Natural Beekeeping

Two days later, armed with table, garden tree choppers, bread knife and wire cutters we started our natural bee keeping!

Melanie explained to the bees what was about to happen, their transfer from nucleus  box to the Warre top bar beehive. They do say to be calm, polite and gentle when handling bees. I was at this monument open to anything that was going to help.

I did have the hose pipe around the corner, like a riot van / water cannon out of site   set on mist jet just in-case all got out of hand. The task before us, especially for armatures seemed anything but calm. This disturbance, once only for the bees I convinced myself, whispering this apology to the nucleus box.

Now I would recommended you watch Phil Chandlers video of this operation on his website Biobees, I watched it endless times (Its properly got record viewings by now) mentally practicing every step of the procedure so we could mirror the smoothest possible transfer of bees.

No options, the bees are in our care, we proceeded. I have got to say at this point it’s worth checking you’re tucked in, don’t rely only on the elasticized waist band of your bee jacket alone. It’s a bit disconcerting Melanie will tell you when a three / four bees are flying around inside your hood!  

How did we get on, well it’s certainly dramatic, there is a rush of adramlin and its bizarrely addictive shaking your first frame of bees into the Warre box, trimming the frames was at times a bit devastating, they were also less strong than I would have imagined and honey is sticker than you already knew. It was a full on experience!

Actually after our first hive we retreated to the house for a cup of tea and several slices of cake, really a mental rest was required. 

We were pleased with our success, thankful for rehearsing every step, shocked by the exhilaration of handling the bees, the intensity of the exercise, guilty for a number of grubs, guilty at understanding also why beekeepers simply have to keep dabbling in their hives. None of that for us however, the bees were now in their home, their hive, their nest.

Watching the bees is fascinating, the speed, the height they disappear into the sky, the numbers off, the pollen brought back, the sound… New to beekeeping like me then you will be amazed by how busy a hot afternoon can become.

Watching the bees, lucky me I work at home so I can spend my tea / coffee break watching, I would say this back yard bee talk needs a little pinch of salt. You’re going to need an area that really is going to be beespace, chose carefully.

Well we placed the nucleus travel boxes in the exact position we had decided for the hives. We put them on the Warre hive floor stand so they would also get used to that height and the Warre roof over the box to keep any late evening / night rain away.

Melanie had the honour of taking the bung out and our first bee immerged doing a textbook navigational climbing spiral above it nucleus box. All that reading seemed to be worth while. We let the bees settle into their surroundings.

At the start of the nectar flow, June 2010 we have two empty Warre beehives in the garden and I have just driven into the drive with two full nucleus boxes with frames, (We asked in advance for our queens to be unmarked by the way) that is less one lady bee who is flying around the car untamed, mild mannered the breeder said!

The hives are positioned to the side of our house that actually has a public footpath alongside; the garden boundary has a 7/8 foot high hedge. The hives face SE and catch the morning sun, it’s a semi sheltered site from the wind. It’s an area of the garden we do not have to pass through or frequent regularly.

For us this was the idea location, as with any average size garden there is going to be a compromise, ours was the footpath, but we hoped the high hedge would prevent any low flying bees in this area.

I felt a bit selfish about subjecting the walkers to this experiment, but to date no complaint, the hedge, not that the bees seem to need encouragement are flying high straight from the hives.