My first swarm collected

Hi All
We were just about to have lunch today and Monique called me to look in the back garden ..

Zoom in on the picture and you'll see , this despite a large swarm 2 weeks ago whilst we were away on half term.
This swarm settled in next doors apple tree so After messing about with a box above them , and that I didn't have Tim's number there was nothing for it but to try YouTube -.

It was great and a clip showed me exactly what to do and what to do if it didn't work 1st time , this was from a US top bar supplier so I gave it a go.
Putting my bait box under them , giving them a spray of water as was recommended  then giving them a shake they dutifully fell in and leaving it on the ground,  the bees that were left in the tree came and joined them all - success.

 Alison popped over and has collected them so hopefully they will be happy in their new home
I wouldn't say I'm ready for the next one , but I moved a bumble bee nest from the shed in the sale garden yesterday.

All the best

M&M

Qatari Bees

After a few false starts I finally managed to meet up with one of Qatars few beekeepers and get my hands on some bees. I had seen a listing in the archive of the Qatar Natural History Group about a talk given by a local beekeeper some time before I arrived here. It gave his contact details and a few e-mails later I was kindly invited to a farm just outside Doha to see his small apiary.

Khalid Al-Suwaidi has been keeping bees for the last twelve years in an environment that is totally the reverse of that of the UK. In the Summer, when it's blisteringly hot, everything shuts down, and in the Winter, when it's Spring like and wetter, most things come to life. It is now just coming to the end of the beekeeping season which sees the disappearance of nearly all tender flowering flowers, shrubs and trees, and when standing water is at a premium. There were about twenty hives in three different locations around the farm, mostly with six frames in the brood chamber and six in the Super. Most of the hives seemed busy with lots of very placid bees to be seen. None of the frames we looked at were excessively full of honey but there seemed to be plenty being processed and lots of pollen. I took plenty of pictures! Because there is so little interest in beekeeping in Qatar all of his National hives and equipment, as well as the bees, were imported from Egypt. There is a lot of Arabic honey for sale in the supermarkets but none at all from Qatar. Khalid sells his honey from home as there is not enough to warrant his own shop. There don't seem to be many diseases (Varroa can't tolerate the heat apparently) or many predators (no wasps but lots of ants, and no ground base animals such as bears or badgers). The main problem is comb collapse due to the heat and a very colourful bird called a Bee Eater - can you guess what its main diet is? When we were talking about this bird, from the description, I thought Khalid meant a Woodpecker but checking in my Qatar bird book it was immediately obvious what he meant. Apparently they eat thousands of bees daily and have a very effective way of avoiding being stung - certainly different! Very generously Khalid gave me a selection of the produce from the farm - peppers, french beans, tomatoes, bottle gourds; much of which must have been pollinated by his bees.

As the weather cools down later in the year I might approach Khalid to see if I could catch a few swarms and keep them in some Warre hives. I intend to approach a local college to see if I can utilise their facilities to build the hives over the next few months. As I don't have access to any private outside space I intend to look locally for a place to keep the hives. I have heard that there is a gardening club in Doha that has something similar to allotments in the UK and they might be a good place to start.

Hope all is well back in the UK and Good Luck for the coming season.

Boyd

     

What was that all about?

An odd thing happened this afternoon with the hive that I didn't understand, perhaps someone can shed light upon the incident.

About 4.15, sun shining brightly, warm and still, thousands of bees boiled out of the hive filling the garden to over 30ft in the air. I wondered if I was witnessing a swarm starting to form. This went for about 20 mins and the the bees started to settle back on and below the hive in a swarm like form. Oh no, I thought, I'll never get underneath to capture them later in the evening.

I hastily donned the bee suit and wandered up to the hive. To my astonishment they were reentering the hive. Lots of the bees had their bums in the air, I assume spraying pheromones about. By 5 o'clock the colony seemed to be settling down into a fairly normal mode.

Did I witness the supercession of the old queen - a kind of apian coup d'etat?

I'd be grateful for your thoughts,

Pete

Melbourne Area Transition Invitational.

With many thanks to Sarah and family who came to our last annual Intro to Beekeeping session, we have been invited to describe our approach to husbandry with the Melbourne Area Transition group, whose website can be found here.

Wednesday 15th May, 7:45pm to 9:00pm
Church House (next to Melbourne Parish Church - follow the signs to Melbourne Hall and you can't miss the church)
£2 entry charge (probably to fund the venue and refreshments)

If you can come along and mingle enthusiastically we would appreciate the support. The format will be similar to our popular 'chat over a hive' style, as I'm told the venue is quite intimate, but we've been asked to kick off with a more formal 10 minute summary of sustainable beekeeping.

Wish us luck ....

Tim.

Bait Hive Cam now live

Hi I've put my bait hive out and you can view live action at mikmon.myfreeip.me  user name - bees password bees - works on Google chrome , and Firefox  log into server push mode works on ie 10

let me know how you get on - last computery type blog promise

M&M

Finally an end(if only for 2 years) on neonicotinoids

Common sense seems to have finally made a difference, with Germany leading the way a temporary ban while more field tests are carried out has been agreed by the EU on the use of neonicotinoids, good news for all bee keepers.

Typically the UK voted against partially blaming varroa for the bee decline.

Not a bad bit on the BBC, lots on the biobee forum.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22335520

http://www.biobees.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14766&highlight=

Dave.

Lets attract some bee's

It's that time of year when we need to get ready for the swarming period. The bee's are flying, well at least mine are, and producing brood after a very quick look during the last calm sunny day.

That much activity I had to open the second entrance.

Box with lid and frame on bank
where bee's fly down the  garden

This means the scout bee's will be hunting up potential new homes for when the colony decides it's time to go forth and multiply. So what do you need to do. The answer is simple get those bait boxes out. What I hear you ask are bait boxes. Well for those who have just built their hives at the 'big hive build' they will do lovely, in fact each one could be three bait hives if you make more follower boards. For myself I use square flower pots from wilkos, sounds low tech but last year I attracted 3 swarms into my bait hives. 





A little more detail then:- 

1 - A suitable size container, needs to be about 6-9 top bars.
2 - Some old honeycomb if you have any(attached to a top bar).
3 - One or two drops of lemongrass oil(not the aromatherapy stuff).
4 - Lots of patience.

Another on top of the boys play shed destined to bee
'shed bee's ' if any are attracted.

Get your boxes all ready and then put them out, if possible in an area where you see bee's flying on a regular basis and then wait. Every couple of weeks top up the lemongrass.









One word of advice if you do attract a swarm and are going to house it in a full size hive, do it as soon as you can as they will only allow you to do so for a couple of days at most. After that if they decide to stay you will only be able to follow the 3 foot 3 mile rule.