Below are some blogs created for clients and others ,who may be interested in what HBAH is all about. The general focus is of course on honey bees and what we do. From time to time, there may well be other topics covered, but on the whole it is an opportunity to explain all about the wonderful world of beekeeping.
With nearly all this years clients hives having now been harvested, it is fascinating to see the regional variations and amounts of honey per hive. In our experience, urban hives have a longer season or a more elongated nectar flow than rural hives. This can be put down to a wider variety of flora and fauna, a slightly higher temperature in built up areas and possibly less exposure to winds, rains etc. Amongst our clientele, are the 60 staff at Estee Lauder in Covent Garden. They have two hives on their roof terrace. For those who live in rural areas, and cannot comprehend a city/urban hive, it is worth noting that within the range of the bees in those hives are 4 royal parks, as well as the mass of loved and cherished gardens, window boxes, parks, flower stalls etc etc, that help provide the urban bees with all their requirements. The idea that they are polutted by fumes and general city muck does not bare fruit when you see, smell or taste the honey. Honey bees are masters at adapting to their surroudings.
Some of our urban clients have had bumper crops this year including David in Blackheath. We refer to his single hive as "The honey factory". The output has been immense again this year, tipping the scales at approximately 90lbs.
Not all our clients hives behave quite so orderly and the levels of maintenance vary. The summer weather, for the second year running proved unpredictable, with a fantastically warm early spring, which was wonderful, followed by a dull early summer and a cold wet August. Most of our first year clients this year have had good colony expansion and good honey production. We always er on the side of conservative when extracting honey from a year 1 hive. In the long run, it is better to leave the bees an excess of honey for their first winter, rather than bee greedy for ourselves and possibly starve the bees of their food when they need it most. The upside to this cautious approach, is that in it's second year, with everyting in the colony bursting into action come spring, the yield is likely to be much higher. Patience in beekeeping seems to nearly always pay off.
Winter is fast approaching. Some of our clients worry about the hives being exposed and un protected during the cold days and nights. However, as many already know, so long as the colony is strong and they have everything they need, the bees goes into slow down, but not hibernation. They all feed on their honey, to give them energy. This means they can then rub against each other and create warmth. Beekeepers are tempted to go through their hives in winter, but in our experience, it is best left alone. Imagine spending a lot of time getting your house up to a good temperature on a cold day and then someone comes along , removes your roof, re-arranges the walls and furniture, generally makes a nuisance of themselves and then puts the roof back on and dissapears ! We would not be best pleased.
Apologies for less blogs than we wanted to publish. We have just been rather busy. Now winter is round the corner, we will endeavour to post blogs more regularly.
To finish, we thought it appropriate to remind all our clients (and anyone else) with a jar of local un- pasturised honey in their cupboard, that as the cold and flu season is nearly upon us, a teaspoon of honey, on its own, first thing in the morning, will help stave off this years bugs. None of the health benefits of our clients honey is lost due to the cold process of extraction we carry out. Adding the honey to tea or coffee can act as a wonderful, natural sweetner, but in that process alone, a lot of the health beneficial properties of the honey will be lost through the heat of the water. Reaping those benefits is just one more reason to be ever grateful to the bees in our environment.
The temperature has risen and March was the driest for 50 years. They haven't had decent snow in the alps since Christmas and according to the met office, our February was mild ! So another year in the life of the clients hives commences. The winter was long and everyone is in a different frame of mind now that the days are longer and the daytime temperature is far more enjoyable. As the song from Carousel says, "June is bursting out all over", for that read "Spring is bursting out all over". The blossom sprouting from trees in urban areas as well as the countryside is a warming and joyous sight, especially after the long dark cold few months we have had.
Great publicity still surrounding the plight of the honeybee. We had lots of calls about the Ainsley Harriet programme last week on BBC 1 about the lack of UK honey and the huge amount we import. Ainsley is a neighbour of ours and his passion flowed well throughout the programme. He's a charming and genuine guy and I'm sure the publicity the programme achieved will all help. The programme also featured HBAH friend James from www.thehivehoneyshop.co.uk. It was James who helped get us started 10 years ago and along with his fantastic assistant Julie, they have been a source of encouragement and help throughout the years. If you are ever in Northcote Road, Battersea, the shop is well worth a visit especially during the summer as they have an observation hive located within the shop.
Beekeeping season is well under way. Some consider this the most exciting time of the beekeeping year, when hives that have got through the winter months start the whole process over again. Once the temperature is up, the queen can start laying and the community inside the hive kicks into action. A pleasing site is seeing newly laid eggs in the horizontal cells and the worker bees out foraging on finer days. As the colony will have killed off most remaining drones (male bees) in the Autumn due to their redundant use, another promising site is the creation of new drone cells in the hive around spring. Drones are really only needed for mating purposes, but as the existing queen mated a year ago and is into the 2nd year of her 3 year life, the new drones being created are for mating with the potential new oncoming queen (who will obviously be a virgin) should the colony decide to swarm. Unlike the sight of a queen cell, new drone cells does not mean that swarming is imminent.
Numbers at the start of the 2nd year in the colony are considerably higher than the nucleus of the first year. This means there will be a lot more mouths to feed, so honey production is as ever crucial for the survival of the colony. A 1st year "Nuc" consists of approximately 5K bees. A hive that has wintered through successfully, will more than likely have around 20 to 30k citizens come spring of the second year. You can begin to understand one of the reasons for swarming is that the population will soon outsize the home they are in. This is why beekeepers extend the hive vertically, quite literally for more living space and more room for the queen to lay. Sadly by doing this, the risk of swarming does not disappear, but it is believed to certainly help reduce the chances of swarming.
One of the great aspects of working for HBAH is the contrast in all the hives, depending on what year the colony are in. Never a dull day and never a moment whereby you think you have mastered it, but thats one of the things that makes keeping bees so fascinating and intriguing.
To everyone with colonies,hives, hopes and great expectations, we wish you all a happy and successful season.
Apologies for the absence of recent blogs, my time was rather taken up with tending hives and feeding.......the bees I mean.
HBAH starts another exciting new year, with clients from previous years all having varying states of progress within their hives. Summarising the weather last year in terms of keeping bees would be an interesting exercise. We have hives spread across many parts of the country and the weather varied greatly throughout the regions. The years weather was characterised by a very late spring, a wet summer (other than a hot burst during Wimbledon fortnight ) and good temperatures during the period that used to be known as an Indian summer. Autumn was relatively short and dry. Winter arrived with a rapid snap and December was the coldest since records began.
The effect this weather has had on the hives will be revealed once the temperature has increased and the hives have become more active. Getting beekeepers to all agree on whether it was a good or bad year for honey production is like asking a politician for an honest answer !
It is an exciting time for beekeepers. We all await the long overdue rise in temperature, so we can see how the colonies have done through the winter. Early spring cleaning and a chance to start setting up for what lies ahead. We wish everyone a happy and successful 2011.
New and young hives need good numbers to survive and progress through winter. The cold temperatures do not create problems for the colony of bees per say, so long as there are enough bees to form the central heating cluster in the hive. They need food to generate heat and the heat is what keeps them alive even during very cold spells.
Another busy week with hive inspections and some installations being the order of the day. With decent temperatures evident everyday this week, all the colonies will have benefited, at last from some summer sun.
The week started in an educational way. I spoke briefly at Notting Hill Prep school. It was fun to do and the children seemed to take an interest. Lots of questions from the floor and I issued the whole school including teachers with coloured ribbons. Out of the 250 in assembly, 246 had yellow ribbons (indicating female/girl bees), 4 boys had green ribbons (indicating the drones/males bees) and one lucky person, which obviously had to be the Headmistress had a big fluffy ball (indicating she was the queen). This lively participation caused much merryment. It all went well and I set the school some tasks to design their own honey labels and also to come up with a name for their own queen in their hive. Some photos below, kindly taken by Michelle, who is the chair of the schools eco committee and has been brilliant in driving this through. I will give regular updates on the schools colony.
Yellow ribbons indicating female bees.
Pupils viewing brood frames with wax foundation.
Inspections so far of most of the hives has shown the colonies expanding and all the queens seem to be happy and laying and no problems as such other than having to feed left right and centre.
Towards the end of the week, one of our most exciting clients, The Aveda Institute in Covent Garden, http://www.aveda.co.uk/findalocation/index.tmpl took delivery of their two hives for the staff roof terrace. Gemma at Aveda has steered this through and as you will see in the photos below, the two hives look very at home in their new urban landscape. Urban hives do tremendously well and the fact they are in the hubub of central London, only proves beneficial and from experience, the yields and quality of honey are amongst the best. If one considers the care and attention people put into planting on their own little plots of paradise in a city environment, it is not that suprising. Also, if you consider, Hyde Park, St James Park, Regents Park and Green Park and the planting that takes place within them, it again should not be hard to understand why central London colonies thrive. Avedas staff roof terrace is a wonderful location and the workers in the nearby offices who go into work tomorrow morning will no doubt enjoy the view of their new neighbours. Two of those neighbours watched on as I installed the bees on Friday evening. I talked to them after I had finished and the two London School of Economics students were thrilled and fascinated. It's wonderfully refreshing when you're half expecting resistance, to actually receive a huge thumbs up.
Aveda Institute Hive 1
Aveda Institute Hive 2.
The final installation of the week was in the gorgeous Buckinghamshire village of Cuddington, where Gerald and his wife Clicqout welcomed me and their hives with warmth and excitement. One of the most beautiful gardens I have ever seen. A mini Capability Brown like garden all designed and cared for by Clicqout. I made the mistake of driving there in my 34 year old Mk3 open Land Rover. With a top speed of 40mph, it certainly felt like I had driven a lot further. However, I left with a punnet of beautiful home grown strawberries, most of which had been devoured by the time I got back to the "Smoke". The blankets on loan were much appreciated, thank you both.
For those of you lucky enough to have wandered round the streets of London over the last few weeks, you will have noticed all the elephants dotted around. They have looked marvellous, all in their chosen surroundings. I did wonder on Monday where they had all gone and it was with great delight that I happened to be driving home from the Aveda installation on Friday night, when along the Chelsea Embankment, I discovered them all, herded onto the site of the recent Chelsea Flower show, at the Royal Hospital. I stopped and took some photos. The next day HBAH friend Maibe went to see them close up and kindly sent us her photos. They looked magnificent. To find out why the elephants have been in London, go and have a look at http://www.elephantparadelondon.org/ . Sadly I don't think we can afford to bid for one in auction next week. Also I think it was a chance missed to highlight the plight of the honeybee, possibly something for the future, whereby HBAH would donate a years free service in return for the design on the elephant.........more thought needed.
Elephants on Parade.
Elephants getting a hosing down ready for next day inspection.
Hoping for another fine week of weather ahead, more feeding and inspections a plenty. I think the England world cup team should be made to walk home from South Africa and, we should build a naughty step on the spare plinth in Trafalgar Square, where they should all sit for the rest of the summer, manager included. A honey bee colony survives and exists through pure team work and creating a perfect community. If bees worked as individuals, with egos, and a lack of co-ordination and communication with their fellow players, I guess they too wouldn't bring home the prize we all cherish. Well done to the cricket XI though.
A north easterly summer breeze does no one any good. We like our temperature to be warming and with a chilly N.E wind, the fine days we have had, have been tinged with an unbalancing cold blow. Fingers crossed for the week ahead.
Another installation on Saturday for Davina and Jeremy in the pretty village, of Pulborough, exactly one days march (in Roman times) from Chichester. Another wonderful garden and location, with the added bonus of their own already existing honey bee colony, in a tree near the house. Photos of both are below. The dark orangey substance dripping from the hole, is "Propolis" (Ancient Greek meaning Pro [first] Polis[city]) and for those of you who are unaware of this magical substance, it is well worth googling. It is the only natural anti-biotic known to man. Its healing, health and medicinal uses are vast and brilliant. You will be better off once you have read about this unbelievable sticky, genius, gum ! I have promised most clients their own propolis at harvest time. A wee bit every day will keep most ailments at bay. If there was a health benefit competition between honey and propolis, the bees sterilising cement rather than their food would win every time ! Rather cheekily, I cut some of the propolis away from the Winnie The Pooh like hole in the tree and Jeremy is hopefully consuming tiny amounts with his early morning tea. I will report back after my next inspection there, concerning Jeremy's "Too many colds for my liking this year" status ! When one doesn't feel tip top it always reminds me of this extract from our previously mentioned A.A Milnes honey addicted bear...... Eeyore was very glad to be able to stop thinking for a little, in order to say "How do you do" in a gloomy manner to Pooh. "And how are you?" said Winnie-the-Pooh. Eeyore shook his head from side to side. "Not very how," he said. "I don't seem to have felt at all how for a long time."
Inspections carried out at various clients and so far, colonies are expanding and all seems well. At Jo's hive outside Guildford, I showed her the queen and we both watched her lay an egg in a cell....fascinating. Have a look at this link and you will get some idea of what we saw. The clip is aimed at children, but it's nicely illustrative of what the queen spends most of her 3 year life doing, day in, day out ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bArNmKbYVm8&feature=related
More bees to install this week ahead, along with inspections galore. No mention of the world cup as Englands last performance does not merit it; let's hope Wimbledon, which starts later today, provides us with the usual gorgeous summer images and some riveting matches.
The direct line that the bee takes to return to the hive with its cargo of pollen or nectar is known as the "Bee" line. On that note, I am making a bee line for bed. Talking of which, spare a thought for the worker bees today. It's the longest day of the year, which makes it the longest working day of the year for them. Wishing you all a good week ahead.
Beautiful location, with the hive roof just visible middle far left.
Propolis, seeping out of the bees hollow tree colony !
A beautiful day and another installation, this time for Neville in Dover. Another wonderful garden overlooking the channel (see photograph below). If the bees flew 22 miles for their source of nectar or pollen, I guess Nevilles harvest in September could easily be Miel. Fortunately, (E.U restrictions not applicable !!!) the bees only travel up to 4 miles to forage for their required needs. As I left Dover, with a beautiful summers evening sky looming over the channel, I thought from now on, that I will refer to this colony, not as a colony but as a squadron, it just seems applicable.
More installations coming up and initial inspections being the order of the day for Kingston, Hove, Barnes, Highgate, Newbury, Somerset, Putney, Clapham, Guildford, Beaconsfield and Romsey but not in that order. Thrilled to have our first Buckinghamshire client on board especially as the enthusiasm is both evident and tangible, even on a fading mobile signal.
Preparing a small talk for Notting Hill Prep school in Tuesday mornings assembly. Children can be the toughest audience, but I am going for a little audience participation and some fascinating facts to entice them all into the world of bees and beekeeping. Will write more on how it went once completed. Should be fun.
A few days of housekeeping and administration leave me little else to say about the bees. The weather is better and based on my home hives and bees, hopefully all the clients colonies have been actively busying themselves. If you do have a colony and you have some concerns since my last visit, then please do contact me. Remote beekeeping is not ideal, but calming words or advice may work temporarily. Please don't hesitate to get in touch.
Lots of references to the Vuvuzela horns sounding like a swarm of bees during all the world cup matches. Bees are currently enjoying mentions and publicity everywhere. I think it was Oscar Wilde who said "The only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about". Well bees and their plight have certainly not been talked about for some time, so the fact that public awareness is heightened through greater exposure is no bad thing. So long as perspective is added, lets keep talking but not get Bee-sotted about it all !
Nevilles Channel facing garden, with a ferry in the background.
Another weekend passes and more installations completed. As I mentioned to John and his wife in Essex, one of the joys of installing hives for clients, is the common occurrence of discovering their wonderful gardens. We had no preconceptions at HBAH, but it seems to be, that if someone has the spirit and drive to create a little bit of outside paradise at their home, they care enough to want to add to it in an equally caring and beneficial way. Without tarring all of our clients with the same brush (please could someone give me an equivalent metaphor more positive than that), it does mean that our visits are always to gardens that have huge amounts of love, care and attention cherished upon them. I'm not sure the same can be said of most peoples places of work ! For this we consider ourselves rather lucky.
Our two Essex clients along with David in Blackheath, have their new bees and hive . Davids garden was truly beautiful along with Patricia and Johns. Both David and Patricia had prepared fantastic sites for their hives. The installation process can be a bit of an anti climax, especially after the prolonged nature driven delay. However, like anything worthwhile, the frustration of waiting, will, with time and a decent summer, soon diminish. The rewards and benefits will hopefully manifest themselves over the coming months and years.
A lot of clients have dogs and cats, and it's worth mentioning that until now, this has not been a problem, either for the pets or the bees. Pets of all types can be curious things, but it seems they have a better understanding of nature, including the dangers of a full bee colony, sometimes more so than we humans.
The inspection visits start soon and again, that too is an exciting time, as one can witness the progress of the colony first hand. There are no guarantees and there can be disappointments, but it is pleasing to see the process taking place all the same.
I'm not sure the weather forecast for the week ahead looks great, but we crack on regardless and be forever optimistic about our summer starting properly.
Finally the gallery contains some new photos. The world we live in is about everything and everyone we share it with. As the American novelist Theodore Dreiser said "Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on the wings of misery and travail". Not sure whether the latter observation is always true, but the initial part feels right and believing in that sentiment allows us to post photos of any type of beauty........in other words.......and to quote another wise animated American, "Too infinity and ...Bee-yond". There is one photo from last years Royal Academy Anish Kapoor exhibition. Great stuff.
Davids hive sited on the prepared area.
Kitchen garden now resplendent with Johns new hive.
Another fantastic day delivering Hives and Bees for clients. The weather in London was overcast, drizzly and dull, so I headed west to install Chris and Michelles bees. The further west I went the better the weather. Wiltshire and Somerset looked glorious in summer sunshine.
While stopping for another revolting oversized cup of coffee, I spotted my dream car and chatted with the German owner, Rudi. It was a genuine AC Cobra, of which there are only one thousand left in the world. Beautiful. Photograph below........sorry moving on !
Was greeted at Sallys (Michelles Mother), by a smiling welcoming party. They were all full of energy and enthusiasm and proceeded to kindly help unload and watched intently as I went about installing the bees into the hive, providing a running commentary (probably rather dull to be on the receiving end). After generous offers of more help and tea, I was on my way, via a quick visit to my old school and then back home via a quiet M4. Thank you for your hospitality Sally and Michelle.
If any of you want to hear what a swarm of bees sounds like, listen to the commentary from any of the world cup matches on BBC radio 5 Live and the constant sound of those massed vuvuzela horns coming across on medium wave is a dead ringer audio wise for a mass of bees in flight. I kept checking behind me to see that I didn't actually have a lot of bees flying around in the car ! There was one, but she was rather quiet and a little lost....bless !
More installations tomorrow and home in time for what will inevitably be the usual poor performance from Englands over paid and over there footballers.
Birthday gift delivery over the weekend along with David and Phil adopting their new and very own pollinators. Hope the garden is ready David !
Motorways are boring, I so much prefer Bee roads !
Beautiful AC Cobra.
Sally, her Daughter Michelle and grandchildren
Sallys new garden addition, with summer evening sun hitting the west side of the hive.
Another day and two more installations. Rachel at Highgate and Keith in Beaconsfield were the happy recipients of their new hives and bees.
During the process of installing Keiths bees, it was fascinating to witness how the bees on the inside of the hive tell the ones on the outside, that they need to come in as this is their new home. Some bees in the hive line the entrance, stick their bums out and flap their wings and project the queens pheromones out towards the flying bees. Fantastically efficient method of rounding them all up. It took less than 20 minutes for all the bees flying around outside to have found their new front door.
Great news today in that Notting Hill Prep school confirmed their order. I think they may well be buying a few junior bee suits, so the children can look up close during the various visits. I will also be giving a quick talk in assembly on bees etc as way of an introduction. Thrilled to be doing a school, as children seem to have far less fear. The process and rewards are not only educational but satisfying for pupils and teachers alike.
Delayed installations tomorrow for Chris and Michelle. The world cup also starts tomorrow. Personally, I will be following Group Bee !
Welcome to everyone who is reading this. This is hopefully one of many regular updated blogs on the activities and more, of Honey Bees At Home. The updates should give you an insight into what we do. This time of year is obviously one of our most busiest and enjoyable. Hopefully the blogs will keep you entertained and intrigued into the fascinating world of beekeeping. Our clients all share some common interests and all are fascinated by their newly adopted garden workers. We are currently in the process of installing this years Hives and the Bees within. The weather is not helping enormously, and over the coming days, slowly but surely, all this years new installations will be complete and establishing themselves in their new environment.
Many people have helped us to get to this stage, but a big thank you to my Hive supplier Nick at www.peak-hives.co.uk. He has been hugely supportive & encouraging and he was the one who's pushed us to start the HBAH blog.
Mentors have been a plenty, but a special mention and appreciation of their time, wisdom and advice to Dennis Adams and Kevin Horner of the www.wiltshirebeekeepers.org.uk
Sadly a delay today in delivering Bees to Michelle in Avon and Chris in Newbury, but both will be installed by the end of the week. Our Essex clients will all be done this weekend along with Dover and the remaining London members. One of the most exciting clients is the Aveda institute in Covent Garden. They are having two hives on their wonderful 1st floor terraced roof garden.
Along with all our clients, all we need now is a prolonged warm dry spell of weather with good daily temperatures.
The Blog will be updated as regularly as possible. We hope you have enjoyed reading and do get in touch if you have any enquiries !
