First Beekeeping Lessons

What do you show people on their first apiary visit?

For me it depends upon several things including age, personality, time available, individual interest, and, of course, the needs of the bees on the day. It goes without saying that the weather has to be warm and still enough. I like to consult this really useful app called Apiary Forecast when I’m planning inspections now https://apiaryforecast.com/forecast-location/ It has proven to be accurate and gives me more information than just the ordinary weather forecast on a given day. Check it out for yourself.

Visitors from Australia

Last week, I had a memorable visit from my young Australian nephews and they all wanted to look inside a hive of honey bees. Beekeeping was on their agenda from the start having heard about my bees from their Uncle Iain in Sydney who is my Beelistener admin support. Time was short with lots of other adventures to fit in like visits to Culloden battlefield and the military museum at Fort George with dolphin-watching from its grounds. Clay pigeon shooting also featured on their programme, but for Will it was about doing as much beekeeping as he could in the time left.

Beekeeping plan

My initial plan had been to focus on watching bees at the hive entrance while safely protected in bee-tight bee suits, and then opening up a hive housing a small colony of calm bees to check out who’s who in a hive. That wasn’t going to be difficult since a couple of colonies are very small having been waiting a long time to get good new laying queens after swarm season, and none of my colonies are currently grumpy and defensive. It was just bad luck for me that swarm preparation happened early towards the end of April and the weather turned really bad for a few weeks around the crucial mating times. I’m hoping that they will build up well on the late summer forage. Himalayan balsam is already flowering down at the River Nairn.

Smoke

I realised that a quick revision was needed because the boys wanted to know everything they could find out about beekeeping. As we were lighting the smoker, Will commented on how smoke calms bees and we discussed the interruptions to alarm pheromones and how taking down honey makes it harder to bend the abdomen into stinging position. I explained that when honey bees lived down in Africa during the Ice Age, they lived in rock crevices and caves and smoke from a bushfire would elicit the response of eating honey before retreating to the back of the cave to avoid the heat. They couldn’t just fly off somewhere since the queen was unable to fly due to an abdomen full of eggs.
Will (13) then pointed out that the smoker was full of tarry material almost blocking the end which was absolutely correct so I tasked him with using the blow torch later with his dad Malcolm to clean it for me. I use old cotton fabric and cork from wine bottles to create lots of cool white smoke that lasts for as long as it takes me to inspect the colonies. If my smoker ever gets too hot, I put some green sappy grass in on top. Sprigs of Rosemary are great too and smell lovely. I use very little smoke and only if I need to move the bees away from the frame lugs (ends), or to push bees down if they fizz up during an inspection. I use a couple of puffs when I crack open the boxes and when I return boxes to avoid squashing bees. You can see how I do a full hive inspection here: https://youtu.be/rHaS7GQP3O8?si=fzbh2y8RgV_dmVCy It is quite a long video and that’s because it was made and filmed for my practical exam for the Cornell Master Beekeeper Programme. 

I explained the hive configuration and about making a safe working space around the hive so that we could work easily without tripping over hive straps or boxes. Organising all the equipment first makes things easier too so I got hive stands, a spare roof, and an eke if I needed to take boxes off separately and stack them without squashing bees. I use a picnic table to place things like BroodMinder temperature sensors on as I can easily forget to put them back on again if I don’t see them. I also park the smoker on the table because Linton doesn’t like it when I scorch the grass under the hot smoker which leaves round marks on the lawn.

We watched the entrance so we could get the feel of what was going on with forage coming in and if there were any wary guard bees eyeballing us.

So far, the key things were:

• Beekeeper safety briefing
• Assembling and arranging equipment safely
• Use of basic tools, smoker and hive tools
• Removing and replacing boxes with minimal risk of harming bees or human backs
• Handling frames
• Observing bees and learning to recognise hive and cell occupants
• Apiary hygiene

The first day involved looking into two colonies to check if there were new laying queens. There were though we couldn’t find eggs yet but I was happy with the queens that you will see in the following photographs which will tell the rest of the story. We were joined by Cynthia who invited us down to the distillery to check if her colonies had new queens.

All the lovely photos in this blog have been taken by Malcolm Wilson. Thank you, Malcolm.

Varroa

On the second day, Will and I worked together to check a colony for swarm cells and to look at a colony with a new queen that wasn’t building up as well I would have expected. We examined varroa and counted the drop on all my hive boards but didn’t go into it in too much detail. Suffice to say, Australia has only recently had to start dealing with this pest and its government initially tried to wipe it out by culling all wild colonies that could be found, and destroying beekeeper colonies that had varroa infestations.

I’m feeling hopeful for my own apiary as varroa levels are way lower than last year and far below recommended treatment levels. I’ve been working on this for several years though and stopped using synthetic chemicals over ten years ago. I currently only use organic acids if I absolutely have to. I don’t bring in new colonies to the apiary unless they happen to have been surviving in the wild for several years without management or treatments.

 As for Will and beekeeping, he is as keen as mustard to get his own bees so I’ve advised him to find a local beekeeping association in Sydney. If any readers know of the nearest club to the North Rocks area of Sydney, please let me know.