Is there a swarm brewing...?

Meet the Brecon Bees! These are the third colony that we originally purchased, which live at Cradoc Road in Brecon. 

They have just been inspected by the Seasonal Bee inspector for South Powys. We found several queen cells in various stages of development, some were 10 days old and others were only just forming. As you can see in this picture though I think the old queen has called her troops and they are gathering ready for a swarm. 

Conventional bee keepers would have removed all of the queen cells that we found, ensuring that the colony stays together in the hive. As we left all of the queen cells on the frames, we fully expected the colony to swarm at some point - there's only enough space for one queen in any colony!

Apart from the few queen cells the Bee inspector was pleased with the colony being healthy, strong and disease free. So the swarm leaving the hive will hopefully take up residence somewhere and form a healthy wild colony.

Bee update, June gap? and what can we do to encourage bees.

Community bee update

The bees have been in residence now for about 10 weeks. So how are they doing?

Too heavy for one!

One of the key premises of natural bee keeping is minimal interference so I haven't been down to the apiary poking about the hives very regularly. However, when I did try a quick look in the hive it became apparent that a normal observation would be challenging. The weight of a single, but full, Langstroth hive coupled with the adapter we are using, then stuck to a Warre box with propolis, meant that the whole construction was beyond my lone technique! However, I did manage to tip the top of the hive to look into the lowest Warre box and was disappointed to find it empty. I had expected that after such a provident start to the year they would have had to use the extra space for new comb. Not so. They are resisting most defiantly. Although this is frustrating it is by no means unusual. I have had whole boxes where, for some reason, they have not built on a particular frame. There's no rhyme or reason that we can see but I'm sure they have their reasons. Towards the end of the summer I shall have to assess again and consider what our next move will be.

The 'June Gap'

Traditionally, at this time of year, bee keepers will refer to the 'June gap'. This may seem odd. There are lots of flowers in bloom-how can there be a gap in bee forage?

After the full thrust of Spring with many plants desperately trying to get pollinated in time to make their fruits before the frost, the countryside appears to take a breath. Now is the time of the umbellifer.

Plants and insects have evolved together. The type of forage which a honey bee will be successful with(i.e find nectar and pollen) will have certain adaptations which enable the bee to get what it wants. One of the most obvious adaptations is the depth of the flower. Honey bees do not have the hugely extendable proboscis of a butterfly and will tend to stick to single, saucer shaped flowers-this includes the complicated flower heads of the umbellifers eg. wild parsley, hog weed, sweet cicely. These are readily found flourishing on roadside verges and in wild areas. I have left a few parsnips and carrots to flower in the allotment and these will attract lots of pollinators as well as honey bees.

 And to every rule there is an exception; I have heard tell that honey bees have punctured holes in the bases of bluebell flowers to access the nectar. Canny little creatures!

There are moves in some areas to introduce a bee known as the Caucasian Grey which has a considerably longer proboscis and can, therefore, access a greater number of flowers.

What can we do to encourage the bees?

• As we leave the bounty of Spring it is important to make sure there is a ready supply of flowers available to the honey bee. The RHS produce guides on what's best and when. For forage it is worth looking at this resource.

rhs.org.uk/science/pdf/conservation-and-biodiversity/wildlife/rhs_pollinators_plantlist

• Often the Summer weather will bring more periods of dry spells. Like every other organism, honey bees need water too. The best way to provide this is in something like an upturned bin lid. The bees like to be able to approach the, non-moving, water feeling in control.
• Keep your use of pesticides to an absolute minimum. Consider other strategies like companion planting to distract insect pests from the scent of desirable plants. Tomatoes are extremely pungent and this year I have interplanted my Brussels sprouts with them.
• Leave some areas untouched if you can and preferably in the sun. 

For more information on caring for the bees in the community visit: www.beefriendlymonmouthshire.org

The Swarming Season

The unmistakable dark smudges denoting 2 swarms high in the trees

One of my great personal delights and fascinations along this journey of natural bee keeping has been to observe the bees in as natural a life cycle as can be possible with the homes we have created for them. Last year was my first using this management system and I had never seen a single swarm from my hives. This year has been very different. Not only have all my hives exceeded the volumes I have witnessed before but I have had 6 swarms take off and land very close to their parent hives. 3 I have managed to house  for the future and 3 are still deciding what to do.

Why do bees swarm?

Every bee within a colony must get a dose of queen scent to maintain the cohesion of the colony. When there are too many bees for this to happen the workers are stimulated to make 'queen' cells on the comb and, although the egg is genetically identical to the worker eggs, the shape of this cell dictates to the workers that this one is special and requires a different food-Royal Jelly. The chemical composition of this jelly is responsible for the development of the larva into a queen.

The swarming of bees is usually discouraged by traditional bee keepers. It is the old queen that takes off taking up to 40% of the colony with her and each one of those worker bees will have filled her stomach with honey in preparation for the journey. As a farmer of honey you would see nearly half your crop just fly away! To combat this, unwanted queen cells are culled to retain the crop in the hive. Resident queens are marked with a coloured marker to identify the year she hatched and she will be allowed to live for a couple of seasons.

Swarm number 3 sitting tight.

I like to think of swarms as the runners of strawberry plants or the conkers of horse chestnuts. They are a natural way to propagate colonies and can be thought of as birthing a new entity into the world. I have people crying out for swarms at the moment but if they remain inaccessible and fly off to make new homes elsewhere then I wish them the best of luck.

A word on lures

In my naivete, and having adopted a non intrusive approach to bee keeping, I had believed that all I would have to do to capture a swarm for my empty hives would be to prime a box with a lure. Lures are cocktails of essential oils deemed to be the closest thing we can come up with to attract honey bees. They come in different forms: either small plastic phials which can be opened in the hive or as wipes which can be wiped over the interior of the hive or punctured and hung from the frames. The hives that I put these in had beeswax on the top bars too so all the ingredients.......not so.  At least 2 swarms must have flown right past these welcoming homes only to settle elsewhere. The instructions suggested they would attract swarms for up to 6 weeks from a radius of 3km. I am a little sceptical about this now.

And the lesson I have learned from this: no pain, no gain.