NewGenBees Diary for Autumn 2009

How time flies, my plans changed a bit this summer and suddenly it’s Autumn My intention to update this page more frequently was scuppered by a planned three week holiday in france turning into seven weeks but at least we missed the poor August weather and I had been able to harvest some honey in late spring and again in early summer. The four National hives from last year did me proud and confirmed that leaving them all their honey for the winter set them up well for a good start in February. At last I was able to get my first bees into the Warré hives and have had a mixed success. Most of these hives were placed in the gardens of people who responded to the invitation on this website. It seems that the queens made early in the year, by both myself and the bees, struggled to mate well in May when the weather was wet and cold for about 10 days. Some of the new colonies were able to create another queen by supercedure, unfortunately some died out and some were able to be merged to create stronger ones. I got my first colony from a swarm in June and housed them in a Warré hive where they took over the empty boxes at an amazing rate. Within five weeks they had almost filled two boxes and by early September almost filled the third box and until todays rain (Oct 6th) were foraging hard. The hive is extremely heavy so they should be ok for food this winter. Some of my weaker colonies have beeen fed sugar solution to help them as the poor weather in August caused many queens to slow down their laying until the weather improved at the beginning of September and so they are not as strong as I hoped they would be at this point in the year

HONEY FOR SALE I now have a small amount of honey for sale, mostly in larger jars. This honey was taken from the strong colonies in late spring and early summer to avoid the need to feed replacement sugar and therefore reduce the stress on the bees. It was either spun out using an extractor or pressed using a fruit press. This raw natural honey was then sieved into the buckets. Because it came from last years Himalayan Balsam or this years Oil Seed Rape it crystallised quickly and has been creamed so that it can be spooned out of the jar. A 454g jar costs £5.50 and a 227g jar costs £2.95 collected, Free local deliveries can be arranged as can national deliveries for a small extra charge. Click here to contact me