Natural Beekeeping

This year two of our hives have comb filling the bottom box; previously the bees had always bearded even when the bottom box seemed only ¼ full!

However, I have held off from adding a 5^th box for the following reasons:

• The brood chamber of the colony is no longer expanding
• There has been no sign of bearding
• The additional comb built in a new bottom box would only be partial at this time of year and require removing for the winter
• The weather over the last week and a bit has been mixed for the bees
• This is the time of year that the bees tend to be more aggressive, defensive of their winter stores

Ideally, I wish to winter the colonies on two hive boxes only. This helps to maintain greater heat within the hive and reduce condensation and the possibility of mildew in the comb. Again compact (not crowded) being the best option.

At the moment I expect we will over winter on three boxes, potentially the top box truly being excess honey (No Sugar).

I will let you know more about this later in August. However we will only remove honey if it’s defiantly safe to do. Our goal is not to feed any sugar unless it’s a true emergency.  (If you like, we are bee guardians not beekeepers, honey for our toast is a real luxury.)

Fingers crossed for a good August.

Questions welcomed, or if you wish to privately (not an open forum) discuss your own beehive status please call our natural beekeeping helpline.

Tel. 01736 785777.

Many thanks,

David

Relocating Warre beehive, very early one summer morning

With the help of a few friends we relocated two of our Warre Beehives to a quiet corner of an organic farm. Many thanks for the kind generosity we have received.

We moved the bee colonies in the early hours of last Saturday morning; in fact I was out of bed at sun rise! approx 4.30 am to quickly staple in place a bent section of verroa mesh over the entrance of each Warre beehive before any bees started foraging for nectar and pollen.

Now both these bee hives have been doing really well, hence they are four boxes high. This meant they would only just fit into our beehive delivery van with the pitched roof removed. Therefore, we removed the roofs and taped plain lining paper over the top of the quilt box to help maintain the temperature. Then we strapped the whole bee hive firmly together with a ratchet strap. Through the top of this we slid a carrying pole and then lifted the bee hive. The hive remained perfectly upright and we walked slowly to the van.

As a precaution we did dress in our bee suits, but I am thankful to tell you the whole operation went smoothly and I would use this method of slinging the Warre beehive the next time I have to move any beehives.

If you should have any questions reference the positioning of your beehive, or relocating a Warre beehive please do not hesitate to call.

Best regards,

David