wax. Each capped cell it’s own miniature, hexagonal pot of perfect honey with it’s own lid. Ed’s a bit disappointed about the capped to non-capped ratio – and as our ‘bee-catcher’ sadly didn’t attract another swarm (see our First Hive – May 11) this is all our honey for this year.

To get the honey out the caps are sliced off and the comb goes into a spinning machine. At this time of year Neil the bee-man has a honey extractor in his (apparently very sticky) kitchen. Today is extraction day – and Ed’s returned with a bucketful of honey that we’ve just transferred into small jars…

There are 33 jars in all which is much more than we expected so we’re delighted. It has a very delicate, floral flavour which could be partly lime flowers, as the huge lime trees on our drive were buzzing this summer…

The bees will now hunker down for the winter and the colony will become much smaller. They stop doing all the normal bee-type things so they live longer and the queen stops laying eggs. We’ve left enough honey inside the hive to feed them through till spring.

Ed thinks that we should be able to produce around three times as much honey next year, as the bees have now made all the honeycomb. God knows what we’ll do with it all? He’s already talking about farmer’s markets but I think we’ve got quite enough on our hands for now…

May 11, 2014
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Our first hive (May 11)

The weather is good and the bees are busy – so Neil ‘The Bee Man’ is here to split one of his hives and get us started on one of our own. Catching a swarm is one way to start a new colony (see Busy Bees – Mar 1) and ‘splitting a hive’ is apparently another.

So Ed and Neil transplant the queen with a load of her followers into our new hive…while I keep my distance. The rest of the bees are left behind. These will now create a new queen by fattening up a female larva with loads of royal jelly. I’m learning the ABC of bee-keeping through Ed – it’s totally captivating and slowly drawing me in. Although my bee-suit’s still on order…

Up in the walled garden we also have a swarm-catching plan. It’s less whimsical than a scented ‘bee-catcher’ in the yew tree, as described by Mr C – apparently the yew tree is too close to the house. Instead it’s a box with some old honeycomb inside perched on top of the wall – but the fact that ‘scout’ bees might locate it and then guide a swarm there to start a new colony is still a pretty enchanting idea.

So we have our first hive in the paddock and a hive-in-waiting in the walled garden. If all goes to plan we should have our first honey by the end of the summer.

March 1, 2014
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Busy bees (Mar 1)

We have bees. Well almost – they’re not quite ours yet. They belong to the local beekeeper Neil, who came to help with the bees in the walls of the house last summer (see The Bee Man – Jun 16). He’s put two of his hives in the paddock and when one of these is about to swarm it will provide a new colony for one of our own.

Ed and Mr C got to know Neil through the local monthly Bee Association meetings which they’ve both been diligently attending since the autumn last year. After reading several books and asking lots of questions they are now raring to go. I’m a bit apprehensive about the whole bee thing so I’m putting off getting involved until Ed’s become an expert.

Neil put some foliage in front of each hive (you can’t quite see in the pic) to alert the bees to being in a new place as soon as they fly out. This means they’ll then create a new map of this area instead of relying on all their knowledge about their old location. Bees are of course super-sophisticated and all my primary school education keeps flooding back – like the “dances” they perform to tell each other where the pollen is. Ed says a key “dance” is like a figure of 8 – I’m trying to get him to demonstrate but he isn’t willing….

Currently the bees are pretty sleepy as we’re just coming to the end of winter – but towards the end of the spring they’ll be much more active. So when Ed gets back from his trip it will be swarm-catching time. Apparently there’s a plan to catch another swarm from the bees that live in the walls of the house. This is a more complicated arrangement and involves hanging some kind of scented ‘bee-catcher’ in the yew tree close by but I’m not totally clear on how that plan works!

We have 2 new hives on standby…

June 16, 2013
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The bee man (Jun 16)

The bee man’s been (See Can Anyone Hear a Buzzing? May 30). He soon established that it’s definitely honey bees we’ve got here. He had a good look in the attic but there was no hive in there – and he thinks there are probably 2; one on each side of the house, high up between the rafters and the outside walls so we can’t get any access to them.

He brought a spare bee suit for Ed (who’s been expressing a lot of interest in said bees) but given no hives were to be found, he sadly never got the chance to put it on.

The bee man explained that the swarm we saw was a good sign as bees swarm when they’re moving on with a new queen bee, so the majority of them are now gone (in that hive anyway), leaving an aged queen behind and some loyal hangers on. The only other issue we might encounter is honey dripping through the ceilings – but apparently this is quite rare!

So we have bees in the walls of the house and this is where they’ll stay.

Mr C tells us that years ago someone used to keep hives up behind the walled garden (which likely explains where the ones in our walls originate from). As Mr C also has a twinkle in his eye at the mention of bees, I’m guessing he and Ed are now hatching a plan….