Anna's Local Honey | Bees and Beekeeping
There is nothing quite like the quiet focus, the sensory awakening, being completely surrounded by that amazing nectar and propolis smell, the sound & vibration of tens of thousands of buzzings, and the potential threat of being stung or even mobbed by as many angry bees if things go wrong.
It's a unique combination of pleasure, fear, fascination, meditation, and studied calm. If you get scared, frustrated or angry, the behaviour of the colony reflects your feelings and your job will be harder. I even regulate my breathing to my movements whilst handling a hive. Bees are sensitive to carbon dioxide and it makes them cross, so better to save the out-breaths for away from the frames.
The Otherworldly World of Beekeeping
The act of putting on the bee-suit, veil and gloves, checking for gaps where Bees might get in, before going into the hives, also makes the experience of beekeeping a little otherworldly. I sometimes feel like an astronaut zipping up before a space flight. Off on an expedition where there is a real danger you may die!
With 80,000 bees per colony in Midsummer, and seven or eight colonies on each apiary, even after over 15 years of beekeeping, I still always say a little prayer before I go in, that I come back safe and do as little harm as possible to my bees.
I often say to my friend at the main farmhouse "I'm just going to the Bees, be back in a bit!" And she is quite used to me reappearing many hours later in a semi-trance, after a Bee-time warp.
My Teacher and Mentor
I was apprenticed by a very special beekeeper a long time ago. He had got to an age where the hives were becoming heavy for him, but he didn't want to stop beekeeping. When he found out I was interested, he offered to teach me in return for my help. He became one of my best ever friends.
Sadly he passed away some years ago. I made a pledge to keep his bees going for him and keep his beloved wife in honey.
My Bees will never sting me because I will love them!
I will always remember, in the beginning, my mentor wouldn't give me a swarm of bees until I had been stung to make sure I didn't have a bee-sting allergy. My naive reply was "but they will never sting me, because I will love them".
I completely believed this, so I sat in front of the hive just watching them in awe. It wasn't long before one got tangled in my hair and I got my first sting. It was pretty painful but I had to laugh. And it also meant I got my first very own swarm of bees.
Putting the Bees to Bed in Autumn
This year I put 15 colonies to bed in September/October, after the Heather harvest. I weigh the hives, to make sure they have plenty of honey stores to feed them during the winter months, when it is mostly too cold for foraging flights. I put on mouse-guards to stop our furry mouse fiends from entering the hives, when the weather gets cold outside. They can transform the beautiful, sweet smelling honey frames into moss and mouse poo stinking nests!
The Female Workers Kill all the Male Drones
The female worker bees have thrown all the male drone bees out in autumn and killed them. That is one of the slightly outrageous behaviours of the honey bee colony. Some say it is the price the male drone bees pay, for doing absolutely no work during the year, and guzzling on the nectar the worker bees bring home. In the winter the colony carries no passengers. Their honey stores have to last until spring. Even if flowers are open in the winter, the nectar doesn't rise in cold weather.
Bees Overwinter in a Dense, Buzzing Cluster Ball
Each colony of bees survives the winter cold by clustering together in a dense, buzzing ball, constantly moving, so the outside bees don't get too cold, before they move back into the middle of the warm cluster.
I love resting my ear on the roof of the hive, listening to the musical hum of the stay-at-home bees. On warmer winter days, they may go on a cleansing flight, then in February/March, they may start to hunt for willow and hazel pollen for the baby bees.
A Bee New Year!
For the beekeeper, the beekeeping New Year starts when you put them to bed in autumn.
If the colony is very strong and healthy, you have a good chance of getting a harvest from them next year.
If you don't put them to bed on good form, next year will not be as productive.
If they are not strong, with enough bees and a good queen, they very likely will not survive the winter.
For the bees, New Year starts in January, when the Queen Bee usually starts to lay eggs again, and the colony slowly starts to expand.
I don't usually disturb the colony until late April, or even early May, depending on the weather. I have learnt over the years to leave my bees be whenever I can. They thrive on not being disturbed unless absolutely necessary. Time and again I get very good honey yields, and excellent colony survival rates, with my minimal disturbance methods.
The trick is to know just when you need to open the hive for swarm prevention. If you miss the moment, the Queen of the colony may fly away with most of your worker bees and you will have no honey. I think this knowledge only comes with experience. It's also always easier keeping several hives, so that if you do miss a swarm you haven't lost all your bees, and you can rebuild your colonies from the remaining hives.
Bee Dreaming in the Depths of Winter
Beekeeping is very much part of my life. I may not go into my colonies during Winter, but I am still very connected to them. If they are in trouble during the winter, I dream about them.
I have grown quite used to dreams where I forget to zip up my veil and get a bee suit full of bees, dreams where I get stung from head to foot, dreams where I have one bee inside my veil, and I can't get it out because there are hundreds of bees around me... I'm waiting to be stung, praying its not on my eye or windpipe!
I just laugh when I wake up. It rarely happens in real life. I remember how grateful I am for their amazing honey and pollen these long dark winter months!
The Therapeutic Bee Sting
Even in my full protective gear, I do get stung most times I go in my Bees, but only once or twice. I am lucky not to be allergic to bee stings. The pain doesn't last long, before it changes to a deep warm sensation.
Bee stings are supposed to protect you from arthritis. They are also used in medicine, as a form of regulating the immune response for allergy sufferers.
Some people are unfortunate and can get anaphylactic shock from a bee sting, which is a potentially fatal allergic reaction. It can be counteracted with an epi-pen, or adrenalin.
"Tell the Bees"
They say you should "tell the bees" of any birth, death, or major life-changing or challenging event. I know why, I think, now. Spending time with these furry honey flies is great meditation time. It helps you to digest and process such happenings and find peace. Bees also seem to have absolutely no fear, which is inspiring.
Beekeeping and Mental Health
I am told they are researching the benefits of beekeeping for people with ADHD and other mental health challenges. The very high energy and activity levels in the hive, combined with the necessary calm and focus needed to successfully handle the colonies, is said to help ADHD people stay calmer and more focused for several days after each session. Learning to face & master fear, to remain calm and focussed is said to help some anxiety or post-trauma presentations.
therapy.htmlhttps://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-30925552.html
The Reward, with a Little Luck: Delicious Honey
Next time you tuck into some honey, have a thought for how it is made. One little worker bee may make 1 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, with thousands of flights to thousands of flowers. They are truly expert at foraging! They then carefully dry the nectar, until there is the right sugar to moisture ratio, before capping it as honey.
Herbal Smoke to Calm our Bees
My mentor hardly ever used smoke to calm the bees. The smoke made him cough badly. I have learnt to handle my bees with very little smoke. If I do smoke them, I usually use herbs from my herbal medicine practice. They can be therapeutic for the colony and calming. Got to be better than cardboard!
If there is spare honey and the bees have plenty for themselves, I then steal it as kindly as I can, give great thanks, and haul the extremely heavy honey supers home to extract.
Extraction: pure, unprocessed, potent and delicious.
To extract our honey, we simply scrape the cappings off the frames, spin it out into a tank, pass it through a double sieve, and straight into the jar. It is the purest, most natural honey you will find. Its extraordinarily good flavour is a reflection of its unprocessed high quality.
Organically produced.
We use organic beekeeping methods, however, since our bees are free to fly wherever they choose, we cannot guarantee organic honey!
Thank you for reading my third blog!
I hope you enjoyed it and found it informative.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me!
Check out my new website if you have timeโฆ It's growing!
Email: hopevalleyherbs@icloud.com Phone: 07702209869
Comments