Unlike the Duchess of Cambridge, beekeepers should never go commando. Let me explain why.
My bees are fairly placid, but some bees can be really nasty as I was reminded yesterday. I was helping my bee-buddy with his hives. It had rained for the last week and we expected the bees would be tetchy, especially as the day before he had removed some honey. Tetchy is an understatement; before we got within 20 yards of the apiary we were being attacked.
'We'll start with the feisty hive first,' he suggested. On reflection this was not the smartest strategy, but I was well protected with my veil and gloves.....or so I thought.
When bees are annoyed they buzz around your face trying to ward you off, and when they are angry they 'ping' off the veil because they fly so hard at you, but when bees go ballistic.... they burrow! They crawl all over you looking for any gap in your armour and if one manages to sting it releases pheromones that direct the other bees to your weak point.
'Ouch!' One managed to get me on the back of the neck delivering it's sting right through the bee suit. She was lucky, the material must have been close to my skin for a moment and she seized her chance, but such a long shot did no real harm.
More worrying were the bees on my legs. They'd worked out that my trousers had worn a bit thin on the thighs. Then some discovered the trousers had pockets and went burrowing, whilst others found the gap between my legs and Wellington boots and headed down to my feet, intent ascending my trousers on the inside.
I beat a retreat, initially 50 yards, but they were still going for me so I carried on walking. At 200 yards the flying bees finally left me, but I still had to deal with the burrowers!
I gingerly emptied my pockets - bees! Then my boots - more bees! Then off came the veil - no bees thankfully, .... but I could feel something tickling my leg. I dropped my trousers. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed, me or the bee, but she gave up all notion of further attack and flew away - laughing, I suspect.
I had 6 stings on one leg and 4 on the other, some perilously close to .... well let's just say, 'Thank goodness for pants!'
My bee-buddy toughed it out with no stings. I was astonished.
'Do your trousers have pockets?' I asked.
'No,' he replied smugly.
Nevertheless I expressed surprise that he hadn't been stung through his trousers, as I had.
He smiled. 'I'm wearing two pairs,' he explained.
I didn't ask if he was dressed 'comme la duchesse'.
Friday 30 May 2014
Sunday 18 May 2014
Tell them about the honey, mummy!
You've got to be quick with rape honey - as soon as the flowers start to fade the honey has to be off the hive and into the extractor, otherwise it sets rock solid in the comb.
I wasn't quick ........ I went on holiday instead and after I got back it rained and rained. So when I finally got into the hive earlier this week I wasn't sure whether I would need a honey extractor or a pneumatic drill!
Initial signs were encouraging - I couldn't lift the top box because of the weight of honey. Instead I had to resort to removing the frames two at a time and carrying them into the house, having first carefully brushed off the bees. Twenty frames later and all the honey was safely inside and a number of rather angry bees were buzzing around outside.
As I started to uncap the honey comb with a knife it became immediately obvious that some of the honey had already crystallised, which meant extraction was going to be tricky: Spin the extractor too quickly and the honeycomb would fly apart; spin it too slowly and the liquid honey would stubbornly remain in the comb.
Three hours later I had one smashed comb and about 10 lb of honey remaining firmly set in the frames. But best of all I had 40 of these:
40lb of spring honey off one hive is a respectable result, but as you can see, it has already set in the jar just 4 days after extraction.
There's one consolation - at least the Honey Monster won't be able to get his paws into it!
I wasn't quick ........ I went on holiday instead and after I got back it rained and rained. So when I finally got into the hive earlier this week I wasn't sure whether I would need a honey extractor or a pneumatic drill!
Initial signs were encouraging - I couldn't lift the top box because of the weight of honey. Instead I had to resort to removing the frames two at a time and carrying them into the house, having first carefully brushed off the bees. Twenty frames later and all the honey was safely inside and a number of rather angry bees were buzzing around outside.
As I started to uncap the honey comb with a knife it became immediately obvious that some of the honey had already crystallised, which meant extraction was going to be tricky: Spin the extractor too quickly and the honeycomb would fly apart; spin it too slowly and the liquid honey would stubbornly remain in the comb.
Three hours later I had one smashed comb and about 10 lb of honey remaining firmly set in the frames. But best of all I had 40 of these:
40lb of spring honey off one hive is a respectable result, but as you can see, it has already set in the jar just 4 days after extraction.
There's one consolation - at least the Honey Monster won't be able to get his paws into it!
Thursday 1 May 2014
A foxy tale
Foxes eat bees.
Well they eat bumble bees for sure because I watched an emaciated old fox wandering around the flower beds one afternoon last summer snapping at them, so you can imagine my consternation at seeing a young vixen sniffing around the hives early one morning this week.
I wasn't too concerned about the large hive - it's over five foot high and full of honey, there's no way a fox could topple it. But a couple of weeks ago I created a little colony of bees which is housed in a small box, and sure enough, the fox went over to it, then back on to it's hind legs to reach up to the hive and poked it's nose in the entrance hole.
"Oh no!" I thought, "she's going to tip it over...."
Both the fox and I assumed that because the bees weren't flying at that early hour, they must be sound asleep. Not so - the guard bees were clearly vigilant because as soon as the fox poked her nose in the entrance hole she leaped back in surprise!
Was she stung on the nose? I don't think so because she didn't dance around in agony. I suspect they just gave her an angry buzz, which was enough to send her running.
Well they eat bumble bees for sure because I watched an emaciated old fox wandering around the flower beds one afternoon last summer snapping at them, so you can imagine my consternation at seeing a young vixen sniffing around the hives early one morning this week.
I wasn't too concerned about the large hive - it's over five foot high and full of honey, there's no way a fox could topple it. But a couple of weeks ago I created a little colony of bees which is housed in a small box, and sure enough, the fox went over to it, then back on to it's hind legs to reach up to the hive and poked it's nose in the entrance hole.
"Oh no!" I thought, "she's going to tip it over...."
Both the fox and I assumed that because the bees weren't flying at that early hour, they must be sound asleep. Not so - the guard bees were clearly vigilant because as soon as the fox poked her nose in the entrance hole she leaped back in surprise!
Was she stung on the nose? I don't think so because she didn't dance around in agony. I suspect they just gave her an angry buzz, which was enough to send her running.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)