Calm Before the Storm

Protecting the Livestock and Learning Another Bee Lesson.

Having checked the weather forecast (and looked out of the window where we noticed that the trees in our garden and the neighbours were bending almost to right angles in the wind) we confirmed the need for preventative measures.

The first job and the quickest, or so we thought, was moving the beehive further into the corner of the garden. So we strode down the garden, me in jeans and crocks and the boss in jeans and walking boots. The significance of Crocs (tm) is that they are washable plastic footwear. Famed for two things crocs are both utilitarian and hideous. They reduce pressure on knees, ankles and hips by up to 90% but in doing so are possibly the most unattractive footwear since the wooden clog. They do have the advantage of being completely washable so once covered in chicken poo they are easily restored by running under the outside tap.

Back to the bee hive the exchange went something like this. You should bear in mind my little adventure with the feeder a couple of weeks ago-. "should we suit up love?" "Nah Bob, Its a quick job, we're not opening the hive" "OK Katherine lets go and move it" 

So, to reduce the weight, we took off the lid and super but left the crown board in place. Then we lifted the hive. In seconds the quietly humming hive was surrounded by a cloud of furious bees wanting to know what the f$*k we were up to moving their home. "Er... Bob, I think I may have been stung?" while running "yes me too. My wrist hurts." "Its not my wrist the blooming thing is under my sweater. How on earth did it get there? It probably stung you through your clothes" 

Actually no. One stung me through my clothes. The other one had actually wangled it's way under my sweater and thermal vest. Running semi naked round the kitchen trying to find bicarbonate of soda and vinegar because I couldn't remember which to use for an increasingly painful sting in my side I finally pulled out one sting and found another embedded in my bra. I can tell you now that there are some places you really don't want to be stung. However if you are Bee stings are acidic so you need an alkali ie bicarbonate of soda to neutralise it. At a pinch soap will help but a thick bicarb paste takes the heat and pain out of a sting really quickly. I realised when I picked up my sweater from the floor that one of the bees which had stung me was still buzzing around in my clothing. Below, my sensible husband in his quick bee suit and veil.

I have now learned that I will never attempt any bee keeping tasks without the aid of a bee keeping suit.

Back to the job at hand. We suited up but decided that since we were not opening the hive we wouldn't smoke the bees down. It causes the fear of forest fires and since we'd already upset them we felt that we should just get it over with as quickly as possible. Hefting the hive we moved it (less than 3 feet) onto some bricks so we could move the breeze blocks closer to the wall. The point of this maneuver was to put the hive entrance closer to the brick wall which limits the amount of wind that can swirl in. It also potentially protects the hive from cold in the winter. We also put eight house bricks on top of the hive to prevent the roof from being blown off if things get really exciting. 

The next job was getting the water off the top of the hen run. When he built the structure he put the wire mesh on the inside so it would look better. This results in an attractive structure but when we put a tarpaulin on the top as an ad hoc rain protection the rectangles formed by the 2 by 2 inch timbers of the roof filled with rain water. Naturally, water and gravity being what they are the water had started to drip through in places. The only way to remove these puddles was to use polythene tubing and siphon it off. I ended up soaked as, since Bob did the ladder work I was at the bottom sucking the tubing to start the process. The hens supervised with amusement!

Next job was getting two huge sheets of plywood on top of the hen run and nailing it down in a high wind. Thankfully Bob managed to stay on the ladder long enough to get the nails in. Then we put a couple of tarpaulins over the ply and tied it to the wire mesh. We've also put a load of brick paviors on top of the tarps to make it more difficult for the wind to lift it. Of course when we wake up tomorrow and find the air still as a mill pond and an unseasonably warm sunny aspect we'll be delighted in the knowledge that we have another job under our belts for winter. I might grind my teeth just a bit.

The hens went to bed happy in clean warm bedding, we've filled up the hopper with clean water and they have a ready supply of layers pellets and grit. Their little domain is better protected and we'll sleep better too knowing that they wont have water dripping on them however inclement the weather gets. 

Sleep warm and snug

Katherine

Bee Venom-Fun Facials?

Popular Misconceptions

There is a popular misconception that extracting bee venom does the bees no harm.

Having researched the issue I discover that venom is extracted by putting metal plates in the hives and then putting an electrical charge through the plates. Each time the bee is extracted she attempts to sting the plate. Because it is hard she produces venom but does not die because the sting can't penetrate the plate. However can you imagine the interminable torture this causes?

Since aside from primates bees have the most complex language skills yet discovered the torture of bees for the vanity of the "bee venom facial" seems quite exceptionally unpleasant. Botulinum toxin from bacteria is bad enough-we have no idea what damage that will do long term. Bee venom toxin seems a step too far. 

Just because it does not result in death it does not mean that this treatment of bees or indeed any creature is acceptable.

Off the soap box now.

Katherine

Bee Superpowers.

Do bees wear their pants on the outside?

One of the amazing things about the internet is the amount of outstandingly strange information that is not only OUT THERE but PROVABLY TRUE and the internet and all its little helpers is there like a data patron saint distributing wonderful nuggets of knowledge directly into our homes. 

I have been looking for information on the behaviour of bees during before and after storms. Not that i'm obsessed or anything but you may remember, if British, that the last time we were forecast a superstorm in 1987 everyone poo pooed it and subsequently half the trees in the south east were repositioned horizontally across roads, railways, gardens and rooves. In the UK we suffer from remarkably little severe weather. Three inches of snow reduces the flow of traffic to walking pace and if we're forecast what in India would be a day's rain, the Automobile Association advises everyone to stay at home and buy SCUBA equipment. 

Anyway, I digress. During my search I found numerous astounding pieces of information. Bees it seems sense the magnetic field of the earth and this is how they orientate themselves. I'm not sure how true this is. If you look at the 3 feet or 3 miles rule where you can either move them less than 3 feet or more than 3 miles or they end up lost it suggests that perhaps their inbuilt GPS is less accurate than Apple Maps. This said, at least they'd still be on the same continent which is not necessarily the case for apple users if early experiences with the Apple GPRS system were to be believed. 

I found the following quote on cracked.com

Bees are in tune with electricity in lots of unique ways. First, they can sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it to navigate, which is cool, but not exactly rare (cows and fish can figure out which way north is based on the Earth's magnetic field, and as a rule, anything that a cow can do isn't impressive)

I disagree about anything a cow does being unimpressive. Cows convert grass into what is basically a high fat diet through the magic of four stomachs. In nature they eat grass and other green pasture and produce live young sufficiently advanced to walk within moments of birth. They support whole civilisations with their blood and milk and are intelligent enough not to jump over fences when a human being sits on their backs. Digression again. There could be lots of that.

However they bees take their affinity with electrons a step further. Apparently they can sense static in the air which tells them when a storm is coming. Some people can do this too. They feel a change in the air pressure which they perceive as a headache but is really simply a change in the internal pressure system. Apparently they harness the static they build up while flying to harvest pollen. Clever stuff!

Now I have to warn you that this site does state as fact that bees make honey out of pollen. (Rolls eyes) Surely EVERYBODY knows bees make honey out of nectar or other sources of sucrose or fructose solution, by mixing it with enzymes from their hypopharyngeal glands which alter the structure of the sugar to produce glucose and other simple sugars. They also add many other constituents and the flowers they harvest from contribute their own. This carbohydrate rich food powers their day to day energy requirements for flying, keeping the hive warm and caring for the queen and brood. Pollen is made into so called Bee Bread and is a protein substance that supports a bee's physical development and growth. 

It is worth a look at cracked.com but when doing so it's probably worth reading with your critical faculties engaged. There's some really interesting stuff there but while the writer is hugely amusing they don't exactly check all their facts.

However I'm happy with the internal image of my bees wearing their underwear outside their trousers with litte B's printed on their vests. They astound me every day. They produce a food that never goes off, that nourishes and prevents disease and despite their size and the fact they make this miracle food they aren't extinct. How cool is that?

Yours in wonder

Katherine

Preparing For A Super Storm

How to keep chickens and bees warm and dry through a superstorm

Our national weather service the Meteorological Office have issued amber warnings for wind and yellow warnings for rain on Monday from 00.05 GMT to 23.59. Very precise don't you think? As it turns out the warnings are based on a matrix of probability and likely severity. Amber means its pretty likely it's going to be pretty severe. Yellow means its either quite likely it's going to be pretty severe or pretty likely it's going to be quite severe. 

I've borrowed the above image from The Met Office website warnings page. so you can see what I mean.

This means we're going to have a shed load of weather! Heavy rain blowing at 60 to 80 miles an hour. Obviously our chicken run is fox proof but it's made of wire and we still have the temporary rain cover in place. I do not think a tarpaulin held in place with brick paviors is going to survive a super storm. I'm also concerned for the bees.

I noticed this morning that there was an attempt by other bees to rob the hive. Last week Alex told me you can spot robbers in two ways. A. They are so laden that they drop slightly when they take off B. The native bees are trying really hard to kill them. I spotted both behaviours. There isn't a lot I can do to stop them. Bees have a sixth sense about weather. They know what is coming before we do and try hard to protect the colony even if this means robbing out another. I'm going to pop down and mention the forecast to them-mindful of tradition I wouldn't wish to be caught out by failing in my duty to share important news. However we need to ensure that they are as protected as possible when the winds and rain come. 

The first thing we'll need is a strap to keep the roof in place. The hive probably weighs 60lbs and short of a tornado (which we don't really get in Nottingham) it's probably safe from blowing over. We may annoy the bees by moving their entrance closer to the wall but that will protect them more from the misery of the wet wind. Other than that I don't know what else we can do. The roof is covered with aluminium sheet and the vents are pretty narrow. They need some kind of ventilation because in cold weather damp is more of a killer than anything else but if the rain is really bad we may have to plug up the base vent.

I took a short break from writing to put another coat of gloss on the lid of the roosting box so that's drying in the conservatory. For your information conservatory sounds terribly glam. It is actually the place where we put all the things that wont go anywhere else. We have pipe dreams of turning it into an airy light infused sitting room. While mitre saws, wellington boots, sacks of chicken feed, tubs of dried worms, telescopes and the Cobb grill have nowhere else to go.....well you get the picture.

OK. Off to the supermarket

See you later.

Katherine

Snorkel Training for All

Any one for scuba?

I'm delighted to see that the American Central Government is functioning again. I'm sure it makes huge difference to chickens in the states. Our chickens are unmoved by such changes in global politics. They are wondering whether there might be a manufacturer of snorkeling equipment for hens. It has continued to rain torrentially and as a consequence the tarpaulin that is doing temporary duty as a roof while construction continued on the permanent weather proof structure is beginning to leak. It was intended as short term shower proofing but the incessant heavy rain has prevented the use of power tools and the completion of the final essential modification.

A varroa check of the bees showed 3 mites dropped on the board in 48 hours which is pretty good. We and the previous bee keeper have only used organic treatment because it's gentler on the bees. Some research on my part shows that adding thyme to the sugar syrup helps the bees resist infection too. Because the hive is very densely packed with provisions and bees it's essential we to do the best we can to maintain good health. Healthy bees, good store levels and a strong colony all make it more likely that the colony will make it through what experts are forecasting will be a very hard winter. Still the bees fly in with their baskets full of pollen and still the forage. The hive is heavy with plenty of food to keep them going but no flower will be missed in their eternal search. However the rain takes it's toll. At this time of the year many are running out of steam and the heavy rain drops are simply knocking them out of the air, their wings become waterlogged and they never make it back to the hive.

Today there have been a few dry spells and the chickens engaged in some interesting foraging. I think they got more than they bargained for when they attacked my husband's chili plants. One of the poor dears was running in circles. I have noticed though, that both the onion plants and the sage have been untouched. Something in the race memory?

The kitten has finally found the straw that broke the camels back. She is intensely interested in my hair and took a flying leap of the back of the sofa landing with all four sets of claws on my head. I am searching the internet not for a snorkel but for a full head covering diving suit. I feel it might do double duty keeping me safe from the kitten and warm while tackling chicken duties in the Garden.

Come to think of it maybe a neoprene bee keeping suit or just putting on the bee suit and gloves when playing with the kitten. And NOW I find myself wondering whether you can get a neoprene zip up skin for the hive? If it's going to be a very cold wet winter that might well help! Goodness. The possibilities.

Thoughtfully yours

Katherine

Chickens and Sorrel

Chicken OCD

As a small aside you may have noticed, in the previous post, in the foreground was a hen investigating our conservatory. In the background is quite a lot of green leaves on the ground. 

It became apparent that hens are deeply concerned about the threat sorrel plants pose to mankind. As a result they have made it their duty to eradicate this dangerous vegetable from our garden. Having tried extremely hard on saturday they were distressed to find on sunday morning that a few green shoots were still visible in the pot. They put their minds too it and in a very sort space of time the remaining danger was dealt with. I can assure all of you who share this understandable concern that Sorrel no longer poses any kind of difficulty in our lives and that the chickens have turned their attentions to other botanical menaces. 

I will keep you updated!

The Chickenmeister.

The Birds And The Bees (And The Kitten)

Nottingham Bee Sanctuary

It occurred to me that virtually every animal we've ever had has been rescued. Sid, our most pampered overweight cat, is the only animal that didn't arrive as the result of someone else's neglect or an urgent need to be re-homed.

The bees were always loved and cherished by their former host but as she became fatally allergic to their stings it was a life or death matter to find them another place to stay. The Goose (the kitten) was brought to the RSPCA after she was "found" with a damaged leg. That's a matter of debate since it appears she was probably taken to the animal rescue charity because the owner didn't want to pay vet's bills. I suppose at least she was taken to someone who would care for her instead of being dumped in a bag which, sadly, is often what happens to unwanted animals. And of course the hens were rescued from the pet food man at just 18 months old because they lay less than 300 eggs a year so are no longer "financially viable" They're gorgeous little ladies who are even starting to take liberties!

Merlin, our oldest cat was found wandering in the street looking for food when he was probably only 9 weeks old. He is a much loved and very pampered pet but he is delightfully affectionate. He went missing last February for 13 days. We canvased every home in the area, we put up posters and advertised. In the end it turned out he'd been locked in a garage while people had gone away. He struggled home skin and bone but only just made it.

The weather has been awful today but we can safely say that all our animals have been warm and dry and well fed and well loved. We can go to sleep knowing that we have done our best to make their lives a little better. The kitten came with a nasty abscess. It has now healed though she may end up with one of those neck cones because she keeps worrying at it and making it bleed. It doesn't seem to slow her down much though she still only has two settings-jet speed and asleep. The bees are still foraging when the weather allows and the hens are putting on weight, their feathers are improving. Even a week on they look sleeker and more comfortable. They aren't scared of us anymore in fact, as you can see from the picture, they're coming into the house.

The only animal who isn't materially better off is poor Sid the Squid. Young Squiddy has taken to kitten food like a duck to water. Already portly this hasn't done him any good. Consequently this mean's he's now on a weight loss diet. It's fair to say this has done nothing to improve his already frayed temper.

Sleep well
Katherine xx

Our First Full Month

Goodness That Went Quickly.

I find that as one gets older life seems to move past me ever more quickly. It's been an incredibly action packed month. The bees arrived. Our older son was 19, he went to university (which incidentally he loves) I was 45 I had my first birthday since they arrived where one of my children wasn't at home. The chickens finally joined us. We got a kitten. I had my first market stall. Our younger son had his first job interview. The list is endless. Everything with the bees and the chickens is a first. I'm learning something new every single day of my life and it feels wonderful. Even the disasters are worthwhile because you learn something which makes the future more certain.

Today it's raining again. I'll probably stop commenting about the rain soon but, being British-albeit with a liberal sprinkling of Dutch DNA-its very difficult not to make reference. It's never the same long enough to ignore. I've heard that in Hawaiian there is no word for weather because it's always the same. Hot and damp. Mind you i'd heard there was no word for snow in Inuit, then I heard there were 30 words for snow and the truth is somewhere in between. In England we have endless adjectives for weather. It saves uncomfortable conversations about things like emotions!

The hens are attempting to enjoy the damp garden and the bees have recycled nearly all the honey comb we had to remove from the crown board. The kitten is currently gnawing at my elbow while playing with a small fluffy mouse toy and Sid (one of the older cats) is looking on with an expression vacillating between ennui and a clear desire to pounce on the little blighter.

All is well with the world. Let us see what the next moth brings!

Lots of Love

Katherine

Free Range Chickens

A Little Light Entertainment.

Today it didn't rain. That sounds a little like "Small earthquake, not many killed" but after 4 days of driving rain it was such a relief to be able to let the chickens out of the run to have a proper look round their new surroundings. 

It took them about 15 minutes to cluck up the courage to come out but once they did it was delightful to see them stretching their wings and scratching in the gravel. They fought over grubs (and my plants) and found a splendid place for a dust bath. 

It turns out the kitten has sheep dog tendencies. Does this make her a Chicken Cat? At one point I could see 4 hens running away from a tiddly kitten. About two minutes later I could see a kitten fleeing from 4 chickens. Comedy gold! Chickens really are the best entertainment money can buy. Adding a kitten and sunshine to the mix really does make up for all the earlier worry.

Sleep tight

Sweet Dreams

Katherine

Operation Cleanup.

A Better Day for Bees and Bee Keepers 

Those of you who read last night's blog will know that I messed up. I messed up good and proper.
This morning the sun was shining and Alex rang while I was looking out of an upstairs window watching the stalwart bees from our hive taking advantage of the warmer dryer autumn day to stock up on pollen and any nectar that might still be going.

Alex agreed to come and have a look at what had happened. He brought a porta bee escape for the crown board (the board between the brood box where the main colony live and the super which is another tier used in the summer for honey frames and in the autumn and winter for any additional feed the colony might need) so if I accidentally trapped a bee in there again it would be able to get back into the brood box. He also brought a spare veil and bee suit for Bob so next time we have a problem we can work together.

When we removed the roof from the hive the feeder was still absolutely full of bees. They were doing their best to clean up all the crystalised sugar. There was no liquid syrup left and really only a very small amount of the dried. Alex lifted the feeder off and exposed the hole in the crown board and then using his hive tool levered the crown board off. The hive was incredibly full and packed with stores. There were new burrs of honeycomb all over the underside of the crown board and the tops of the frames. We had to scrape a little off because otherwise there was too much danger of squishing bees.

Alex put the scraped honey comb in front of the entry to the hive, so the bees could recycle it, and then emptied the bees from the feeder directly onto the tops of the frames. On inspection there were only 4 or five bees stuck in the syrup. We were able to free one but the other few were already dead. Bees are incredibly hygienic and careful about removing their dead from the hive so it is possible that they had already removed a good number of dead bees but there did not seem to be many outside the front of the hive.

Well actually there were loads of bees outside the hive but they were busy collecting the honey from the burr comb to reuse so that robbers from other hives and wasps wouldn't be alerted too quickly. We were able to tidy up the super, cover the exits without a bee escape and put the lid back on.

I dont know how people get great pictures of bees but they definitely have better cameras than I do!

In short my ill thought out attempt to help the colony yesterday seems to have less lasting impact than I feared. Working in the sunshine with someone who could tell me what to do was so calming. It was a positive joy to take out the grubby feeder and to satisfy myself that no lasting damage was done to the bees.

I now know that I need a bigger bee suit. Comfort while working is really important. I MUST ensure i've zipped up the front of the suit all the way and that all the velcro is tapped down because then I won't find I have a bee trapped inside my suit. I also know that If you have gloves that fit and you trust to be thick enough you can do the jobs that need doing quickly and without fear of being stung.

My mother always said that mistakes were inevitable but they were only unforgivable if you learned nothing from them. I've learned a lot, mostly about my limitations but I'm not quite ready to forgive the silliness of rushing in to something without the right information, tools or support.

Yours, very relieved
Katherine

A Tragedy of Schoolboy Errors

Or How NOT To Do It.

I've learned things today. First: Typing while a small kitten with razor teeth nibbles your fingers is nigh on impossible. Second: When you are a novice bee keeper, rushing into cleaning the sugar syrup feeder after dark in a bee suit that doesn't fit with gloves that aren't really thick enough is not in any way a sensible decision. Still shaking and feeling slightly hysterical I have just about calmed down but it is by no means certain that the bees have yet.

I went down to check on the hive and the sugar syrup dispenser. When I looked at it I realised the sugar had crystalised to such an extent some bees were caught in it and others were struggling to get to it. This, figures I, meant the poor bees can't get any more syrup and they looked like they really really wanted it. Now this may have been a fine example of anthropomorphism. Knowing that in times of stress I pig out on chocolate perhaps I projected that onto the hive.

The net result is a really pissed off hive. Instead of researching how to remove a feeder, engaging the assistance of a more experienced bee keeper and lighting the smoker to calm the hive I thought "Hey it's dark, how much trouble can there be. I'll just take the cone off the feeder (which is over a hole that gives access to the brood box) thereby removing the access control to the syrup. Actually It would be quite wrong to say that I thought about anything. I came I saw I bungled. I just didn't think it through. I dashed in and as a result when bees came pouring up through the hole I panicked, dropped the feeder. Bees quickly covered the whole of the feeder many of them fell into what syrup was accessible and drowned (possibly a couple of hundred I am ashamed to say) I'd moved the feeder away from the hole so that those bees out of the hive couldn't get down and I have no idea how to tell which of them were nurse bees and which of them could fly.

I realised in a split second that I had screwed up royally. I had a rubber glove covered in sugar syrup and bees and one of the bees had got inside my visor. Again I panicked and ran down the garden trying to strip off my glove and get the visor down before the poor angry bee stung my face. I grabbed the smoker and managed to get it alight but I realised after puffing it at the bees that really it wasn't a smart idea either. Smoke triggers the bees to gorge on honey. If the closest thing to honey happens to be sugar syrup, why lets go for that. More of the bees poured out into the syrup. Some trying to eat it, some realising their sisters were drowning in the stuff tried to pull them out and others buzzed about trying to drive me away and all the while I was standing there in my bee suit feeling completely helpless.

Ultimately the only thing I could do was try and brush them out of the way while I pushed the feeder back toward the centre of the super at least allowing those that survived to get back into the main body of the hive.
Then gritting my teeth I brushed those that were left back into the super and put the lid back on. Net result a lot more angry, upset probably distressed and dying bees. All caused by a misguided urge to take control and solve a problem.

Goose, the kitten has slightly put things in perspective by taking several flying leaps onto my keyboard. Life goes on. There is no drum roll to signify the pathos of the moment. There was just a lot of unnecessary suffering caused by a lack of planning and forethought.

I cant help feeling that's a life lesson I should have picked up in infant school.

Today was a quiet day, There was some pollen outside the hive, I wondered why, I thought the hive might have a problem but I was going to research it but basically write about chickens.

I'll ring lovely Alex in the morning and ask if he can help me sort out the cock up. I just have to hope it's dry tomorrow because if not I can't open the hive!

Goodnight.
Katherine

Chickens

Yesterday the Chickens Landed.

Today has been very damp and the bees are clearly maintaining the internal temperature of the hive in preference to other activities. The incessant driving rain has probably knocked most pollens off open flowers and, since we've had a couple of dead bumble bees, it seems that it's capable of knocking bees out of the sky too.

Yesterday we welcomed 4 ex barn hens into the fold. Barn hens are not treated quite as inhumanely as battery hens but they live in cramped unnatural conditions for their brief lives and then at 18 months when they start to lay less than 300 eggs a year (bearing in mind a wild hen will lay fewer than 20) they are sent for slaughter and to be put in pet food. Brinsley Animal Rescue is run by lovely people Beth and Jon who have had to move to a bigger house with more land so they can take on the care of hundreds of animals that have been dumped, neglected, maltreated and abused or just plain missold. As an example of mis selling I give you the 8 stone "Micro pig" that they are currently trying to rehome. They both work full time to be able to afford what they do on top of the huge job of tending to the animals with the aid of an army of volunteers.

The first challenge to the would be urban hen keeper are urban foxes. They're clever and garden hens are sitting ducks so Bob built this amazing fox proof run. It has a free draining floor. Wire mesh covered with 5 ins of large gravel on soil with concrete edging. Then 3 ins of sand and finally about 4 ins of wood chippings. there is a sand area at the end where they can dust bathe. There are herbs growing round the edge and when they've got used to the surroundings they'll be able to free range in the garden.

Each of us has named one hen. Bob's is Henrietta, Jacob's is Mavis, Mine is Beatrice or Beattie and Joel's is John. Yes, John. The cats are unimpressed. Squid is downright terrified but Merlin effects disdain.

If I thought I had a lot to learn with bees I was probably underestimating the situation. Having managed to lock myself in the chicken run less than 4 hours after they arrived in an attempt to catch one to put in the coop I feel I am perhaps, as yet, unprepared for how much more chickens have to teach me.

In a rather lovely book called "Keeping Hens in your Back Yard For Fun and Profit" written in the states in the 1950's it says the first thing the new chicken keeper should do is learn to handle his birds, get to know their form and let the birds know who is boss. I like that idea. It's a spiffing idea. Please can someone explain how you catch them?

Sweet dreams

Katherine.xx

The Bees and the Birds

As you may have noticed from my profile we have been preparing to welcome some hens into our lives. Today this finally happened. I must state at this point that my husband has strictly forbidden me from taking in any further animals. Caz, who I mentioned before, tells me that becoming known as the mad cat, bee and chicken lady is inevitable I think Bob rather hopes that I can put of the days of wandering round town with a tartan trolley full of cats and cat food till he has made other arrangements.

The bees have been less busy again. The last litre of thyme and sugar syrup took 3 days to be taken. We put some more in yesterday evening and while there were still bees in the feeder the level has only gone down about half a centimeter (5/8 inch). All the books say one should stop feeding in early October. We're nearly two weeks in so we expect to be left with syrup soon. Karina, from who we got the bees, says this is a really strong hive. We hope so because we've been told that the augers are strong for a very hard winter. 

Last year the temperatures went down to minus 12, the year before they went down as low as minus 16. This is incredibly low for the United Kingdom. Many hives in West Bridgford didn't survive the winter but this one did. The Queen is strong and she is well supported by a brood box virtually full of  honey. The've taken a minimum of 19 kilos of sugar and that will have fed bees but also contributed to their carbohydrate stores. They continue to forage any day when the sun comes up and the temperature is over 10 degrees. Though because it's been so wet it's been a lot more difficult.

The other bee fact we've noticed is that there are many more dead bees outside the hive. I guess this is because they're flying out less frequently so more bees are dying in the hive than when out foraging. It's still sad however much it may be the natural order of things. I suppose this is where the lesson that sentimentality has no place in small holding begins to be learned.

Good night

Katherine

Morse code?

I went out to check on the ladies. The temperature is 11.5C and that's getting down to the point where it's not possible to open the hive. They may have inbuilt heaters but it's not fair to let all their heat out and make them warm it up all over again. It would be like putting the central heating on then having some thoughtless individual take off your roof. Darned chilly.

I looked at the landing platform at the front of the hive and there were no bees to see. I bent over and looked a little closer and there were a line of them just inside the opening and I could hear a loud clicking. This worried me enough to consult beekeepers in the area and no one seemed to have a clue.

Google was consulted. Several bee keeping forums had several questions of the same nature so clearly mine is not the only hive communicating in Morse Code. There were a number of possible explanations. Queen Pipping-No idea what that was but according to those who know it is usually related to the birth of a new queen so not likely in October. Gnawing. Now that seemed more likely. Apparently bees sometimes gnaw at small cracks to make them larger. I'd no idea they had strong enough jaws! The other suggestion was that it might be a mouse. But if it were a mouse one would have to consider the possibility that there would be more noise and more sounds of consternation in the hive.

It's too cold to open up and looks so for now it remains a mystery. If anyone knows what it might be please please let me know.

Yours thoughtfully

Katherine

Kitten Update.

Young Goose arrived at about 3 this afternoon. She is bright, sprightly and running rings around Merlin and Sid our two black neutered Tom Cats. Merlin is a pretty chilled chap and he's showing minimal interest. Sid who has styled himself as the baby of the family is really teed off.

She is a nutter. Bob thinks we should report her as faulty. I think she's just a very excited little girl.

After a mad evening of leg, curtain and sofa climbing combined with a couple of brief kips and a little Tom taunting she has flaked out happily on the sofa snuggled in a fleecy blanket.

Sid remains unimpressed.

TTFN

x

Winter's a comin'

This morning when the sun was shining and the ivy flowers were blooming in the sunshine our bees were busy and active bringing home nectar and pollen. I pottered down the garden to say hello and as usual, when getting in their flight path, I had to disentangle a few of the ladies from my hair (I'll never learn)

I nipped out for a couple of hours, the wind blew up and the weather changed. Recently the temperature has remained between 17 and 21 degrees Celsius or 62 and 69 Fahrenheit. In the United Kingdom that's pretty warm weather for October. When we've been out to check their feeder at night the entry platform has been covered in bees either protecting the hive from robber bees and wasps or regulating the temperature.

This evening it was 7 degrees C (44 degrees F) It's pretty cold. I'm sitting in bed wearing fluffy socks because Bob complains when I warm my feet on his leg. The window in our bedroom is closed. I may even resort to putting a fluffy blanket on the bed!

This turned my mind to wondering how bees regulate temperature inside the hive. I noticed the other night that when you take the roof off to pour sugar syrup in the feeder you can feel warmth radiating from the hole where the bees enter the feeder. It's noticeably warmer than the air around it. Of course they need to evaporate water from the nectar and sugar water to make honey but they also have to keep brood and larvae at specific temperatures to ensure they pupate and it turns out temperature plays a part in which roles the bees eventually fulfill.

Research at the Universitat Wurtzburg (please excuse missing umlauts. My keyboard is not set up for German) at the center for honey bee studies HoneyBee Online Studies UW  have discovered that there are particular bees in a colony who perform the job of regulating the temperature in the hive. They have named them Heater Bees. If you click the above link it will take you to the centre's website where you can see live data for yourself. Apparently their body temperature is significantly higher than those of other bees in the colony. This allows them to make subtle changes to the temperature of cells in which specific larva are developing and pupating. 

It seems the temperature at which larval bees pupate and develop influences the type of bee they will later become. Those who develop at 35C become intelligent forager bees those who develop at 34C are likely to become housekeeper bees who clean the cells and look after the internal needs of the colony.

It is not yet understood exactly how they achieve this although it is hypothesised that some bees can increase their own body temperatures by vibrating their wing muscles. It is known that on very hot days the worker bees will gather as much as a litre of water in 24 hours and using their wings will evaporate this from the hive driving down the internal temperature. 

We've looked at how some drones have a miserable time of it but most of them live an avarage of 90 days. a worker bee at the height of summer will live a mere 42 days while the queen who has a single mating flight then returns to the hive to be pampered by housekeeper bees while she lays egg after egg will live up to 3 years. Even then it's unlikely that she will die of old age. Most likely she'll become less fertile and the workers will bring on a replacement queen. When this virgin queen is ready they either drive the old queen out, sting her to death or the new queen leads a revolt and half the population swarms and heads off to pastures new.

so 42 days, 90 days or a 1000 days. Even the latter seems to be short of a bee's possible life span which seems such a shame when one considers the intelligence and cooperation within the hive.

Sleep warm, Sleep tight.

Katherine xxx

Thought for the day.

I've had a lot of feedback about the miserable lives of the drones. While I agree that a small number of them do pay the ultimate price for genetic diversity the comment that made me laugh was from the lovely Caz. 

She made the point that drones basically live at home with their mums eating more than their fair share while doing nothing to help out. It's perhaps unsurprising that their overworked sisters get annoyed and throw them out when the work gets really hard.

One thing I forgot to mention is that one of the ways you can identify a drone from his sisters is that they have much bigger eyes. This is so they can spot willing queens when they're out on the pull. They also have much wider rears. Perhaps this is because of all the sitting around eating.

As an aside when I googled Drones I got hundreds of images of american un manned aircraft. It took some foraging to find a picture of a bee. Perhaps this goes some way toward an understanding of the worrying decrease in bee populations. Ignorance and the practicing of ignoring.....

More from the ladies at the bottom of the garden.

I went to check the feeder this evening and for the first time since the hive arrived it was still almost as full as it was last night. 

The bees are able to access the syrup from inside the hive without danger of robbing by other colonies because the feeder is sealed inside the super by the roof and there is a cone of plastic over the opening which allows the bees to access the syrup but prevents them from getting into the the unused super and getting trapped. The speckles in the syrup are leaves of thyme.

There seemed to be no great hum coming from the hive and unlike previous occasions there was no pushing and shoving to get to the syrup. Of course it's been another beautiful day with plenty of Ivy to forage. Our bees were making the most of the water bath that we have close by so they evidently needed a little more to go with the pollen they were bringing in on their clown trousers.

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By this time in the season there are no drones left in the hive. Drones are the male bees and a friend of mine once said he didn't fancy being a drone much as they got rather short shrift. I hadn't realise quite how right he was.

They eat a lot, have to be cared for by the workers and the nurse bees but they're tolerated by the colony because they may be needed to keep the colony fertile. So they have a pretty easy time until they are needed to fertilise a virgin queen or if the old queen needs to be superseded. They fly out of the hive to the drone mating area which is between 2 and 3 hundred feet up and usually up to a mile away from the hive. There are usually drones from many hives which ensures the genetic diversity and so the health of the hive.

Now this is where things turn ugly. The drone's intimate equipment is barbed and when he has impregnated the queen he is unable to withdraw it so, as with the worker bee's sting, when he tries to pull away his chaps bits, along with significant portions of his innards, are pulled away so he suffers and dies.

The queen mates with numerous drones on her nuptial flight. She stores their seed in her spermatheca and then goes back to the hive where that store of sperm will last her for two to three years. Fertilisation with a sperm is only necessary for laying females. Drones can be born to a virgin queen so a large number of drones can also be a sign that the queen is no longer fertile and needs to be replaced. 

So at the end of the season when there is no need to fertilise queens they stop laying drones which, due to their short and shocking lives, are expected to do nothing in the hive towards the maintenance of the colony.

There is only food for worker bees so they can keep the queen warm, maintain what brood there is, and keep the temperature of the hive constant through the hard winter. So when I talk about the ladies at the bottom of the garden really I'm talking about a colony of ruthless hardworking amazons who serve their queen to the letter, work till they die and exclusively for the good of the hive. 

Really when you compare the selflessness of the bee it puts the human race to shame! We could all take a leaf out of the bee book of dutiful living.

Yours thoughtfully

Katherine

Woke up it was a Chelsea morning....

Not so much about bees. Written Saturday morning while making damson jam.

We're having a rest from Goose Fair Weather. The sun is shining and the sky is fairly blue. We ate our breakfast on the decking in the sunshine. The bees were busy helping themselves to the new wave of ivy flowers that have opened in the late sunshine and it was a perfect time to appreciate the good things about our lives.

I may have mentioned that we are planning for the arrival of chickens into our lives. More accurately we are planning for the arrival of hens. Somehow, in our suburban paradise, I feel the insertion of a cockerel into lazy Sunday mornings  might not make for domestic harmony. Our neighbours have absorbed the news of our novice bee keeping with good humour, they've even put up with the Saturday and Sunday power tool show that has been chicken run building but 5 am crowing on a weekend? Well we're British. It would be like lighting up a cigarette in a no smoking area. There would be stern looks and letters to The Times. While we are lucky enough not to live in an area where neigbourly issues are dealt with by a large chap called Bubba who brings round his 12 bore I'm not keen to upset anyone. Besides which I don't want to be woken at the crack of dawn either.

I should mention at this point that we do not own a car. We have never owned a car. This frequently elicits gasps of horror, a little like confessing you prefer to wear rubber at the weekends or GASP you don't drink alcohol. (I don't and I do in that order though i'm sure you didn't really want to know) However it does mean that occasionally we have to get a taxi or ask one of our very kind car owning friends to take us places.

So we'd arranged that friends would give us a lift to the rescue centre where we are planning to get our ex battery hens. Regrettably it seems the rescue centre is so busy they don't answer the phone. So our chicken run remains palatial yet sadly chicken free. I will let you know what happens. By hook or by crook I plan to have chickens in the garden by next Saturday.

We have agreed to give a home to a small grey kitten. She's about 8 weeks old, the prettiest shades of grey and white and has a damaged hind leg. Good freinds of ours, one of whom is a vet who does work for the RSPCA (for non brits this is a charity called the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. They rescue neglected, abused or abandoned animals and where possible treat them and re-home them-They also prosecute people who neglect, abuse or abandon animals and where possible rehome them in prisons) Yon small kitten was brought to Erica's practice by the RSPCA inspector who said she'd been dropped at their facility by a bloke claiming to have found her damaged. When he asked if he could have her back after treated it became clear that he was trying to get free care for an animal he had not adequately protected so they took her away.

The long and the short of it. Cute kitten picture on Facebook.

Woman who has recently sent her beautiful son to university. Really cute little kitten needs home......Yup. She's arriving Tuesday.

Facebook message arrives later in the day "Oh Mum, I'm coming home next weekend to see you"

Brilliant!!! anything to do with cute kitten?

Happy Sunday.
Katherine

Colony Size and Elderberries. 

I've been unsure about the size of a bee colony. This is partly because I know so little about bee keeping and partly because every book and website you investigate gives different numbers.

I've extrapolated that in autumn a bee hive will have between 30 thousand and 40 thousand bees and this will dwindle over winter to between 10 and 15 thousand. Its difficult to be more accurate than this when it's impossible to count your bees. When Alex and I took the frames out to inspect the hive last week I was amazed by the sheer numbers of them crowding round the comb but equally wondered how, with so many frames and such thick comb, so many could still fit in what is essentially quite a small box.

When we went out to feed the girls this evening we were surprised by how warm it was. There were a lot of bees outside fanning the hive. I'm starting to worry increasingly about damp. I really don't want them to feel soggy in their little corner of the garden.

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Elderberries have nothing particular to do with bees. Of course the flowers are perfect for bees and will contribute to wonderfully healthy honey which in turn contributes to healthy bees. Elderberries just happen to be preoccupying me in my other guise as a herbalist. It has been an astonishing autumn for soft fruit and berries. As we walked down the road the other day we could see the heavy glossy panicles of small purple black berries and the purple smudges under the bushes where either the berries had fallen under their own weight or the birds had gorged themselves and the purple blue flesh had made its way through the bird in the way such things do and ended up coating the ground beneath their perch.

Nature has a way of supplying what we need in abundance. At a time when flu becomes an ever present concern here is natures protector against the virus. Research has proven the effect of elderberry syrup, tincture and standardised extract both in vitro (in the test tube) and in vivo (in the human subject) against numerous viruses including influenza and a number of strains of herpes the nasty little viruses that give us cold sores but also are part of the same family which causes glandular fever, shingles and in some cases viral meningitis. As I was standing stirring the bee syrup I was also stirring honey into the elderberry syrup to protect us against this winter's diseases. I always add cinnamon, ginger, cloves and star anise but this time I took a bunch of the thyme I've been putting in the bees' syrup and added that. It's a spectacularly effective anti infective so I feel it will add to the healing and health promoting benefits of the elderberry syrup for us.

Sleep tight

Katherine xx

Goose Fair Weather.

Every year in Nottingham we have the Goose Fair. This dates back 700 years and is regarded as one of the most prestigious fairs in the country. Originally it was where folk went to sell and buy geese for the Christmas table. Now it is a fair of rides and candy floss and excess where teenagers reeking of cheap perfume and excess hormones go to consort in what can only be described as Goose Fair Weather.

It matters not what went before or what comes after but the first weekend in October will always be damp. It may be mist, it may be drizzle it may be torrential pouring rain resulting in flash floods and knee deep mud but the one thing you can guarantee is that you will return from Goose Fair wetter than when you went out.

It's actually fairly warm at 17 degrees but the damp seeps into your bones and the bees are finding the same. They're busy but the lack of sunshine means that what flowers are out are perhaps not producing as much nectar and pollen as they would like. The temperature is also fairly constant through the day and the night. It's muggy and a a little warm. This means the bees are having to work very hard to keep the hive at a constant comfortable temperature. 

In the evening when we go out to feed them there are serried ranks of them standing on the entrance platform facing in desperately using their wings to ventilate the hive. I have not seen but am told that one lot stand outside pointing in and another lot stand inside pointing out and this helps to regulate the temperature. There is another issue of course and that is damp. The colony produce moisture through their own metabolic processes but so does the nectar and sugar syrup which they then need to reduce so that it stays in the wax cells. Damp is more of a killer than cold and promotes disease in the hive. I may need to call upon my mentor Alex as I'm a little worried that the 18 odd litres of sugar syrup that have disappeared into the hive may be causing damp that in the current climate they are unable to dispel. As I did not put the hive together I don't know whether we have a mesh bottom and if we don't, ventilation becomes an issue.

When we went out to check on the girls last night the feeder was again empty. We were a lot steadier in pouring the syrup so there were no unfortunate losses this time. Its astonishing how upsetting it is to know you squished or drowned a bee.

Now I need to decide whether or not to subject myself to goose fair this weekend.

Enjoy the day

Katherine xxx

A Change in The Weather

Today I was woken by the unexpected sensation of rain on my face. That and the frantic scrabbling of the cat to get out of said rain. We've been sleeping with the window of our loft conversion bedroom open all summer but the disadvantage of a pitched roof window is that when the wind is blowing torrential rain sideways it comes right in and, as happened just now, blows in my face!

It's been an eventful few days. Yesterday was my birthday. I'm 45. This feels a little weird as inside I don't feel any older than I did 30 years ago though things creak a little more than they did then. The net result is I've had lots of lovely people around being nice to me and didn't have time to write for a couple of days!

However I have a wonderful stash of chocolate to sustain me while I catch up on what's been happening.

The bees have had a wonderful few days. The sun has been shining and Ivy flowers seem to have come out everywhere. I spent a  lovely half hour watching the girls bringing home bright yellow pollen in their leg baskets.

This is not my picture; thanks to Borderglider for this one.

Pollen is a protein rich food and is needed for raising brood. Generally the fact that the bees are coming back with yellow trousers is an indicator that the queen is fertile and if she isn't currently laying brood she will be in the spring. The nurse bees feed pollen to the larvae which enables them to grow into fully fledged bees. Honey is a carbohydrate rich food that keeps them going but the protein is needed for growth and development. 

We have the hive entrance pointing at the wall. This is because, in theory, the bees will fly straight up and make their departures over head height. In fact the hive is not quite close enough to the wall so they have plenty of space to swirl around and bump into you. I've found that bees are not particularly suited to late changes in flight path so if you're bent over watching them coming into the entrance they will bump into you. If. like me, you have lots of fluffy hair then both you and the bee can be distressed by the job of untangling the unsuspecting girl from the mess. I've been saying it for a week but we need to move the hive about a foot forward. 

Another development is that when we went to put sugar syrup in the feeder last night for the first time it wasn't empty. This could well be because the nectar has been flowing and they haven't needed the additional sugar. It could also result from what spaces left in the comb being full of stores already. When Alex and I looked at the brood box the combs were pretty full with only a couple of frames showing spaces. That was last Thursday, almost a week ago. We've given them around a litre of sugar syrup a day. That equates to 14 kilos of sugar. plus Alex gave them around 4 litres before they arrived so they've had 18 kilos of sugar.

I like the idea that next year we'll be leaving them sufficient stores to avoid the need for sugar syrup but I find myself deeply attached to the bees already. I cannot imagine allowing them to go hungry when I'm capable of boiling herbs into sugar water for them. However I gather that you can save frames of honey for the purpose of bee feeding and that may be the way to go.

Goodness there's a lot to learn.

Happy October

Katherine xx