From A to Bee (33 page)

  Sorry, did I mention that he said that some of these hives collected this honey in a little over four weeks?!

  Truly amazing what these little creatures can do, isn't it? You just have to love them.

I had a fantastic beekeeping session this evening and felt like I learned a lot. Firstly I had to combine our two hives together to make just the one. The two hives haven't been particularly strong all year and there was a fear that separately they wouldn't survive the winter, but if they were combined they might.

  We put the hives on top of each other with a couple of sheets of newspaper separating them. The idea is that the bees gradually eat through the paper and in doing so get used to each other's scent or rather pheromones. Combining the hives with nothing separating them would result in all-out war. I could just imagine a huge scrum in the middle of the hive until the last bee was standing. It didn't sound particularly viable. Who knew two sheets of newspaper could be so useful?

  The next thing I learned tonight was how to use a flamethrower. What a way to feel full of testosterone! Basically you have to clean the equipment to make sure it is sterile and free of disease. The easiest way to do this is to burn all remnants of bees off the hive. I am not sure how this works with a plastic beehive like the Beehaus. That could have some interesting results.

  This was one job I did not want to miss and so I elbowed my way to the front of the queue and got stuck right in. When I turned the gas on from the gas bottle there was that slight time delay and then the all-too-familiar hissing sound you usually hear when you switch on a gas oven. With a few butterflies in my stomach I flicked the lighter ready for my eyebrows to be singed at any moment. Hey presto! With immediate force the flamethrower was lit and despite my momentary jump backwards from the surprise at its strength I was ready to go.

  The problem here is to remember that you actually have a lethal weapon in your hand. I had to stop myself singeing the ground and perhaps more worryingly, stop myself flaming the plastic pipe leading to the gas bottle which I managed on several occasions. Not a good idea. After a while you also get a little carried away and you have to remember to keep the gun away from your fingers as well. It sounds stupid but you are flaming quite detailed bits of kit and so I did find this a little bit of a challenge; a fun challenge though. All in all, it was not as easy a job as it looked and was quite dangerous. What a fabulous way to finish the session, though: must get me one of those next year!

It seems quite usual now to be stating that tomorrow's will be an important inspection. However, not only will I be praying, probably in vain, that the bees might have started to get me some honey, but there is a rumour of a serious bee disease locally and I sincerely hope my bees haven't got a problem.

  When I did my beekeeping course I was surprised at the level of attention diseases were given; but I have since grown to understand that this is an integral part of the process of keeping bees. Knowing how to look out for, protect against and, if necessary, deal with diseases has become a very real part of my beekeeping life. In fact I would go so far as to say that disease is now my first concern when it comes to looking after bees. It really has become that serious.

  Already this year I have done various varroa checks on my hives and fortunately I haven't seen any evidence of the mites. (If you have superb sight you can look for these mites on the bees themselves, and then you know there must be a pretty heavy infestation, but the alternative method is to put a board in beneath the brood and count the number of mites that fall through the hive in a given time period.) However, bees can suffer from 'brood' diseases, and two of the most well-known are American Foul Brood and European Foul Brood (AFB and EFB). Both of these diseases are taken very seriously by the Beekeeping Authorities as obviously they have very grave consequences.

  When I started beekeeping I was advised to sign up to BeeBase, a website (it can be accessed at
www.nationalbeeunit.com
) which allows you to register your hive locations. This is important for many reasons but the most important is that they will be able to monitor disease problems locally and notify other beekeepers that may be affected. This is what happened this morning. I received an email from our local bee inspector informing me of an outbreak of European Foul Brood very nearby – in fact it is probably within three miles of my hives.

  On this occasion, the exact location of the problem beehive is unknown as it is from an unregistered beekeeper who didn't want to give his details other than his general geographical area. This seems a little strange but it demonstrated to me the danger for us beekeepers if you are not registered. Apparently this discovery only came about by chance when the beekeeper was trying to sell a nucleus of bees and the person buying them noticed they were diseased and reported them. Sadly because they had met in a mutually convenient location, he wasn't sure of the origin of these bees. Bad, isn't it, the lengths some people will go to cover up their own mistakes?

  I have therefore responded by email to the inspector to see if he wants to pop round to check my hives out as well. From my understanding EFB or AFB both need to be reported to the National Bee Unit who carry out work on behalf of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) so it is all pretty serious stuff. American Foul Brood is worse than the European as there is simply nothing you can do save burning your whole hive in a pit in the ground – imagine that. It is caused by bacteria getting into a cell and killing the larvae just after the cell is capped. The tell-tale sign for those of us checking is that the cell cappings will appear sunken and brown in colour rather than the usual white. The test is to agitate the cell capping with a matchstick and should it be infected with AFB, when you remove the matchstick, a residue rope will be hanging from the stick. Also, there is apparently a distinctive smell to AFB that people have said is a fishy aroma. European Foul Brood sounds like it is more treatable. It actually kills the larvae before the capping (essentially by competing for food and thus starving it) and the larvae will obviously have quite a different appearance than usual. There are two sorts of treatment: firstly by administering oxytetracycline (but only by an inspector), and secondly by replacing all the frames that the bees are on. This can be done by administering something called a 'shook swarm' – essentially achieved by shaking the bees on to new frames. If this fails and EFB remains then again you have to burn the whole lot.

  I simply cannot imagine how a beekeeper would feel if he had to dig a hole in the ground and then set fire to the whole lot. That must be terrible.

  Therefore, tomorrow I shall be looking more carefully than usual to make sure everything is OK. Apparently, because I have new frames and bees from a nucleus, I should be fine, but you can never be too careful.

This afternoon I approached the hives with rather more trepidation than usual. All appeared fine as I opened up and inspected the Beehaus. The bees are continuing to draw out comb and are building a healthy level of stores ready for winter. The bees are now covering about nine of the frames and have eggs on at least five of them so all seems to be cooking nicely in there. I spotted Queenie and she seems to be laying well and so I closed the hive up feeling pretty happy. There was no sign of EFB anywhere, which is a relief.

  As I looked over to my feisty National hive while inspecting the Beehaus I could only wonder at the activity around the hive entrance. I can only describe it as thousands of bees gathering at the entrance clambering to either get in to or out of the hive. When I got round to inspecting it, the bees on the frames were relatively calm and yet there was mass hysteria outside the hive. The inspection went without incident, though I was disappointed not to see Queenie for a second week. However, I know she is there as there was again evidence of her laying recently. There were only two frames' worth of brood, which just shows that everything is starting to slow down a little bit. It's quite sad that autumn is fast approaching.

  I saw that there was a little honey deposited into the frames of the super – then I realised it wasn't really honey, though, as it wasn't capped – this means that it was still nectar. It is my understanding that when nectar is deposited into cells it is 70 per cent water and this needs to reduce to around 20 per cent before the bees are satisfied that it is honey and cap the cell to cure it for another time. Sadly, none of these cells were capped meaning the chances of my getting any honey are becoming fewer and fewer. Unless I do something pretty drastic like move my hive to some late-flowering crop, it is unlikely that I will be getting any honey this year.

  I have heard from discussions with other beekeepers that heather is particularly late-flowering and this has reminded me of Steve from the London Honey Company. He said he would move his hives to the heather later on in the year to get a late crop of honey but this was in north Wales somewhere. Apparently the really good areas of heather are in the north. As much as I have been storing up the few brownie points I have earned this year, I don't think it is conceivable to suggest to Jo and Sebastian that I needed the weekend to drive my beehive to Wales or anywhere else north of Watford. This meant the option of finding an area of heather is probably out of the question. I won't be put off, however, and so I wonder where I can find some heather locally, even a small patch, and whether I would be able to put my bees on there? Hmm…

  So much to do and so little time and I am not hopeful of any success. It would be devastating to get this far and not manage my jar of honey but at least I would have learned some valuable lessons for next year.

Jo's friends were coming over for a 'girls' afternoon today which meant I was told to leave the house for a few hours. I started by feigning disgust that I was being asked to leave my own house while they all sat around drinking tea and gossiping. In the back of my mind however, naughty thoughts harking back to pre-fatherhood days were swirling around. These included: