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