tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28934228089082940882024-03-05T07:28:30.475+00:00Hanbury BeesI have been keeping bees at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire, England since 2005. Hanbury Hall is owned by the National Trust. The bees are in the walled garden which is open to the public from time to time. In 2010 I started to look after some bees owned by the National Trust as well as our own. I don't claim to be an expert, although I have been beekeeping for some time. This blog is the story of our beekeeping.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-88682058160136788762017-02-22T16:51:00.000+00:002017-02-22T16:51:05.063+00:00Beginners CourseNorth East Worcestershire Beekeepers Association are part way through their annual beginning beekeeping course. I have given a talk on where to site your apiary. <br />
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Here is a copy of my presentation. <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByIe-93TzyG-UklUOGtvTFEtcms">Link to Tim's Presentation</a><br />
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<br />HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-88642423785705764542017-02-12T15:04:00.000+00:002017-02-12T15:04:49.986+00:00Making an Observation Hive<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I am asked to provide exhibits at a number
of shows and events throughout year. As
far as possible I like to take along an observation hive. It is an excellent
way to allow the public to interact with bees.
People can view the bee colony close up without needing protective
clothing and as beekeepers we can talk about the way the colony works.</span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmf8jMIevhTW1A7ESCd7DJpF5V5WdYCc-dntmgwsUnaZa8YuDZV13_yS2kY6BRvRrPKjFtvr24OX0Jd2Zhw7vyEp8giah6zURdu_J-Lh0rsa9jofbm0zUvWCwrktW5-TySvqwf-dlmpIJR/s1600/Hive_At_Show.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmf8jMIevhTW1A7ESCd7DJpF5V5WdYCc-dntmgwsUnaZa8YuDZV13_yS2kY6BRvRrPKjFtvr24OX0Jd2Zhw7vyEp8giah6zURdu_J-Lh0rsa9jofbm0zUvWCwrktW5-TySvqwf-dlmpIJR/s320/Hive_At_Show.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My observation hive in use. Our stand won second prize!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<a name='more'></a>For many years I have borrowed observation hives,
but this year I decided that it was time I got my own one. All the events I go to are one or two day
events, so I was looking for a temporary observation hive with one visible
frame with glass on each side. The queen
is trapped on this frame, but the workers can go down through a queen excluder
to get to another 5 or 6 frames in a nucleus box below. I think this is enough
of an approximation to a ‘normal’ hive to keep the bees trapped inside for a
day. I don’t have a requirement for a
permanently installed observation hive where the bees can fly out.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There are a number of companies who make
observation hives, for example <a href="http://www.observationhives.co.uk/">http://www.observationhives.co.uk</a>
who make a lovely hive for £280.
However, I decided that I wanted to make my own OH, partly so I could
make it to my exact requirements, but also so I could justify the purchase of a
table circular saw, which I have always wanted!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This posting is not a complete set of
instructions about how to make an OH, just some things that I found out along
the way that may save other people some time.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">My requirement was for the main body to be
the same size as a standard nuc box. I
made two of these bodies so that I could use them to keep a colony in during the
summer. Then when I wanted to use the
OH, I just needed to find the queen, put her on a good example frame, and put
it in the top. Then I could just clip
the top on and take the entire hive to the show (having first closed the
entrance). At the time this seemed like
a good idea, but I have actually not used the hive in this manner, because the
flying bees from the nuc have nowhere to go back to when the hive body has been
removed. I therefore now take most of the
frames out of a static hive, which leaves somewhere for the flying bees to
return to during the day. </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I wanted plenty of ventilation to the hive,
so I have a stainless steel mesh as the base and mesh covered holes at the top
of the hive. This gives a good airflow
when the OH is being used inside a hot marquee at a show. I can squirt water into the top of the hive
using a water mist spray. If the bees
rush up to the water and start drinking it I know they are getting hot. If they ignore it then everything is OK. I
got the stainless steel mesh from <a href="http://www.inoxia.co.uk/products/mesh/sheets/8-mesh">http://www.inoxia.co.uk/products/mesh/sheets/8-mesh</a>
they were happy to sell me exactly the right size sheets, so I didn’t need to
cut the mesh out of a larger sheet (nucs need 18” by 10” which is inconvenient
for cutting out of any sheets sold for a full sized beehive!)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I went to my local glass merchant (<a href="http://www.romanglass.co.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.romanglass.co.uk/</a> in Bromsgrove)to discuss the best glass to
use. They recommended laminated
glass. This is made of two 3mm panes of
glass with a central plastic film. The
advantage to this type of glass is that if it is broken it remains in one
piece, so the bees cannot escape.
Toughened glass is stronger, but, if broken is designed to shatter into
lots of small pieces. Not ideal if you
really wanted the bees to remain in the hive! Good job I went there first,
because it determined the size of the grooves that I needed to cut to hold the
glass in (the glass is 6.4mm thick).
Incidentally, my local glass merchant was happy to cut glass to the
nearest mm (ie not rounded to 5mm) and also rubbed off the sharp edges of the
cut glass so that I would not cut myself when loading the bees. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The nuc hive design I took from Roger
Patterson’s design on <a href="http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/roger_nuc_box.html">http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/roger_nuc_box.html</a>
The only thing to watch out for is that you need to modify the dimensions
slightly if the wood you use is not 19mm thick.
I got all my wood second hand from a great recycling centre in Worcester
called ‘Worcester Resource Exchange’ (<a href="http://www.wre.uk.com/">http://www.wre.uk.com/</a>). It turned out
that most of the wood was actually offcuts of Ikea shelves, which were perfect
for the job.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">The design for the top ‘observation’ part
of the hive came from <a href="http://www.beehacker.com/wp/?page_id=888">http://www.beehacker.com/wp/?page_id=888</a>
I didn’t realise it at first, but writer of this article is in the US. He complains about the difficulty of getting
the clip fasteners to hold everything together and about how he had to get them
sent from England. The company he used
was <a href="http://www.protex.com/">http://www.protex.com</a> It turns out this
company is in Redditch, a few miles from my house, so I was able to go the
factory and buy everything I needed!</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">So, onto the building!</span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-vNvMC3MXESbgMc0QcJCUjoRm9Tcm1I7UVU_zBKFLySoRHalSsMUAdk3OCvYKyoeuMdcKUUMTlzKNbWXEu15HOyv5QI6E-7X8G1Nw22qLTZUiTtAhi3klHgIe4ZNeGps7Rb6hWwFDIiI/s1600/Observation_hive_top.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-vNvMC3MXESbgMc0QcJCUjoRm9Tcm1I7UVU_zBKFLySoRHalSsMUAdk3OCvYKyoeuMdcKUUMTlzKNbWXEu15HOyv5QI6E-7X8G1Nw22qLTZUiTtAhi3klHgIe4ZNeGps7Rb6hWwFDIiI/s320/Observation_hive_top.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Observation' part of the hive</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I made this part before I bought the
glass. I then cut a cardboard template
for the glass so I could be sure that a rectangular piece of glass was going to
fit. If I was making it again, I would
make the large pieces of wood that support the lugs of the frame a little
thinner, because the glass rubs against them when you slide it in. You don’t want to leave too much of a gap, or
bees will get in it, but a couple of mm would make the glass fit easier.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">It looks a little unstable, but in use,
there is a top board, which is clipped on and makes it all secure.</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">As you can see, I went for security over
elegance and everything is held together with both screws and glue. I bought stainless steel screws from
Screwfix, so that if the bottom part of the hive was used as a nuc there would
be no rust stains. (<a href="http://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/stainless-steel-screws/cat7270018">http://www.screwfix.com/c/screws-nails-fixings/stainless-steel-screws/cat7270018</a>)</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I built everything and varnished it with
several coats of Sadolin Extra Durable Clearcoat (<a href="http://www.sadolin.co.uk/products/sadolin-extra-durable-clearcoat/">http://www.sadolin.co.uk/products/sadolin-extra-durable-clearcoat/</a>)
This gave a great finish, with a slight ‘warming’ of the wood colour, even
though it is described as a clear coat.
I found that it did eventually dry rock solid, but it worried me for
about a week because it still felt soft when touched.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I suggest trying out the fixings on a scrap
piece of wood before you screw them in, because the tightness they clip
together is dependent on the spacing you fix them with.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
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</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynrEkku7T9rdTgIsQqVNmRmoduVhTW1RY2aPv8XzV8OiWu7drNJpXLY0GX-yXncD53b_kQMfNS8Ufn99_E6lA7n50rkbgYnNibM6OVbx8et9Q8_R19eKiFonWC-QakeiWfNkcGd7LgmjB/s1600/Testing_clips.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgynrEkku7T9rdTgIsQqVNmRmoduVhTW1RY2aPv8XzV8OiWu7drNJpXLY0GX-yXncD53b_kQMfNS8Ufn99_E6lA7n50rkbgYnNibM6OVbx8et9Q8_R19eKiFonWC-QakeiWfNkcGd7LgmjB/s320/Testing_clips.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Testing the clips on scrap wood</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I found that the clips were correct if you
spaced the two parts as shown in the photo, so that the catch was at right
angles when the two parts rested together.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGdK6GJshDZG10Xo8T6Qdb7NS0M2-4sg8XP8RTfjXhue3KfJMf1Wadw7b3OoadYTHM5YamHqQsqTrOlLsb5TC3M8326Yw7VUqoMp1USmh0vWTClPW9K_-pNVBqmBNmZuKJXOMt-Ffb9g-/s1600/Clip_with_safety_catch.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikGdK6GJshDZG10Xo8T6Qdb7NS0M2-4sg8XP8RTfjXhue3KfJMf1Wadw7b3OoadYTHM5YamHqQsqTrOlLsb5TC3M8326Yw7VUqoMp1USmh0vWTClPW9K_-pNVBqmBNmZuKJXOMt-Ffb9g-/s320/Clip_with_safety_catch.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clip with safety catch</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Here you can see the fastened clip with the
stainless steel safety catch (like a big safety pin). The safety catch is a vital part of the
mechanism as it stops small fingers from finding out what happens if you flip up
the catches when the OH is full of bees!
I bought them from Protex, but you probably could use a big safety
pin. The hole is already drilled if you
buy the right clips.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The part numbers I used were:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Clips:
18-2075SS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Catches: 01-613SS</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Safety catch: 613/7SS</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"> </span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Because I wanted to be able to use the
bottom of the OH as a conventional nuc, I needed to have an entrance for the
bees that I could seal up at shows. At
the Protex factory I found a larger clip which worked perfectly to keep a cork
in place. I used the sort of cork you
get on liqueur bottles where the cork has a decorative top (in my case a wooden
cap) so that the cork cannot be pushed all the way into the hive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjl0gXMjFx8oyuXpNuMAxZAegN-9LwITzlE9ND24DQ-ApYSQkt581PVOuC-yMMqT7DBxps0dvLYYIyhbmNXZ2eWvlSMJ-wQF1fb38kZTZdC-QGuGedU-eiqYN9WPC_Py11ftRJpyOtkze/s1600/Flight_hole_secured.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMjl0gXMjFx8oyuXpNuMAxZAegN-9LwITzlE9ND24DQ-ApYSQkt581PVOuC-yMMqT7DBxps0dvLYYIyhbmNXZ2eWvlSMJ-wQF1fb38kZTZdC-QGuGedU-eiqYN9WPC_Py11ftRJpyOtkze/s320/Flight_hole_secured.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flight hole closed and secured</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">This shows the extended clip covering the
flight hole with cork in it. Note the
safety pin in place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-qs5SK0NaNzaHIJOh8yv2EP9bSng-Bftl-hFN0NX7XSRAUwa49gOSY8p8JIgcz9CxOjhlFFIKM8dfAhPhUj0LpZL0Kd1jA0WGamM0kW5jBeG_LNDMH6ZAh8MT1eSqOVBgsuZ7U1tNurn/s1600/Flight_hole_open.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD-qs5SK0NaNzaHIJOh8yv2EP9bSng-Bftl-hFN0NX7XSRAUwa49gOSY8p8JIgcz9CxOjhlFFIKM8dfAhPhUj0LpZL0Kd1jA0WGamM0kW5jBeG_LNDMH6ZAh8MT1eSqOVBgsuZ7U1tNurn/s320/Flight_hole_open.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flight hole open</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Here the cork has been removed so that the
bees can fly. Note how the safety pin
can be used to hold back the clip so that it does not blow around in the wind
and get in the way of bees entering the hive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The part number for this toggle clip is
18-2430SS and of course you will need the 01-613SS catch at the other end and a
613/7SS safety clip</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally
.. with bees in it!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34lLZF_7Ja8ZhjdYpS3K4m94RpbwRCLHTcqryg-l4rg49pLFoOFOSr58ly1Ar4cWAdkR7ioDJ2UDrGXjjPdwbEw_ijbS6h09mwtSVTdT9rrsNNQ4OWP0Yws3XGTRR9cMGgoVyDc7Lp-BU/s1600/Observation_hive_complete.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj34lLZF_7Ja8ZhjdYpS3K4m94RpbwRCLHTcqryg-l4rg49pLFoOFOSr58ly1Ar4cWAdkR7ioDJ2UDrGXjjPdwbEw_ijbS6h09mwtSVTdT9rrsNNQ4OWP0Yws3XGTRR9cMGgoVyDc7Lp-BU/s320/Observation_hive_complete.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Observation hive in use at Hanbury Hall</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The finished hive, complete with bees, in
the walled garden at Hanbury Hall. The
only thing I have had add to the hive is the detachable stand at the base (not
yet varnished). The stand allows air to
get up through the bottom of the hive so that a convection draft can cool the
bees on a hot day. Obviously the hive is
kept out of the sun (under a tree here) but it is still difficult for the bees
to ventilate if they cannot get out to fan air into the hive. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">I have only had it for a couple of months,
but I am really enjoying my observation hive.
Not only is it great for showing non-beekeepers what goes on in the
hive, but I have been able to watch a queen lay eggs in cells, and watch
workers as they manipulate wax in their mandibles and build new comb. The only thing I have not worked out yet is
how to take photos through the shiny glass without getting reflections. Clearly a work in progress for that one!</span></div>
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HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-74468355371801103652015-10-18T20:37:00.000+01:002015-10-18T20:38:37.567+01:00Removing a colony of bees from Avoncroft MuseumAvoncroft Museum of buildings (<a href="http://www.avoncroft.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.avoncroft.org.uk</a>) have a good relationship with my local beekeeping association, North East Worcestershire Beekeeping Association (<a href="http://www.bbka.org.uk/local/northeastworcestershire/" target="_blank">http://www.bbka.org.uk/local/northeastworcestershire/</a>). We are called in from time to time to remove swarms from their buildings. One building, the 'String of Horses', seems to have a fascination for bees, with swarms regularly landing there.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
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A year or so ago one of these swarms found its way into the building and set up home under the floorboards of the loft. It didn't cause a problem at the time because the colony was small, and the bees had an exit high up, and away from the public. However, it must have been a good spot for the bees, because the colony prospered and, by this summer there were rather a lot of bees living there. Unfortunately, the 'String of Horses' is used as the museum tea room, and the upstairs room is used for exhibitions. The bees had to go! <br />
Alex Bignall and I decided to try and relocate the bees to the club apiary. This is much harder than collecting a swarm, because the bees in a swarm have not settled on a home, so they can be moved. In this case we had to try to find the queen and move her and the brood to a new hive.<br />
<br />
Jeremy Broad came along to film us and made the video below. As well as his video skills, Jeremy is the son of a beekeeper and so was not bothered, or indeed surprised, when he got stung during the making of the video! <br />
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<br />HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-46006352422244356412015-07-21T20:09:00.002+01:002015-07-21T20:12:03.057+01:00Processing BeeswaxBeekeepers often ignore the beeswax that they remove from the hives as they extract honey. However it can easily be processed to give a product that can be used in a number of ways. You can use it to make into a number of products such as hand cream, candles or furniture polish. Even if you are not craft minded, it can be cast into small 1 ounce ‘ingots’ which are then bought by all sorts of people for their own craft needs. Even if you cannot be bothered with these, you can simply take large blocks of wax to the equipment manufacturers and they will ‘swap’ it for wax foundation.<br />
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There are as many ways to process wax as there are beekeepers. This is my way, which seems to be fairly simple.<br />
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<h3>
The raw material</h3>
This particular batch of honey was in wild comb, so it could not be extracted using the rotating extractor. The easiest way to process it is to carefully melt the wax and honey until it is all just melted. Beeswax melts at about 65C. You don’t want to heat honey for too long at too high a temperature or you will damage the honey. This damage is monitored by the increase of a substance which, although harmless to humans, is formed as a decomposition product of honey. Hydroxymethylfurfural (or HMF for short) has a legal maximum of 40mg/kg in honey for sale to the public. HMF increases by a combination of time and temperature. The higher the temperature, the shorter time you should keep the honey there. I suggest you do your own research, but my checking on the internet suggests that the HMF level will rise by 30mg/kg if you keep honey at 65C for three hours, so a few minutes at the temperature should be fine. <br />
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Once the honey and wax are all just melted, the whole lot is strained into a ripening tank through a stainless steel double strainer. This gets out all the bits of dead bee, pollen packed into cells etc. However, it does not remove all the suspended pollen. I personally prefer to leave this in as I think it adds to the character of the honey. However, if you want clear honey you will need to strain even finer.<br />
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Once in the ripening tank, all the wax and other dross floats to the top and can be skimmed off after a day or so in the tank. This is our raw material for wax extraction. <br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3foGF5uqp9XaNPfSDjA03AQzQ1PIHM_1YarJ93-1XKOlJqQzwMl7xk9LSB2fJbifBCHLGlXNx9C9pbWwmSHfzEfyAmzZtfwcgcvkO99Q-TmdRLyV2LMkCafjSnBPBMyJg9FKI1Gx8LbiA/s1600/Wax_in_Ripening_Tank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3foGF5uqp9XaNPfSDjA03AQzQ1PIHM_1YarJ93-1XKOlJqQzwMl7xk9LSB2fJbifBCHLGlXNx9C9pbWwmSHfzEfyAmzZtfwcgcvkO99Q-TmdRLyV2LMkCafjSnBPBMyJg9FKI1Gx8LbiA/s320/Wax_in_Ripening_Tank.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Looking down into the ripening tank at the waxy scum layer</span></td></tr>
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You can of course also use the cappings that you have cut off the super frames. The process is exactly the same.<br />
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The waxy layer is removed from the honey. It comes off fairly easily with a palette knife or a spoon. The ripening tank then looks a little more attractive.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMpTkZdXoufZaO1e7u-kmrbjbz2XJ-G5jCE3upF80Cb4yJKghJUnaIcyQ1p2TtegJC_Xfdni2IbTA-mJDX265ijsURqgt4ZPCHMIwuxpcPMM_9iQfRGJRKex2uG-mdVUgdzH_OEKIn_qxI/s1600/Honey_in_Ripening_Tank.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMpTkZdXoufZaO1e7u-kmrbjbz2XJ-G5jCE3upF80Cb4yJKghJUnaIcyQ1p2TtegJC_Xfdni2IbTA-mJDX265ijsURqgt4ZPCHMIwuxpcPMM_9iQfRGJRKex2uG-mdVUgdzH_OEKIn_qxI/s320/Honey_in_Ripening_Tank.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Ripening tank after the waxy layer has been removed. The honey is exposed. Still a few remnants to remove before bottling</span></td></tr>
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The sludge, or cappings are put into a bucket. Don’t worry if you transferred some honey at the same time.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalJ5-G7tN0PJZzaDTn1fcNJvCxqjHx6NhXxuQAdQC5fcF5AcqUo-srs9sVr7UE5Td6JyYxbfMH9mzzz9j9Mbk6NwyzQ2eClSytVcmGQW2odn2bxoeLTXS3qbI9xm6Ji_ZDMPMj32Crrhp/s1600/Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgalJ5-G7tN0PJZzaDTn1fcNJvCxqjHx6NhXxuQAdQC5fcF5AcqUo-srs9sVr7UE5Td6JyYxbfMH9mzzz9j9Mbk6NwyzQ2eClSytVcmGQW2odn2bxoeLTXS3qbI9xm6Ji_ZDMPMj32Crrhp/s320/Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Sludgy mess. You can see why many beekeepers throw it out!</span></td></tr>
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Before we can melt this, the flakes of wax need to be washed.<br />
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Add about the same amount of water (purists say rain water is best, but I just use tap water) as there is sludge. It is very important to use cold water as otherwise you will start melting the wax again. As an aside, it is much easier to clean extractors and extracting equipment in cold water, because as soon as you add hot water the wax particles get soft and start to stick to everything. Equally, don’t scrub too vigorously or the friction will heat up the wax.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhra4VOWs6vI7Zo0GcO0jHhp9zSUhRQ0DOGRuJsQUNSOkKqGGFHveqow6U4ws14s5NW-QfYbTVkhG6RUwoTF9rGkF9WDOqo_Ccy49yTrSSVqM2QV0NE-DpXiBuo39I-XbbW5l_S3co15yZS/s1600/Adding_Water_to_Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhra4VOWs6vI7Zo0GcO0jHhp9zSUhRQ0DOGRuJsQUNSOkKqGGFHveqow6U4ws14s5NW-QfYbTVkhG6RUwoTF9rGkF9WDOqo_Ccy49yTrSSVqM2QV0NE-DpXiBuo39I-XbbW5l_S3co15yZS/s320/Adding_Water_to_Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Add cold water</span></td></tr>
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Now you need to mix up the wax to wash all the particles. I am sure you can use a spoon, but I find it easier to just squish it all about with my hand. You can also feel for the bits that are still clumping together and separate them.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwJO8-nfNJO87GvdWF9FPFVNIILpPkqBAGIo9nmy321ym-shyphenhyphenE0aWW4CNUZCoVrbKuC8MlQerJ4qoIiKAuCCNSNpYAC2QBpVZeAV5oqqfKtH0LEyD9V3C8MRB7C-rwYoEJyjgV7aauDmH/s1600/Mixing_Water_and_Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLwJO8-nfNJO87GvdWF9FPFVNIILpPkqBAGIo9nmy321ym-shyphenhyphenE0aWW4CNUZCoVrbKuC8MlQerJ4qoIiKAuCCNSNpYAC2QBpVZeAV5oqqfKtH0LEyD9V3C8MRB7C-rwYoEJyjgV7aauDmH/s320/Mixing_Water_and_Wax_sludge_in_bucket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Squish it all around!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Once you have got it all separated into a homogeneous liquid, leave it for five minutes or so. The wax will all float to the top and form a loose layer. Lift out this layer in handfuls and put them in an old saucepan.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphOZRHg1PIZB6ZaEungTBTfTpw1aAxrAZ5uEvUSpEe_9Z9dVCGee3Dsg7FwGZPXUiZYbjr4P7t4BbIwKj7FrZ-R0WmhlR-PDquvTubE_QIwGNm0M8C7o0QvN-OUKhXKakCmk70GYlT_Qa/s1600/Removing_Rinsed_Wax_from_bucket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphOZRHg1PIZB6ZaEungTBTfTpw1aAxrAZ5uEvUSpEe_9Z9dVCGee3Dsg7FwGZPXUiZYbjr4P7t4BbIwKj7FrZ-R0WmhlR-PDquvTubE_QIwGNm0M8C7o0QvN-OUKhXKakCmk70GYlT_Qa/s320/Removing_Rinsed_Wax_from_bucket.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">R<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">emove the top layer by the handful</span></td></tr>
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Don’t worry if you transfer some water at the same time, but you don’t want all the water in the saucepan. When you have finished, you will end up with a saucepan with a sludgy mess in it.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_DKlTSpBidd79uPsUhd6Fyk8iBsiGeZ8J6-m6u44iPCIYRCbTjhCkn13wtQMM1Oo0Rox7FzVR2rkcUnRSpu-a4neP4ts-S6JgDp9Jhrlb8IwaefxzrwbxES7K5e7XNH96LkrxD9CLm44/s1600/Rinsed_Wax_ready_to_Melt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_DKlTSpBidd79uPsUhd6Fyk8iBsiGeZ8J6-m6u44iPCIYRCbTjhCkn13wtQMM1Oo0Rox7FzVR2rkcUnRSpu-a4neP4ts-S6JgDp9Jhrlb8IwaefxzrwbxES7K5e7XNH96LkrxD9CLm44/s320/Rinsed_Wax_ready_to_Melt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">R<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">eady for re-melting</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The watery stuff in the bottom of the bucket is a sort of sweet water, which, if you want to get the maximum out of your bees, could probably be processed into mead. I am afraid I just pour it away!<br />
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<h3>
Re-melting the wax flakes</h3>
You should now have an old saucepan full of watery wax. You are now going to heat it up. Since wax is inflammable, I would not do this on a gas hob. I use the electric hob, but I am careful not to get everything too hot. As the temperature rises, the water at the bottom will get hotter first. I keep everything moving by stirring with a metal skewer (it is easier to clean afterwards!). You don’t want the water at the bottom to boil under a solid layer of wax, so keep it moving.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jg8_gVmqGXskEItbCdtkVsJH4vmKlvZOY_vT7wta-Fn97Dzp3nDk-Z2FonesG-dypIRI5RnJTAdpksSOVQmrtCYzENIa6XsYuGCWvyPbTDSiHHf4Bus2D-zddaNP48ZzSfEfx_NqrXw1/s1600/Rinsed_Wax_starting_to_Melt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6jg8_gVmqGXskEItbCdtkVsJH4vmKlvZOY_vT7wta-Fn97Dzp3nDk-Z2FonesG-dypIRI5RnJTAdpksSOVQmrtCYzENIa6XsYuGCWvyPbTDSiHHf4Bus2D-zddaNP48ZzSfEfx_NqrXw1/s320/Rinsed_Wax_starting_to_Melt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">T<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">he wax has started to re-melt, stirring so that it does not boil at the bottom</span></td></tr>
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Keep the temperature below the boiling point of the water as you don’t want to overheat the wax, or for the whole thing to boil over. Eventually everything will melt. The wax floats to the top, and the dross stays in the water below.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXm2cYQnI-FS3hLV1rYisoHkmuUhSFS9APd3GAHA8lUFbVAXeU5sb6sAauA7vi3m3DSGOi1JKa481pIrkV5lHs4hSZK12lsboUDh9TssWGMC5hdePs3QAwXoMxGfmS2b1D56TuSc3UAy9/s1600/Rinsed_Wax_Melted_in_pan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXm2cYQnI-FS3hLV1rYisoHkmuUhSFS9APd3GAHA8lUFbVAXeU5sb6sAauA7vi3m3DSGOi1JKa481pIrkV5lHs4hSZK12lsboUDh9TssWGMC5hdePs3QAwXoMxGfmS2b1D56TuSc3UAy9/s320/Rinsed_Wax_Melted_in_pan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Everything melted</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now take the saucepan off the heat and leave it to set (several hours or overnight). Next morning, you should have a slab of wax in the saucepan.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifN5BVnQzCWC9VQJRnyJjAdHcRMsenaGp9g6X83y2__ov0vzlIn9w5xzVW0PqjJi-4qb_q8bRQCCd25W15kXwTbI-2o-QbKOrDB-g6neK9oBCmIkCRY9ndgSRtn9nnxrbaWepVQ_qXn2gT/s1600/Rinsed_Wax_Solidified_in_pan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifN5BVnQzCWC9VQJRnyJjAdHcRMsenaGp9g6X83y2__ov0vzlIn9w5xzVW0PqjJi-4qb_q8bRQCCd25W15kXwTbI-2o-QbKOrDB-g6neK9oBCmIkCRY9ndgSRtn9nnxrbaWepVQ_qXn2gT/s320/Rinsed_Wax_Solidified_in_pan.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">The set wax</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Now you need to lever out the wax. You will be disappointed that at the bottom of the wax is a layer of sludge! Underneath that is a filthy layer of water.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aVL0ZRN1_mDM3NOq0zMRNAkSeUs0Sgoq05uq6BBfPurlInavTAwCWrgylpGDInqaojuSS0u48uzUxyCxUpTW2qNtpwCDkgUbaPuDvhzLtqYQCfaWMtH_vtOX1RzPfWWOd4pmgM1GVk3s/s1600/Solidified_Wax_with_Sludge_underneath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7aVL0ZRN1_mDM3NOq0zMRNAkSeUs0Sgoq05uq6BBfPurlInavTAwCWrgylpGDInqaojuSS0u48uzUxyCxUpTW2qNtpwCDkgUbaPuDvhzLtqYQCfaWMtH_vtOX1RzPfWWOd4pmgM1GVk3s/s320/Solidified_Wax_with_Sludge_underneath.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">S<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">ludge under the wax layer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It varies as to how much wax you get above the sludge. This was not a particularly good batch. Use a knife to carefully cut off the sludge and throw it away. You don’t have to be perfect, because we are now going to filter the wax, which will get rid of the rest of the impurities. You just want to minimise the sludge, because it bungs up the filter!<br />
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Your raw material for the filtering stage should look like this.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bp5Tcy58xtyUf_DAxIsLNG_SseCI1sZTK_PdHk-mTj4VyHdgMsDL3CA6uff7ZJIy3WmeOmSwgCHlUmvA4DH6GNhJYxqcIfEC14E4Tke5ug28Pe6Ndcx_9Yv7nVGv3dAyjdaVJI97Cf54/s1600/Wax_ready_for_Filtering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6bp5Tcy58xtyUf_DAxIsLNG_SseCI1sZTK_PdHk-mTj4VyHdgMsDL3CA6uff7ZJIy3WmeOmSwgCHlUmvA4DH6GNhJYxqcIfEC14E4Tke5ug28Pe6Ndcx_9Yv7nVGv3dAyjdaVJI97Cf54/s320/Wax_ready_for_Filtering.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">W<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">ax ready for filtering</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<h3>
Filtering the Wax</h3>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Z_jRKaX_WNRESCJFeStsnQUYhrROoFTPi6MervLhvWbBgKxsawV9AqJOYmqpq7d_nun-vSCCkB_x6UlxOawn2JHRr9ndTTAzaHyGicl29f3O6YfMYNq-tV83_E7Z0jp-cDW-iP-ndd3b/s1600/Wax_Filter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5Z_jRKaX_WNRESCJFeStsnQUYhrROoFTPi6MervLhvWbBgKxsawV9AqJOYmqpq7d_nun-vSCCkB_x6UlxOawn2JHRr9ndTTAzaHyGicl29f3O6YfMYNq-tV83_E7Z0jp-cDW-iP-ndd3b/s320/Wax_Filter.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">W<span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">ax filter</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This is my hi-tech wax filter. It consists of an old coffee tin (you will have to find something else, because they now make catering coffee tins out of cardboard ... how inconsiderate!) with the bottom cut off to make a metal cylinder. A layer of lint is then tied around the bottom with string. The corners of the lint are then threaded with long pieces of string. The tin is filled with bits of dirty wax. You do however want to make sure that this wax is dry, because any water will filter through and spoil your perfect wax!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWl5uPzSRTpXPRSgFXem6cXqYqJxFfg1XRq-etL7DR9XQZYHSd1vEaoq_CQhTe_0wcbFNVrGxh7i5Wx_ifouOqCYMEBx3kgFinmkexZ_4yqfMlAzkt3tyfwc0a8y-tGOTC55sRjZovVZT/s1600/Lint_for_Wax_Filter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTWl5uPzSRTpXPRSgFXem6cXqYqJxFfg1XRq-etL7DR9XQZYHSd1vEaoq_CQhTe_0wcbFNVrGxh7i5Wx_ifouOqCYMEBx3kgFinmkexZ_4yqfMlAzkt3tyfwc0a8y-tGOTC55sRjZovVZT/s320/Lint_for_Wax_Filter.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">This is the lint I use, from the chemist.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I use the long pieces of string to tie the can onto the top shelf of my oven. I then put a tray (to catch any stray drips) at the bottom of the oven with aluminium ‘take-away’ dishes to catch the wax as it filters through the tin. <br />
<br />
Turn on the oven to about 75C and wait for the wax to melt. It will take hours, so set it going when you can leave it. The rest of the family tell me it smells a bit, but I just think it smells of beeswax, which I don’t dislike! <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijS6bgsgFZgmWlb7vy9UHlXhxlJx6Zjl_yXTqgjYH6BUMelKV3kL6t6M1MOWU1XI9usL9YMKYahfewSuQGJTA84EYjlWZnEn4aEARH8pbwCsbl5WmDk6xEcK83b7IR3emgNQeeH2rRJKl9/s1600/Wax_Filter_in_Oven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijS6bgsgFZgmWlb7vy9UHlXhxlJx6Zjl_yXTqgjYH6BUMelKV3kL6t6M1MOWU1XI9usL9YMKYahfewSuQGJTA84EYjlWZnEn4aEARH8pbwCsbl5WmDk6xEcK83b7IR3emgNQeeH2rRJKl9/s320/Wax_Filter_in_Oven.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">Wax filtering, first container full, starting on the second</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
As the containers fill up, move them to one side and put another one in their place. <br />
<br />
If you wanted a perfect block of wax for showing, you would use a pyrex dish instead of an aluminium tray, but it is sometimes a problem to get the set wax out of them!<br />
<br />
When all the wax has filtered through, just turn off the oven and leave it all to set. If you take the molten wax out of the oven it often cracks as it cools. If the wax cools very slowly in the oven overnight it is less likely to crack. Cracks don’t matter if you are not showing your wax, so you can guarantee that the wax for sale in the aluminium trays will be perfect. However every one you try to make perfect in a pyrex dish will crack!<br />
<br />
When you take out your wax from the tray when it is set, you may find a few specks of dirt have got through, just cut them out with the point of a knife.<br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVDUgqPhdJ1cLLaGTXvTrh99fAytLrwmK9TQR-68y8RvmlIRnVOVFVJu_pKVK1ZeGftnJcMg81nRgo4qKbpSE_4fSL1-Gj_hc0cpby6V7FQk-uNQWikB1Oi3SgG3vpROQMASMWAXqM7SNF/s1600/Wax_after_Filtering.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVDUgqPhdJ1cLLaGTXvTrh99fAytLrwmK9TQR-68y8RvmlIRnVOVFVJu_pKVK1ZeGftnJcMg81nRgo4qKbpSE_4fSL1-Gj_hc0cpby6V7FQk-uNQWikB1Oi3SgG3vpROQMASMWAXqM7SNF/s320/Wax_after_Filtering.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small; text-align: start;">The set wax removed from the mould</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The wax in this state is perfect for exchanging at the beekeeping supplies shops. Several of them will do a deal where you swap wax for foundation. These three blocks in the picture above could be swapped for enough wired foundation to re-wax a complete super.<br />
<br />
Alternatively you can sell wax to crafts people. I generally cast it into 1oz ‘ingots’. The beekeeping suppliers sell the moulds. Just be careful when you re-heat the wax. It wants to be just liquid and no hotter. I speak from experience here. If you try and cast really hot wax into a plastic mould, the mould loses its shape and turns back into a flat sheet of plastic! <br />
<br />
<h3>
Showing Wax</h3>
If you want to make a perfect block of wax for showing, then just repeat the filtering process a second time, with clean lint, and your already filtered wax. Let the wax drip into a pyrex bowl that you have carefully polished first.<br />
<br />
Leave the wax to cool overnight in the oven so that it hopefully won’t crack. If the wax does not want to come out, some people recommend floating it out in a washing up bowl of water. Others suggest freezing the container.<br />
<br />
Either way, good, luck, I have yet to succeed in a honey show with my wax!<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-40586605702823703102014-08-10T19:48:00.000+01:002014-08-10T19:48:40.881+01:00Propolis, plant resin collected by bees.<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">We all know that bees collect nectar and
pollen, but did you also know that bees collect plant resin to use as a
disinfectant, glue and varnish inside the hive?
This substance, called ‘Propolis’, is collected by the bees from sticky
buds and tree wounds. The bees bring it
back to the hive in the same way that they
carry pollen, in the ‘pollen baskets’ on their back legs. The only difference is that it is so sticky
that they cannot unload themselves and instead, another bee has to nibble the
propolis off.</span></div>
<a name='more'></a> <br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Bees don’t really store propolis, but use
it immediately for a number of uses.
The most annoying use for the beekeeper is that they will block any
cracks with propolis. This explains why
we need a metal lever (the ‘hive tool’) to separate the parts of the hive. The bees have glued it all together with
propolis, and we have to break the joint by levering. The propolis ‘bee glue’ can be so strong that
wooden parts of the hive can come apart or break before the glue gives way!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The bees also use propolis as a
disinfectant ‘varnish’ over all the internal surfaces of the hive. This
protects the colony from any infective organisms that may be in the surface of
the wood. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">To reduce the risk of infection, bees will
also use propolis to ‘embalm’ anything
that dies in the hive and is too big to drag out. I found the object in the photo in the bottom
of the brood chamber of one of my hives this spring. I imagine it must have been there all
winter. The object is a propolised
hornet. The bees must have killed it in
the hive. They probably formed a ball of bees around it and raised their
temperature until the hornet died from the heat. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnawvtKQW0OIDbXaSjvhQ7CFl1bvTkhrT_XuoPaEnNqVczuy626NPRF-20nUsKer_J8xk7HXcw67oFjKhUqJsqU30zL4rYN5qJc7x980guCn6y0fob1QpAI6siB2THuhFHyCfET02sPOB/s1600/Propolised_Hornet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWnawvtKQW0OIDbXaSjvhQ7CFl1bvTkhrT_XuoPaEnNqVczuy626NPRF-20nUsKer_J8xk7HXcw67oFjKhUqJsqU30zL4rYN5qJc7x980guCn6y0fob1QpAI6siB2THuhFHyCfET02sPOB/s1600/Propolised_Hornet.jpg" height="231" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Propolised Hornet found in a beehive</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The dead hornet was too big for the bees to
drag out, so they have nibbled off all the small and thin bits like the wings
and the feet. The rest of the carcase
has been covered with a layer of antiseptic propolis so that it will not rot in
the hive.</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Although I don’t collect it, propolis has
been used since Roman times (Pliny the Elder wrote about it) as a medicine and
antiseptic. It is still sold, dissolved
in alcohol, as ‘Tincture of Propolis’ and is recommended for sore throats.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Propolis was also reputed to be one of the
ingredients that made the varnish that Stradivarius used on the violins that he
made. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-34281081864882415372013-09-15T16:07:00.000+01:002013-09-15T16:08:10.457+01:00What do we use beeswax for?Over the years there have been millions of uses for beeswax. <br />
<br />
The most important use for beeswax as a beekeeper is of course to give the honeycomb back to the bees so that they can re-fill it with honey. It 'costs' the bees to recreate the honeycomb, so giving it back means that they can collect more honey next season. The bees will re-use honeycomb, but they will not take flakes or pieces of wax and re-use them, so once the wax is damaged, or removed from the honeycomb, it can be recycled into something else. The list below is just some of these uses.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Candles – Historically this was almost the most important use of bee products. Churches used a lot of candles and tithes could be paid in beeswax.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Furniture polish – dissolve beeswax in turpentine to make a paste. Rub onto furniture. The turpentine dissolves and the beeswax protects and shines the furniture</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Stop sticking drawers – rub a block of beeswax on the drawer runners and the drawer will slide smoothly, using the beeswax as a lubricant.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Press screws into beeswax before using and they will go into wood easier and the wood is less likely to split. The screws are also easier to remove.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Rub a saw with beeswax to make it cut easier without sticking.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Run thread through a block of beeswax to make it easier to sew with and less likely to break.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Beeswax, often with the addition of colour, is used to fill small cracks and holes in furniture.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>A slipping belt on a vacuum cleaner, sewing machine etc can be rubbed with beeswax to give it a better grip.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Cosmetics – any number of lip balms, hand creams etc.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Covering food such as cheese to prevent spoilage.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Leather was waterproofed using beeswax.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Putting a shine on sweets and tablets</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Used for musical instruments, such as fitting the reeds for woodwinds and to make the mouthpiece of didgeridoos.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Prevents the dye from getting to the pattern in Batik fabric painting.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Encaustic art – painting using molten beeswax</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Add a colour or dye to make crayons.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Used as a resist in a number of art forms where areas need to be masked from a treatment.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Lost wax casting - A model of the item is made in beeswax. This is then coated in clay which sets to make a hard mould. The wax is melted out and the mould is filled with metal to make an accurate copy</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>A polish and lubricant for skis.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Soap made with beeswax makes a hard soap which is supposed to be good for dry skin.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Grafting wax – beeswax is mixed with other materials to make a wax used to protect the joint when grafting trees and other plants.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;">
<br />
<li>Used by ancient Egyptians as part of the embalming process.</li>
</blockquote>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-23137425274346705802013-09-15T15:56:00.001+01:002013-09-15T16:08:22.403+01:00How do bees make honeycomb?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Bees build their home out of wax
(beeswax!). Unlike wasps, who collect
the material to make their home, bees create the wax themselves. Underneath the worker bee abdomen there are 4
pairs of glands. The bee body, like all
insects is made of a hard material. So
that the bee can flex its body, this ‘exoskeleton’ is made up of a number of
hard overlapping plates, joined by flexible membranes. The wax glands are hidden in the overlapping
area between two of these plates, so that the wax appears as a small flake between
the plates.</span><br />
<a name='more'></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The bees have to warm themselves up to be
able to make and work with wax, because soft beeswax is easier to manipulate. They also have to eat lots of honey to be
able to produce wax.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">When they have a flake ready to use, using
the stiff bristles on their back leg to hold the wax, they move the flake of
wax to their mouth. This does not always
work as well as intended, and the bottom of beehives usually has wax flakes on
it, where the bees have dropped a flake!
They don’t seem to bother to pick up dropped flakes, they just create
another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">Once the flake is in the bee’s mouth, they
chew it to soften it, and possibly add some more chemicals to it. Then the bee goes to add it to the comb that
they are building.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">There is no foreman, each individual bee
just add more wax where they think that it should go. To build the perfect hexagonal cell, they
first build three rhombuses for the base, because three rhombuses provide a
hexagon for the cell walls of one side and a central seam for the cells on the
opposite side of the cell. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9EOXki2oVKTsQeJIzR63SrcMmEopA4ZPlgEriUCxQEYV9aDXE-zq8o74Ur1a0l2Ex5eQyXGjdI8ilNmeHzFizg3zBZEUqrmLkyxNrutKpADAGfkZVUcjgcR9yZye_xIC4_OTMFmK-gkN/s1600/Beeswaxbase.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir9EOXki2oVKTsQeJIzR63SrcMmEopA4ZPlgEriUCxQEYV9aDXE-zq8o74Ur1a0l2Ex5eQyXGjdI8ilNmeHzFizg3zBZEUqrmLkyxNrutKpADAGfkZVUcjgcR9yZye_xIC4_OTMFmK-gkN/s1600/Beeswaxbase.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The three rhombuses that bees build at the base of a wax cell</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next the bees start building up the side
walls on both sides (ie towards us and away from us in this diagram. When the walls have started to be built, the
bees will then start building more rhombuses to make the base of another cell,
and so on. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The bees make cells that are exactly 5.2mm
wide for the queen to lay eggs in to make more worker bees (girls). They create a slightly bigger cell for drone
bees to grow in (boy bees are bigger!)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">The cell walls are 0.073mm thick to a
tolerance of +/- 0.002mm. If a human was
the same size as a bee that would mean making wax cells with walls 10mm thick
to a tolerance of +/- 0.25mm. Do you
think you could build something that accurate, with no rulers or tools, out of
a soft material using only your mouth and legs?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB">One trick that the bees use to ‘feel’ the
thickness of the wax is to press it gently with their head. Their antennae touch the wax at the same time
and they can feel how much the wax moves, and so how thick it must be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB"><br /></span></div>
HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-9256899988707641662013-05-31T19:00:00.000+01:002013-06-05T05:56:01.888+01:00Putting a swarm into their new hiveToday we were called by a neighbour who had seen a swarm of bees passing over their house and settling in a tree in a nearby garden. The swarm was several meters high from the ground but we were able to capture it with our home made swarm bag, which looks like a pillow case on a stick!<br />
<br />
We got the swarm into a box, and took it to the National Trust apiary at Hanbury Hall.<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IJzYqTysEps?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
This is where our story begins. There are several ways to introduce a swarm to their new home:<br />
<br />
The simplest is to take the roof and crownboard off the newly prepared hive and simply shake all the bees into the hive. You then leave the hive entrance blocked up overnight in the hope that after a night of incarceration the bees will have started to think that the new hive is 'home'. This usually works, but every now and then a swarm decides that it does not like your choice of home for them, so the bees fly off to find another.<br />
<br />
A second, more traditional method to get the swarm into a hive is called 'running' the bees into the hive. The bees are tipped onto a board outside the new hive. The board slopes up to the entrance of the hive. The bees then walk up the board into the hive. The theory is that because the bees have 'found' the hive for themselves and walked in, they will think that it is 'home' and they will not re-swarm later.<br />
<br />
I haven't done any research into the comparative success of the two methods. I generally use the first method, because throwing the bees into a hive is quicker, and swarms are generally collected at inconvenient times when I am in a hurry!<br />
<br />
This time though we were not in a rush ... the only job I had to look forward to was clearing out the shed!<br />
<br />
The video shows the second process, 'running' the swarm of bees into the hive.<br />
<br />The bees did stay in the hive, and are now on show to the public surrounded by a mesh cage in the Walled Gardens at Hanbury Hall, a National Trust property in Worcestershire. HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-58764463874971578502013-02-05T20:05:00.000+00:002013-02-05T20:06:47.636+00:00Making 'house signs' so bees can find their own hive<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Everyone knows that foraging honey bees can find their way back to their home and that ‘guard’ bees will stop any ‘foreign’ bees from coming into their hive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, actually, this is not quite true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the wild, colonies of bees would set up home with their hives well separated from each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, for the convenience of the beekeeper, we tend to put our beehives within a few feet of each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, the guard bees are quite practical.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If a worker bee turns up at the doorstep with a full load of nectar, they will generally just let it in ... well, why not!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This all tends to create a bit of a problem for the beekeeper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If the bees cannot tell the difference between the hives, then they tend to just go to the nearest one! </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have to keep my beehives in a line, because they sit on a concrete path at the edge of a building, with a collapsed cellar in front of them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This keeps people separated from the bees, but it tends to confuse the returning worker bees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bees see a row of almost identical green beehives, so they tend to just go into the nearest one!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For several years I thought that I had one colony that always collected more honey than the other hives, until I noticed that, regardless of the state of the colony in the end hive, they were always the best honey producers!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I tried turning each hive’s entrance in a different direction, but it made little difference, so finally I realised that the bees needed house numbers on their hives!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unfortunately, bees cannot read, and they see different colours to us, so it is a little more complex than painting a number on each hive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beekeepers in lots of other countries paint their hives to help the bees to find their ‘home’, but rather than randomly painting, I thought I would apply a little science. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cf9V5xlOun1aylEL3dh_-qSnN83WkH-wCZ9ofXmp9x42Ng0sN9EiH8YzaQ-bXeSB77Aog24otpoex8CKJakKAfx66ddi0evXO3Q58b0qjIawVypvl0weq7aydBHGb8nBlxd10ZUjqEJA/s1600/Hives+with+signs+on+roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1cf9V5xlOun1aylEL3dh_-qSnN83WkH-wCZ9ofXmp9x42Ng0sN9EiH8YzaQ-bXeSB77Aog24otpoex8CKJakKAfx66ddi0evXO3Q58b0qjIawVypvl0weq7aydBHGb8nBlxd10ZUjqEJA/s1600/Hives+with+signs+on+roof.jpg" height="193" jea="true" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My apiary with hives with new signs on their roofs </td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Carl von Frisch (who won a Nobel Prize for his research into bees, including discovering the ‘waggle dance’ that bees use to tell their sisters where to go to find nectar producing flowers), found that bees cannot see red, but can see a colour we cannot see ‘ultra violet’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><w:sdt citation="t" id="2476485"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(von Frisch, 1950)</span></w:sdt><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">He found that 4 colours can be easily distinguished by bees; white, yellow, blue and black. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since I wanted to paint ‘signs’ one of these colours has to be the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I chose a black background because I found some scrap black plastic to paint on (if you are looking for recycled bits and pieces like this then if you are near enough, I recommend you go to Worcester Resource Exchange <w:sdt citation="t" id="2476487"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(WRE)</span></w:sdt>).</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Von Frish also found that bees cannot distinguish between a square and a circle or a triangle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However they can distinguish between a square and a cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought that this is because their eyes are evolved to distinguish between different types of flower, so they can tell the difference between a smooth flower, with only a few petals, like a poppy, and one with lots of petals like a daisy (for pedants among you, poppies are not pollinated by bees and daisies are compound flowers, made up of lots of single petal florets!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, to make things easier for the bees, I decided to use three patterns for the house numbers; \, X and * </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This gave me 9 combinations of colour and shape for their ‘house numbers’, which I then mixed up so that no two colours were next to each other:</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Blue \\</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yellow XX</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>White **</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Blue **</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>White \\</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yellow **</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Blue XX</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">8)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Yellow \\</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">9)<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>White XX</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttsKa5k-8YuBytq0d3cJbLVHz2uQHuoGWm5TQQL1CKnmBLS6kvSYaCw3TTCA9XzDS8pxDTBroIuPUunETidvH9n982vd5oG0CJ0pv7IbdmMtT-RW3Er4Go7gkuqhBn1iIIrqhyphenhyphenv3ha_WI/s1600/Beehive+Signs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhttsKa5k-8YuBytq0d3cJbLVHz2uQHuoGWm5TQQL1CKnmBLS6kvSYaCw3TTCA9XzDS8pxDTBroIuPUunETidvH9n982vd5oG0CJ0pv7IbdmMtT-RW3Er4Go7gkuqhBn1iIIrqhyphenhyphenv3ha_WI/s1600/Beehive+Signs.jpg" height="300" jea="true" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Freshly painted beehive roof signs</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I painted the pattern on each black plastic plate twice, partly because the plate was big enough and partly to make it look more like a group of flowers for the bees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you can see from the photo, I also painted a ‘human readable’ number on each plate so I got them in the right order if I moved them!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Each plate has two loops of elastic going through hole in the end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These loops go round a house brick.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have always put a brick on the top of my hives to help prevent the roof blowing off in high winds, so I just looped the elastic round the brick on each hive.</span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEBh9FQFiVKymIAwyVOwOpHh1rkjqUF_58VHQ0-ptG6yY2yxRxHOvWfAY8FqFhsf0KlQ5o1oMt1jeGVVcbuPjW1Koz1lp3X4uJuTkx8EsyGY4pnuDClR4rkA1OzDau_FBa2CD6ejmlIuX/s1600/Beehive+Sign+On+Roof.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUEBh9FQFiVKymIAwyVOwOpHh1rkjqUF_58VHQ0-ptG6yY2yxRxHOvWfAY8FqFhsf0KlQ5o1oMt1jeGVVcbuPjW1Koz1lp3X4uJuTkx8EsyGY4pnuDClR4rkA1OzDau_FBa2CD6ejmlIuX/s1600/Beehive+Sign+On+Roof.jpg" jea="true" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sign on beehive roof, tied to a brick</td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have been using them for three years. The photos are from when I recently took them off the hives for repainting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Judging by the height of the beehives in the summer, it seems to have worked in equalising the hives, so I think it must have made a difference!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I certainly hope it continues to work, because my daughter took up beekeeping in the last year. Her hive is in the spot at the end of the row of hives. I want her to learn how to manage her bees to make honey, not to just collect extra from the other hives in the apiary!</span></span></div>
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<w:sdt docparttype="Bibliographies" docpartunique="t" id="2476486" sdtdocpart="t"><h1 style="margin: 24pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #365f91;"><span style="font-family: Cambria;">Works Cited<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></span></span></span></span></h1>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">von Frisch, Karl. 1950.</span></b><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> <i>Bees: Their vision, chemical senses, and language. </i>s.l. : Cornell University Press, 1950. ISBN 0-224-02214-8.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;">WRE.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> <i>Worcester Resource Exchange. </i>[Online] <a href="http://www.wre.uk.com/">http://www.wre.uk.com</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-15081031968895673122013-01-19T22:15:00.001+00:002013-01-19T22:19:28.837+00:00Lady Georgina Vernon, Hanbury Hall beekeeper. <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I keep my bees at Hanbury Hall in the village of Hanbury in Worcestershire (<a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall/">http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall/</a>) which is now owned by the National Trust. When it was still in private hands it was owned by the Vernon family (<a href="http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall/history/page-1/">http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hanbury-hall/history/page-1/</a>). Lady Georgina Vernon (1840 - 1928) was one of the family who lived at the property who was reputed to be a beekeeper. </span></span></div>
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Lady Georgina Vernon (c) National Trust<br />
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Out of interest, as the current beekeeper, I did some investigation to find out about Lady Georgina's involvement with beekeeping and any mention of Hanbury and beekeeping, the rest of this post shows my findings.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In 1874, the British Beekeeping Association was instituted as with the aim of “Encouragement, Improvement and Advancement of Bee Culture in the United Kingdom, particularly as a means of bettering the Condition of Cottagers and the Agricultural Labouring Classes” <w:sdt citation="t" id="9189954"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(DAVIS, et al.)</span></w:sdt>. However, it was initially established as a London based association.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Two years later, in 1876, Lady Vernon founded a Worcestershire Beekeepers association.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Little is known about this association except that it held a honey show, but by 1883 had “fallen to the ground through lack of support” <w:sdt citation="t" id="9189962"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(WBKA Secretary, 1883)</span></w:sdt></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On 14<sup>th</sup> October 1882, a meeting was held in the Guildhall, Worcester to establish a Worcestershire Beekeeping Association with the aims of “Encouragement of cottagers keeping bees and keeping them in the most humane and profitable way.” <w:sdt citation="t" id="4519313"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(Worcestershire Chronicle, 1882)</span></w:sdt> At the first committee meeting of the newly formed association of around 50 members, Lady Vernon was asked to be one of the vice-presidents together with a number of local worthies including the Earl of Dudley, the Lord Bishop and Dean of Worcester and two local MPs.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the Worcestershire Agricultural Show held at Pershore in August 1884, the association organised a honey show in which Lady Vernon exhibited a number of combs of honey, described in a newspaper report of the show as “remarkable for the evenness with which they were built”, although she was beaten into second place in the comb section class by another beekeeper from Hanbury! <w:sdt citation="t" id="4519315"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(Berrow's Worcester Journal, 1884)</span></w:sdt></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Lady Georgina remained a vice-president of the association for 12 years, until 1894.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although the vice-presidents appear to be local worthies in a similar way that organisations have “patrons” now, she must have attended the AGM on a regular basis because in 1885 Lady Georgina was asked to draw the ballot at the AGM for a lucky member to win a beehive!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The “Ballot for a beehive” seems to have been an established tradition every year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Possibly it was an incentive to encourage members to attend the AGM!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the very first AGM, the “Ballot for a Beehive” was won by Rev. Ogilvy, who was the vicar of Hanbury. Rev. Ogilvy was involved with the association from the start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He served on the committee of the new WBKA for many years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beekeeping must have been a common hobby for the clergy because in total there were 6 vicars on the association’s committee out of a total of 21!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Rev. Ogilvy must have been a knowledgeable beekeeper because he was asked to act as one of the judges at the first show in 1883. It is not known if he was involved, but in 1894/5, there were courses being offered in beekeeping as part of the “Technical Education” administered by Hanbury School. <w:sdt citation="t" id="9189963"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">(Hanbury School, 1884/5)</span></w:sdt> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #365f91; font-family: Cambria; font-size: large;">Works Cited</span></h1>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Berrow's Worcester Journal. 1884.</span></b><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> Worcestershire Agricultural Show at Pershore. <i>Berrow's Worcester Journal. </i>Saturday 2nd August, 1884.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;">DAVIS, Ivor and BBKA.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> BBKA - The History. <i>British Beekeeping Association. </i>[Online] [Cited: 12 09, 2012.] http://www.bbka.org.uk/files/library/the_history_of_the_bbka_1306180988.pdf.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Hanbury School. 1884/5.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> Timetable of Classes. 1884/5. Worcestershire Archives BA11198 xxxiii.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;">WBKA Secretary. 1883.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> <i>Minute Book 1883 - 1906<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>1883. Worcestershire Record Office BA12701.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Worcestershire Chronicle. 1882.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> Proposed Beekeepers association for Worcestershire. <i>Worcestershire Chronicle. </i>21st October, 1882.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-50908300369453755342012-07-22T21:30:00.000+01:002013-01-19T22:18:58.978+00:00The boomerang swarm <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Every year I get phone calls from people who have a swarm in their garden.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Once I have checked that the 'swarm' are not wasps or bumblebees I will usually go out and collect it. This should be as simple as putting the bees into a skep (looks like a wicker waste paper basket) taking them to the apiary and putting the bees into a new hive. However the bees this year don't seem to be reading the same book as me!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I was called on Saturday afternoon and told that there was a swarm at my apiary at Hanbury Hall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The swarm was not in the way and the gardeners quite liked pointing out the bees to the visitors. I have been caught out by rushing to collect swarms too quickly in the past. I think the bees like their 'taste of freedom' and if you try to put them in a hive too soon then they don't remember that they have swarmed and so they leave their new hive and swarm again.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I left the swarm for about three hours till early evening and went to collect them. There was slight misunderstanding about the position of the swarm. On a branch eight feet above the ground would mean reaching up, or at worst a small step ladder. So I duly arrived with step ladder and assistant to hold the ladder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately 8 feet turned out to be more like double that, so the stepladder was out of the question!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, I always travel around with all sorts of things in the boot of my car ‘just in case’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this case, my swarm catching bag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Imagine a pillow case held open in a metal frame on the end of an extendible pole.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I extended the pole, gently slid the open end of the bag over the swarm, which was hanging from a branch ... then gave everything a good shake by jiggling the pole against the branch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the bees fall into the bottom of the bag.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, bees cannot immediately fly, they need to warm up their flight muscles before they can take off, so a resting bee will just drop if you knock it off its perch!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The bag is quickly lowered to the ground and, once the stragglers have flown into the bag to join the Queen, success, the swarm is captured. </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">I like to have a ready prepared hive for just this sort of situation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The hive was filled with wooden frames, which all had a sheet of beeswax, pre-printed with a raised pattern of honeycomb (the bees know exactly how to make the hexagon pattern, but the idea is that if you give them a hint then they will build the honeycomb in the direction you want them to ... usually it works!).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I put the bees into their new home and off I went home, a job well done.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When you collect a swarm, you sometimes get a few bees left behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They often cluster together in the spot where the queen bee was, probably because the area still smells of her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They usually leave after a day or so.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The next day I was back at the apiary for an inspection of the other hives and I glanced up the tree where I had removed the swarm to see if there were any lost bees hanging around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh ... there seemed to be quite a big swarm hanging from the same spot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I checked the hive and found that the swarm had rejected their nice new hive and re-swarmed. So, out with the swarm catching bag and soon the swarm was ‘in the bag’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Trying to ‘think like a bee’ I realised that a hive full of brand new sheets of wax was not very exciting for the swarm so I replaced a couple of the sheets of wax with frames that the bees from another hive had already built out into wax cells.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought that that would seem a lot more homely and the bees would appreciate the ready-made house!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, in went the swarm and I finished my inspection and went home.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next day I had a message left on my answering machine, ‘did I know there was a swarm of bees in the same tree as last time’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Out I went, and ... what a surprise, they were out again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Still I was getting a lot of practice getting a swarm of bees into my catching bag!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time I thought ‘I bet they are not staying long enough in the hive to think of it as home’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, onto plan C. I put the bees back into the hive and closed up the entrance with grass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The grass would keep the bees in for a few hours, until they had chewed their way out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hopefully by then they would think of the new hive as home and they would stay.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The following morning, I had another phone call, ‘did you not get the message from yesterday? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is still a swarm of bees in the tree’. Well, I wasn’t going to rush over and collect them again, so I strolled over a couple of hours later to be told ‘Oh what a shame, you have just missed them, they all flew off a few minutes ago, such a pity!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I checked round the area to make sure they had really gone and then, once I was sure that they had really left the area let out a great whoop of joy that the ‘boomerang swarm‘ had finally gone! They clearly didn’t want to live with me and I was not too sad to see them go!</span></span></div>
HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-50946944100541596992012-04-01T23:19:00.000+01:002013-01-19T22:19:59.195+00:00First proper inspection of 2012It is only the first of April but the weather has been great for a week. The bees are busy flying so it was a good opportunity to check them fully for the first time this year. There was quite a crowd at Hanbury Hall watching our first full inspection of the year. <br />
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Both hives have survived the winter. Hive 3 (the one on the right as you look at the hives) was building up nicely, with two frames with capped brood sections about 10cm in diameter. There were also grubs and eggs around the pupating brood. Because of this, although we didn't see the queen, the eggs and brood prove that she must be there and laying. The bees are bringing in two distinctly different colours of pollen packed onto their hind legs, so they must be working two types of flower, one producing a bright yellow pollen, and one producing a much redder pollen. <br />
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My pollen colour chart suggests that the yellow pollen could be crocus and the redder one snowdrop. The only way to tell definitively is to look at the pollen under a microscope because all pollens have distinctive shapes.<br />
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The second hive (hive 2) has a lot less bees in it and less brood. However, they still have some honey left over from the winter, so they should be fine if there is another cold spell. These bees were from a swarm gathered last year, so I am just pleased that they made it through the winter. This year they will hopefully build up nicely and produce us some honey.<br />
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My apiary is also doing fine, with three colonies surviving the winter and starting to build up nicely. The only problem I can see in the next couple of weeks is that the Oilseed Rape is starting to come into flower and there will not be enough bees to produce a really good crop of honey because it is just too early. Please farmers, go back to planting it in the spring ... then it ripens later! The current practice of planting the rape in the autumn means it flowers too early for large numbers of bees to work it, because the queen only starts laying when the weather starts warming up.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-35633319421317611022011-10-23T21:52:00.003+01:002011-10-23T21:52:00.187+01:00Why do bees make honey?The bees we call 'honey bees' (Apis Melifera) form a permanent colony. Although each bee may not live for long, the colony of bees should continue indefinately, if disease, weather or predation don't get to it!<br />
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In the areas of the world where bees are native, there are generally distinct seasons, so plants do not flower all year round. This means that the bees have to have some means of storing food to keep them going during the part of the year when they cannot collect nectar. Larger animals get through the winter by storing food as fat inside their body and then using this energy over the winter. Since one bee may not survive the winter it makes more sense to the colony to store its food supply externally. This is honey. <br />
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The bee colony has no idea how bad the winter will be, so will store as much excess food as honey as possible. Beekeepers have also attempted to breed bees that will collect more honey, resulting in better crops for the beekeeper! As beekeepers we either leave the colony with enough honey to see them through the winter, or we take all the honey, then feed the bees with sugar syrup, which they turn into a sort of honey and use that in the winter.<br />
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During the winter, the bees in the hive don't hibernate. They form a ball, or cluster, with the queen bee in the middle. They then eat the honey in the middle of the cluster for energy, and keep warm by 'shivering'. They can vibrate their large flight muscles without flapping their wings. This gives off heat and keeps the cluster warm.<br />
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The bees only start flying again when the weather warms up. After several months in the hive, their first flight out is to go to the toilet! Once the first spring plants start flowering and producing nectar, the queen starts laying eggs again and the whole annual process of breeding bees to collect honey begins again.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-7052216128988155102011-10-22T21:46:00.003+01:002011-10-22T22:21:08.257+01:00How do bees make Honey?I was asked this question at Hanbury Hall last week. Here is a description of the work that the bees do to turn nectar into honey.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">These bees are filling wax cells with honey, ready for sealing like the cells at the top of the photo</td></tr>
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The older worker bees (all girls because the boy bees don't do any work!) go out to collect nectar from flowers. They suck the nectar into their stomach to transport it back to the hive.<br />
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As they suck the nectar up, it is mixed with an enzyme called invertase which is produced by a gland in their head. It is a bit like the way that we mix the food we eat with saliva as we eat it.<br />
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Nectar is a sweet liquid produced by plants as a 'bribe' to get the bees to visit. It varies in sugar content by plant from about 5% sugar up to about 70% sugar. The majority of the rest of the nectar is water.<br />
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When the bee gets back to the hive, they 'unload' the nectar to the younger 'house bees'. These bees are all female and they do all the work inside the hive, cleaning, feeding the larvae and processing the nectar into honey. <br />
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The returning bee 'sicks up' the nectar from thier stomach and offers it to a house bee. If the nectar is the sort needed, then the house bee will take some. The returning bee then offers some nectar to another house bee, and so on until their stomach is empty. When the weather is hot, bees need water to drink and to cool the hive. In this case the house bees will prefer to take a more watery nectar, so returning bees with this sort of nectar will 'unload' quicker, so they know they have the right stuff, and will go back out to get more. Because the house bees don't really want really sugary nectar in hot weather, returning bees with sugary nectar will find it harder to give it to the house bees, so they learn that they should try collecting something else!<br />
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Once the house bees have the nectar they have to 'process' it into honey. There are two aspects to this, a chemical change in the sugars and a reduction of the water content.<br />
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Nectar generally contains a sugar called sucrose, which is a disaccharide. Honey consists of a mixture of fructose and glucose, which are monosaccharides. Converting from one to the other is a process called inverting, and is carried out by the enzyme, invertase, which the bee added to the nectar when it first sucked the nectar from the flower. I won't bore you with any more details of this process. If you want to know more then I recommend the books listed on the <a href="http://hanburybees.blogspot.com/p/recommended-books.html">http://hanburybees.blogspot.com/p/recommended-books.html</a> page.<br />
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The bees also need to reduce the water content in the nectar so that the resulting honey will remain fresh for a long time. First of all, the house bees 'sick-up' a drop of honey which they manipulate with their proboscis (a sort of drinking straw sticking out of their mouth that they use to suck up nectar). After a while they swallow the drop again and then do the same again. While the drop is out of their stomach it can evaporate water, making it a more concentrated sugar solution.<br />
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When the house bee has made the nectar a bit more concentrated they will 'paint' the solution onto the inside of a wax cell, so that more water can evaporate. They move this 'unripe honey' around from cell to cell as it gets more and more concentrated. <br />
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Finally, when they have got the water content below about 20%, the nectar has become honey. This is then moved from all the half filled cells that were being used for processing into a full cell of honey. The bees then put a thin wax capping over the honey to protect it. It will now last unchanged for years and years.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-77255813886495144072011-09-30T22:35:00.001+01:002011-10-22T22:21:53.410+01:00Inspecting and feeding the beesMost weekends we inspect the bees at Hanbury Hall to make sure they are OK. The honey has been extracted now and so we are feeding the bees sugar syrup to replace the honey we took from them. Here is a short video showing how we go about opening the hive and looking at the bees.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/gj6tu35uGeU?hl=en&fs=1" width="425"></iframe>HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-23171523652185712202011-09-11T23:23:00.001+01:002011-10-22T22:22:36.843+01:00Ouch .. Lucy got stungWe were looking at the bees today and one of the gardeners at Hanbury Hall came over. So I gave a frame of bees to Lucy to go and show to her. As I passed the bees on their comb over I thought 'they seem a bit lively!'. Ten seconds later, Lucy got stung! Fortunately the gardener, who was not in a bee-suit was left alone, but Lucy, in a bee suit, got stung through her leather glove! Lucy, who has been beekeeping since she was tiny, brought the bees back and put them in the hive, then smoked the area she had been stung (it hides the smell given off when a bee stings. The smell attracts other bees to come over and sting the same area). Only after that did she walk away to remove her glove and inspect the damage.<br />
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When I went to find out how she was, I found that the bee had left its sting in her glove and she was busy showing visitors the sting!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bee sting stuck in a leather glove</td></tr>
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As you can see from the photo, when the bee tries to pull away, they leave their sting in your skin (or in this case the glove) and also leave behind their sting gland, which continues to pulse and force venom into you. If you get stung by a bee, then quickly flick off the sting gland with a fingernail. Don't try to pinch it off, or you will squeeze more venom into you.<br />
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The story had a happy ending for Lucy. Because the sting had to go through her glove, by the time it got to her finger, it only scratched her, so the pain and swelling were minimal. Anyway, as a beekeeper, you expect the occasional sting .. it reminds you to treat your bees considerately!HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-74010718949353877292011-08-24T22:09:00.002+01:002011-10-22T22:23:28.993+01:00Getting that sticky stuff in the jar!Lots of beekeeping books recommend that you extract your honey into buckets and store your honey in the sealed buckets until just before you sell it. Before you can put the honey into jars, you have to warm up the honey in the bucket, which needs some kind of warming cabinet (or I guess an airing cupboard if you chuck all the clothes out of it first). Then you tip the warm honey into a 'ripening tank' (tank with a valve at the bottom), possibly filtering it when you tip it in. Then you leave the honey for several days so that any bits float to the top. Then you can skim off the 'skum' from the top (actually mostly tiny bits of beeswax). Finally you can put the honey in jars. Then you clean everything ready for the next time you want to bottle some honey!<br />
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Call me wierd, but this seems like a lot of extra work! As my wife will confirm, anything that involves the processing of honey causes the house to become coated with a thin layer of honey, so doing everything in one go seems to make a lot of sense to me!<br />
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I may feel differently when I reach the heady hights of having tonnes of honey, but my few hundred jars are as easily stored full of honey as empty! <br />
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I extract my honey straight into the 'ripening tank', which is a big stainless steel drum with a 2 inch diameter valve at the bottom. The honey sits in the sealed tank for a couple of days, then it is ready to put into jars. First the top of the honey is skimmed to remove the bits that have floated to the top. This is mostly tiny particles of wax and pollen. This is processed later to extract the beeswax.<br />
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Before the jarring can take place, the jars need to be cleaned. I always wash my honey jars in my dishwasher so that they can be cleaned at high temperature and then air dried. Although honey is a 'low risk' product for food hygene risks (it kills bacteria by sucking the moisture out of them, and it is naturally antiseptic) I wouldn't want to sell anything that was not as pure as possible.<br />
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I mostly use 0.75 lb (12 oz) jars for honey, which I buy by the pallet load. When I first started beekeeping, nearly all honey was sold in 1lb 'honey jars'. However, the supermarkets started selling honey in smaller 'jam jars'. The perception then became that Local Honey was expensive compared to shop bought because the consumer didn't notice that they were getting about a quarter as much again in the honey jars. Also inflation increased the price of honey, and £5 for a jar of honey sounds a lot, whereas a smaller jar can be sold for a lower price. Most of my beekeeping friends have now moved to the 12 oz jar and I only fill 1lb jars where I still have recycled jars from friends and neighbours who save and return the glass jars.<br />
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By picking the right style and size of jar, you can make ite easy to make sure that you always put enough honey in the jar that you are never under weight. I check weigh filled jars to confirm that they are too heavy not too light.<br />
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To actually fill a jar with honey is a delicate matter. Honey can flow so slowly that you think you have enough time to do something else, so you start putting the lid on the previous jar, or getting the next empty jar ready. If you time it right, you can get a little production line going, which, in a strange way is quite satisfying! However, you really don't want to forget about that jar filling up, because honey flows slowly, but also completely silently, so it will overflow without a sound!<br />
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Once the jars are filled, you need to label them. I decided that I wanted to design my own labels so I looked into the regulations. There appear to be more regulations about the label than there are about the honey inside the jar! <br />
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As an example; when I started beekeeping, there was a regulation in place that said that honey could only be sold in certain specified amounts, 1lb, 12oz, 0.5lb etc. This regulation was many years old and so was quoted in imperial measurements. Then along came the EU and metrication, which stated that everything had to be sold in metric measures. So, beekeepers had to sell honey in jars marked 454g, which is of course 1lb converted into metric units! In fairness to the government, this has been repealed in the last year or so and now you can sell honey in any unit you want ... which explains why you cannot now easily compare the price of honey in the supermarket, because the jars are all different sizes!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGT72O3gNRh2ihFQ_QyjhzncTXBsdorjCPkUF2aHaxSUGrQuC_lmDqsSTItNwqYmzna0jDME2wR6VSYzQVbJ5fZ2r8N1yyNGGYgYZQaulOXE3EI6z7IvDXSWv_abzm24KPAsC-skFMD8iv/s1600/IMG_1724.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGT72O3gNRh2ihFQ_QyjhzncTXBsdorjCPkUF2aHaxSUGrQuC_lmDqsSTItNwqYmzna0jDME2wR6VSYzQVbJ5fZ2r8N1yyNGGYgYZQaulOXE3EI6z7IvDXSWv_abzm24KPAsC-skFMD8iv/s320/IMG_1724.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The final product - honey in jars ready for sale</td></tr>
</tbody></table> Once the jars are lidded and labelled then the majority are taken back to Hanbury Hall for sale, either as jarred honey, or they are used in the tea-room and made into a whole range of products, from cakes to honey ice cream.<br />
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It isn't the only reason I keep bees, but nevertheless, it is immensely satisfying to hand over a jar of honey thinking 'my bees made that'!HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-1147713029335128542011-08-22T22:46:00.004+01:002011-10-22T22:24:25.961+01:00Thanks for cleaning the supersOn Sunday we went to Hanbury Hall to take back the supers from the bees after they had cleaned them up. The bees have taken all the honey out of the extracted 'wet' supers and stored it for thier own use. They also tidied up the broken edges of the honeycomb. Have a look at the picture in an earlier posting of the smashed-up honeycomb after I had messed it up with a combination of scraping open the cells with the uncapping fork and then spinning out the honey.<br />
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After the bees have finished the honeycomb looks like this:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA0ihknAHHIx37ch0QRI-wuhG5f2tkuK8hftnOPESur7AsjfRzpxqKmAA1wXDkBSLffFon-aS9ei284I0_sQ3ESIRhpNoqYxJkd0JOolf_K81zKtDFvGbHLzJhrHt4C31iti-Ajzpk3UPo/s1600/BeeswaxAfterBeesHaveCleanedItUp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="246px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA0ihknAHHIx37ch0QRI-wuhG5f2tkuK8hftnOPESur7AsjfRzpxqKmAA1wXDkBSLffFon-aS9ei284I0_sQ3ESIRhpNoqYxJkd0JOolf_K81zKtDFvGbHLzJhrHt4C31iti-Ajzpk3UPo/s320/BeeswaxAfterBeesHaveCleanedItUp.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frame after the bees have cleaned the honey residue and mended the comb</td></tr>
</tbody></table>We took off all these 'dry' supers because the bees don't need the space in the winter and if we had left it on the hive volume would have been much larger. It is a little like having a bigger house than you need ... the central heating costs are higher than you want. In the bees case, the central heating 'fuel' is the honey stores, so keeping a nice small hive in the winter needs less effort to keep warm, and so uses less bee energy and honey stores.<br />
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Honeycomb is the favourite home of the Wax Moth. If you take the supers away from the bees then there is nothing to protect it from the ravages of the Wax Moth. These little critters lay thier eggs in the wax. The eggs hatch out into catapillars which live off the wax and any remnants left in the cells (their very favourite home is honeycomb that has been used for breeding bees, because they like the larval skins left in the cells ... yuk!). As the catapillars move around the wax, they destroy it and leave a mess of silk and droppings everywhere. Not content to destroy the wax, when they pupate, they dig a hollow in the woodwork of the hive as well.<br />
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There are a number of ways to protect against Wax Moth. There is a biological spray of a bacillus which kills the larvae. The trade name is 'Certan' and it is available from the equipment manufacturers. You make up a diluted solution and spray it on all the dry combs. It is harmless to bees, but is a bit of a performance if you have lots of supers, because you need to spray both sides of all the frames.<br />
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If you can stop the moth getting to the supers then they cannot lay eggs in the first place. For the last couple of years I have been wrapping each super in industrial pallet shrink wrap. I wrap each super separately, so if the moth gets into one super they cannot travel to another in the stack. Also the shrink wrap is clear so light is let into the supers, and the wax moth don't like light.<br />
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Hopefully my evening spent shrink wrapping supers and storing them in the garage will mean that next year I have a stock of frames with beeswax drawn out ready for the bees to fill with honey. Making beeswax and creating the honeycomb takes the bees some time, and they have to eat honey to get the energy to create the wax. They much prefer to have ready drawn out beeswax that they can use straight away, so these supers should help the bees collect more honey next year.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-65270959339000220282011-08-21T07:30:00.003+01:002011-08-24T22:51:37.338+01:00Using bees to clean up the supersSpinning the honeycomb in the extractor gets out most of the honey but there is still a film of honey over the inside of each cell. To clean this up we need a cleaner which is small enough to get right inside each cell and recover the honey. What does the beekeeper have available that can get inside honeycomb cells ... oh yes ... bees!<br />
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The bees can take the 'empty' supers and clean out every scrap of honey. They then take it back to their hive and store it for thier own use in the winter. So the beekeeper ends up with nice clean dry supers to store, and the bees get some more honey to keep them going through the winter.<br />
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This needs doing as soon as possible after extraction has finished, or at least it does in my house. The extracted 'wet' supers give off a lovely smell of honey. The trouble is, every bee in the area seems to smell it, and by this stage in the beekeeping year there are not many flowers around, so the thought of being able to help themselves to some honey is too tempting for the bees. The supers become a 'bee magnet' and, if they are still in the house, there are progressively more and more bees in the house as well. This causes marital strife so I need to get the supers out of the house quickly!<br />
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The wet, sticky supers go back into the car and then back to the apiary at Hanbury Hall. The plan is to give each hive a couple of supers at the top of the hive. They can then all work on 'their' supers and not end up in a massive fight with all the other hives of bees over a central pile of supers. Once bees have learnt that honey can be found nearby, they start trying to rob the stores of thier neighbours and it all gets a bit frantic.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwsJ0hb8IqcA0290_YWJWANhqBXETPRe-PUaumaIOw3lvtwjnjJssPH_qSciW5ectqU3TwMVv7B9dKirlJtvLifDdaACuqnFz4m2K8aUiVeLU4nAEKoHkblom4p-L4BScDmWfblL9I5F1/s1600/IMG_1308.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIwsJ0hb8IqcA0290_YWJWANhqBXETPRe-PUaumaIOw3lvtwjnjJssPH_qSciW5ectqU3TwMVv7B9dKirlJtvLifDdaACuqnFz4m2K8aUiVeLU4nAEKoHkblom4p-L4BScDmWfblL9I5F1/s320/IMG_1308.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Every Hive gets a couple of wet supers to clean</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Unlike normal supers, the wet supers to clean are put on top of the hive, with a board between the hive 'proper' and the supers to be cleaned. There is a hole in the board, which allows the bees to get into the wet supers, but hopefully the board acts as a separator between the hive and the supers. This should encourage the bees to 'take the honey home' down into the hive, rather than just tidying up the supers and re-storing the honey in each wet super.<br />
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The plan is to do this quickly so that the bees don't notice the pile of waiting supers to be put back on. However the job took about 20 minutes, and by the end, the bees had found the pile of supers!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33sYNiv9UGtUyTTi8hF8uu6MJB7BzJJh6QUrf1-WSh2-qYdL_t1utybny0d7ZPijq0lT1WdVKtncodpX-NJPygRJr_Ib1Jd6nRuUAxkCPhAD_9-lJT8nfH-5532cLWydMeBsdmAIMdDcG/s1600/IMG_1315.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg33sYNiv9UGtUyTTi8hF8uu6MJB7BzJJh6QUrf1-WSh2-qYdL_t1utybny0d7ZPijq0lT1WdVKtncodpX-NJPygRJr_Ib1Jd6nRuUAxkCPhAD_9-lJT8nfH-5532cLWydMeBsdmAIMdDcG/s320/IMG_1315.JPG" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bees robbing some extracted 'wet' supers </td></tr>
</tbody></table>You can see how many bees had found the stack of supers in only 20 minutes. This was the last super to go back on, containing the frames that had broken in the extraction process (the centrifugal extractor puts a lot of strain on the frames and honeycomb and some always break).<br />
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Still, I have left the bees for a week or so to clear the supers and will be going back soon to take the 'dry' cleaned supers off to store them at home for the winter.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-38430442896268337412011-08-20T21:44:00.003+01:002011-10-22T22:25:30.119+01:00Extracting honey - or how to coat the entire house with a thin layer of honey!So, we got the supers with honey in them back home without too many bees. Luckily I can get directly into the room where I do the extracting from the back door, only walking over lino flooring. Even so I try to save large pieces of cardboard (the box the chicken run came in was great ... covered the entire floor) to walk on. You cannot avoid getting drips of honey on the floor and it then gets spread everywhere you walk. I have tried putting down newspaper, but as soon as there is any honey on the paper, the paper sticks to your foot and then you end up trying to walk about with half a newspaper flapping off your shoe!<br />
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The supers were brought in and put in two big piles, 15 in total from 6 hives. Not every frame in every super has honey in it, because I like to give the bees room to move around in the hive (overcrowding is one of the triggers of swarming, and you don't want to lose half your honey collectors in a swarm!).<br />
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The room was emptied, cleaned and the extraction kit brought in the day before (has to be packed away for the rest of the year, it is the utility room really!). There are several bits of kit that I use for extraction. The extractor is a little bit like a farmer's combine harvester. It is only used for a short time each year, but when it is needed it is the only way to get the job done. Having said that, in the same way that farmers sometimes share combines, local beekeeping associations often share extractors around their members.<br />
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My extractor looks like a large plastic drum. In fact, it is a large, food grade drum! Inside is a cage on a vertical spindle which is rotated using a crank handle. Ten frames of honey can go in at once and then the lid goes back on and you start winding slowly. It works like an old fashioned spin dryer, the frames spin round and the honey is thrown off by centrifugal force. The honey lands on the inside of the drum and runs down the walls to collect in the bottom of the drum. Once some of the honey has been thrown off the frames you can start winding faster. If you go too fast though, the weight of the honey in the frames is too much for the honeycomb to support (after all it is only made of beeswax!) and the centre of the honeycomb 'explodes' throwing bits of honeycomb around the extractor. This then clogs everything up and you usually have to get the big bits out from between the inside of the drum and the cage before the extractor will spin properly again! To try and make the honeycomb stronger, the bee equipment suppliers usually put a thin zig-zag wire into the centre of the embossed wax 'foundation' that you give the bees to start building the honeycomb on.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fVSilFSS1JDd4ZAdJ_45GwszUNM5tPeWG4DdSxahOHtAQPid3MEcY3ZTweS6MaBAELOxQc8Rkrzskeulxds4jIffTS4lPVb5Q5s3bmcCluCdNHulo7zBQMxTn2cdzpqDwnaK8IVpV67X/s1600/CappedBeeswax.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fVSilFSS1JDd4ZAdJ_45GwszUNM5tPeWG4DdSxahOHtAQPid3MEcY3ZTweS6MaBAELOxQc8Rkrzskeulxds4jIffTS4lPVb5Q5s3bmcCluCdNHulo7zBQMxTn2cdzpqDwnaK8IVpV67X/s320/CappedBeeswax.jpg" width="315px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Part of a frame showing the white wax cappings </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Before the frames go into the extractor you have to cut the 'cappings' off the honeycomb. When the bees have finshed turning the nectar they collected into honey, they store it in the honeycomb and cover the cell with a 'lid' of beeswax to protect it. Before the honey can be spun out of the honeycomb this lid or 'capping' has to be removed. For a long time I used a bread knife to cut the cappings off in a big sheet, but this year I have bought a gadget called an uncapping fork. It looks like a 3 inch wide fork with about twenty pointed tines. The fork is used to scratch the cappings to break them. Once they are broken open the honey can spin out in the extractor and the wax cappings join them in the honey, to be filtered out later.<br />
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Some of the honey leaks out when you are removing the cappings so I do this over a large metal tray to catch the drips. Then each frame is put into the extractor, trying to balance it with full frames opposite full frames. If you don't try to balance the extractor it behaves just like the old-fashioned spin dryers and tries to wander around the room when you spin it!<br />
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Once the honey has been spun out of a batch of frames, they come out of the extractor and are put back into the super. There is still some honey clinging to the sides of the honeycomb, making everything sticky. These supers with 'wet' frames will be given back to the bees. They clean up all the honey and store it for themselves for the winter. They also tidy up the broken wax edges of the honeycomb where it was opened before the extraction.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmzGfg_mGpW9Omg8EMnwvugK7QmmdWYYHp5DU0EOpYA2OsDN8NzL2SZJOO6ys4y79d6Ngj4tzHvooVZto6Cb15jUuq0ioIPW2XQgaR8sUSQPhZ-MXj0dHcKYAymuuBGdDUwb9qfIoxGnEo/s1600/BeeswaxAfterExtraction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279px" qaa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmzGfg_mGpW9Omg8EMnwvugK7QmmdWYYHp5DU0EOpYA2OsDN8NzL2SZJOO6ys4y79d6Ngj4tzHvooVZto6Cb15jUuq0ioIPW2XQgaR8sUSQPhZ-MXj0dHcKYAymuuBGdDUwb9qfIoxGnEo/s320/BeeswaxAfterExtraction.jpg" width="320px" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">A 'wet' frame showing the edges of the beeswax after the honey has been extracted</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>After a couple of 'spins' there is enough honey at the bottom of the extractor to drain it off. At the bottom there is a large (about 2 inch diameter) gate valve. This allows the honey to be drained off into a container. The honey at this stage contains bits of wax and also other detritus (bees etc!). Before it can be bottled it needs straining.<br />
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I find that the straining works better if the honey has been slightly warmed to make it a bit more runny. However you do have to be very careful because heating honey causes it to lose the volatile elements that contribute to the flavour. Overheating can damage honey to the extent that it can only be sold for baking.<br />
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My filter is a combination of a coarse metal mesh filter and a metal mesh filter so fine that it moves like a fabric. This sits on the top of a large stainless steel drum (well large for me, it holds about 100 pounds of honey when it is full and is so heavy to move that I fill it up on the worktop rather than trying to move it full!). This drum, or 'ripener' holds the filtered honey for a couple of days so that any small wax particles float to the top where they can be skimmed off. There is another two inch gate valve at the bottom so that jars can be filled directly from the ripener.<br />
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By the end of the day I have extracted all 15 supers, and have three drums of filtered honey, a pile of wet supers and honey on every surface I have touched. Still only three more jobs, give the supers back to the bees and jar the honey. They can both wait for another day, but the third job, cleaning the extraction kit and room and returning it back to its normal, non-sticky state has to be done today or my marriage will suffer!HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-38428819526922280412011-08-18T23:48:00.005+01:002011-10-22T22:26:22.558+01:00Harvest Time - sorry bees, but I want your honey!This is one of the most exciting times of the year. We have been looking after the bees all year and now comes the moment to take off the honey. You can make a guess as to how much the bees have collected, but until it is home and in the jar, there is always an element of 'counting your chickens before they are hatched'. The colony could be robbed by wasps, there could be a period of cold weather and the bees eat the honey ... and so on.<br />
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To get the honey away from the bees we put a wooden 'clearer' board between the honey in the supers and the queen and her brood at the bottom of the hive. The board has a couple of 'Porter bee escapes' in it (so called because Mr Porter invented them!). These act as a one-way valve for the bees, so whenever a bee leaves the honey at the top of the hive to go down to see the queen, they can't get back. After a couple of days, there will be no bees on the honey, and you can take off the supers for extraction.<br />
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Except ... the bees don't all read the same book as me, so some don't go down to see the queen! Also, they find any tiny hole where the hive woodwork doesn't fit perfectly and get back in that way. Nevertheless, most of the bees leave.<br />
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So, we went to the Hanbury aipary and, using quite a lot of smoke to calm the bees ('cos they don't want to lose all their honey!) took off all the supers and put them in the car ...<br />
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</div>Always fun driving around with a car full of bits of beehive, because fairly soon you become aware that you are carrying lots of unwanted hitchhikers! We drove home in our bee suits, with the front windows and the rear window open, hoping that any bees would be blown backwards and out of the car by the wind. Anyway we didn't get stung .. this time.<br />
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Next job, extracting the honey.HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-38918072524134946542010-09-07T21:08:00.004+01:002011-10-22T22:26:55.718+01:00Innocent CompetitionAs a thank you to Innocent for giving them the beehives, the National Trust gave us away as a prize in a competition run by Innocent. The winner got to come and play with the bees (we lent them bee suits!) and have a cream tea at the Hall tearoom.<br />
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We all had a great time ... well ... I did because I enjoy talking about bees, and no-one actually fell asleep, so I guess it was a success. <br />
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Follow this link to see some pictures of the day on the Innocent blog<br />
<a href="http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/2010/09/on-saturday-i-went-along-to-hanbury-hall-in-worcestershire-to-meet-our-competition-winner-julian-tim-the-beekeeper-and-nei.html">http://innocentdrinks.typepad.com/innocent_drinks/2010/09/on-saturday-i-went-along-to-hanbury-hall-in-worcestershire-to-meet-our-competition-winner-julian-tim-the-beekeeper-and-nei.html</a>HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2893422808908294088.post-3706698984274231982010-05-05T20:36:00.001+01:002011-10-22T22:27:35.746+01:00Constructing a beehiveThe National Trust were given a beehive by 'Innocent', the people who make smoothies as part of their 'Buy one get one Bee' campaign. As I keep my bees at Hanbury Hall anyway, I volunteered to look after the National Trust's beehives as well. So, one sunny day a big box of bits arrived, and we tried to turn it into a beehive!<br />
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The beehive arrived as a ‘flatpack’. There were about 210 pieces ... and no instructions. Fortunately, it is a WBC style hive, which is the same as the other beehives, so the occasional sneaky look at another hive helped in the build!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5I6Ul32-tvbJr3j8d6pcaT6kZitTgFJDhg_pf1c_lO3rJpBq3RR2pv0FhpeL2XDnoipk1r4u3HqLGBpk7PKqn560oGl3Kzm12FSj75zoGvRQRpI1a54NOEr8WO15bUluwX0V2B2qxfsj/s1600/A+flatpack+beehive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW5I6Ul32-tvbJr3j8d6pcaT6kZitTgFJDhg_pf1c_lO3rJpBq3RR2pv0FhpeL2XDnoipk1r4u3HqLGBpk7PKqn560oGl3Kzm12FSj75zoGvRQRpI1a54NOEr8WO15bUluwX0V2B2qxfsj/s320/A+flatpack+beehive.jpg" width="284px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the parts of a flatpack beehive</td></tr>
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The ‘WBC’ beehive was invented by William Broughton Carr, and is the design most people would recognise as a beehive. Nowadays, most beehives are slab sided boxes which don’t look as nice, but are easier to make and use.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_I4A2ivh6ApSrmjiWypgbgOBJtrr_GeUqxyZXpT0gTv51pAytJecX9d7whwQymgMPm_tuE410tCC5k7JB66dltXGoJpLhT-8GGmkGar3FD9ihHvll8AO6gV43W77OZcsvqrS516uSKAn/s1600/WBC+roof+and+floor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240px" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_I4A2ivh6ApSrmjiWypgbgOBJtrr_GeUqxyZXpT0gTv51pAytJecX9d7whwQymgMPm_tuE410tCC5k7JB66dltXGoJpLhT-8GGmkGar3FD9ihHvll8AO6gV43W77OZcsvqrS516uSKAn/s320/WBC+roof+and+floor.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The roof and floor built ... but nothing inbetween!</td></tr>
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You can see from this picture that the floor has splayed legs, and the roof has a gable. These all look nice, but are harder to build. So the first afternoon, we only made the roof and the floor!<br />
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The next weekend we worked at building the bit in the middle!<br />
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The WBC beehive has a wooden outer skin (the ‘lifts’), then another box inside which holds the ‘frames’. Frames are wooden holders for sheets of beeswax, impressed with a honeycomb pattern. Precision is important because bees will treat a gap of 3/8” as a ‘corridor’ and will not block it up. A smaller gap will be glued up with ‘propolis’ (tree resin collected by the bees). Any larger gap will be used by the bees to build more beeswax honeycomb. 3/8” is known as a ‘beespace’ and is the crucial dimension in all beehives. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFPWO685Q9moqXK1dnqrYR6rCMGvEVvsG3kkdioiK94BQhK4wcmi7tqfoPzu9wGxyakOCcEflUTVj2q_WvirlZ52WMONVkMCFc8LAzsEG3Bwn_d23ji8KzZ1sXWm8ToTFWhLz2lpBPSQD/s1600/WBC+lifts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320px" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFPWO685Q9moqXK1dnqrYR6rCMGvEVvsG3kkdioiK94BQhK4wcmi7tqfoPzu9wGxyakOCcEflUTVj2q_WvirlZ52WMONVkMCFc8LAzsEG3Bwn_d23ji8KzZ1sXWm8ToTFWhLz2lpBPSQD/s320/WBC+lifts.jpg" width="254px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lucy and lifts!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>In this photo you can see Lucy holding a frame with the wax in it, and in the foreground, the lifts. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYcc4AB1y53qK6p5DsPcHZTSm6NDCFjDcxi55z1DMe7cmDqEaHrWMZK4mxzySEiBl_tnT1ZiehgiFKcGuLufz9R61PPT4Zdfb4frus5iBFzTp_5LshmpQLxD7tx54UOoFHnAvFMduUN0w/s1600/Finished+Beehive.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="288px" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXYcc4AB1y53qK6p5DsPcHZTSm6NDCFjDcxi55z1DMe7cmDqEaHrWMZK4mxzySEiBl_tnT1ZiehgiFKcGuLufz9R61PPT4Zdfb4frus5iBFzTp_5LshmpQLxD7tx54UOoFHnAvFMduUN0w/s320/Finished+Beehive.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The finished beehive</td></tr>
</tbody></table> The finished beehive. Later on we moved it into the 'cage' where you can see it now. <br />
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All we needed then were some bees!<br />
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In late May, one of the other colonies of bees was getting ready to swarm , so we were able to create an ‘artificial swarm’ by taking some of the frames of bees and eggs and moving them to the new hive. Fortunately all the hives have interchangeable parts! The bees thought that they had swarmed and set up home in the new hive.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tmXOBSckvvxdeG5VX-sf_5bEGQ1-Mxf-AxaoUbgRlocUsW8twMNKcaX61S7-K25Y2pVShNQv6Vo_4c97gRCrhb0aL8k0WzNjxgKmvbfcALWFDPNPYj-ShRaAoE9Mhqd5Q0n1jLoTzM4a/s1600/Bees+at+hive+entrance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245px" nba="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_tmXOBSckvvxdeG5VX-sf_5bEGQ1-Mxf-AxaoUbgRlocUsW8twMNKcaX61S7-K25Y2pVShNQv6Vo_4c97gRCrhb0aL8k0WzNjxgKmvbfcALWFDPNPYj-ShRaAoE9Mhqd5Q0n1jLoTzM4a/s320/Bees+at+hive+entrance.jpg" width="320px" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bees at the hive entrance</td></tr>
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If you look carefully at the photo above you can see some of the bees are standing with their tail stuck up in the air. This photo was taken just after we had put the bees in the hive and the bees are standing in this strange way because they are releasing a smell (actually a pheromone) which guides the other bees to the entrance.<br />
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By early June the new queen should be starting to lay, and then the new colony can grow. We are hoping for some honey from the hive this year, but it is already a little late in the season for a colony to build up itself and create surplus stores ... still there is always next year!HanburyBeeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06695958726563015663noreply@blogger.com