Bees

I have been keeping bees since 2010, where I attended classes run by the High Weald Beekeepers Club. This was instructive and helpful, but in the last few years I have become increasingly drawn towards methods of beekeeping that are more centred on the bees' needs, and their role in the environment with other pollinators. I attended a fascinating event run by the Natural Beekeeping Trust in January 2012 about the various hive options which really opened my eyes to the opportunities avalaiable, and gave me the confidence and freedom to adapt how I was managing my bees to a more relaxed and bee-friendly approach.

For a wealth of other natural beekeeping information, there is an excellent blog covering all aspects which I can thoroughly recommend: http://simplebees.wordpress.com

I still keep my bees in traditional hives - usually a WBC which is the archetypal beehive with a louvred outer casing and standard boxes inside. I think the double-walled structure provides good insulation against the temperature fluctuations which in South East can be marked as we have hot summers and cool damp winters. They are also readily available and I can transfer components from one hive to another easily, and harvesting honey is also straightforward with standard frames.

Bees will construct a nest in whatever cavity is available to them, so it is the management that is important. European honeybees (Apis mellifera mellifera) continue over the winter as a small tight cluster of 'winter bees' with the queen bee, unlike other colonial bees and wasps where they produce new queens in autumn who then hibernate, allowing the rest of their annual colony to die out. It is the practice with traditional beekeeping that at the end of the summer, the majority of the honey stores are removed and sugar syrup fed to supply the bees with food over the winter. Although this gives the bees calories, it's a vastly different substance to the concentrated nectar that the bees have evolved to live on during the stresses of winter. So, I leave my bees with more than enough honey to live on from October until potentially April, depending on the timing of spring, and keep back spare honey to feed them in case of emergencies.

Here in this corner of East Sussex there are terrific foraging areas for the bees so thankfully, the
usually produce a sizeable excess. I sell a small quantity each year depending on how well the bees are getting on, so please contact me if you would like a jar. It is a seasonal product and will vary across the summer depending on where the bees have been collecting nectar, and supply is strictly limited to the bees' productivity.

I don't treat my bees for Varroa as they seem to cope with it well enough and I'm of the mind that if they are fit and healthy, they will deal with nest parasites on their own more effectively than chemical intervention. They will groom each other fastidiously and remove mites in that way, so if they are left undisturbed and there are plenty of bees in the hive, I have not noticed detrimental effects.

My bees often swarm when they reach a large size, and so the hives need close monitoring in late
spring when the colony is growing significantly. A productive queen can lay thousands of eggs over the course of a week and this puts pressure on the colony for space. A swarm is a wonderful thing and if you see one, then do contact a beekeeper who will gladly collect it for you.

If you would like more details about honey, hive products and bees or beekeeping then please do contact me for further information.