Work Experience as a Bee Farmer (23 to 27 April)

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No problem, I will try and do this daily this week.
Please remember that these write ups are from my personal notes and interpretations of what we were doing from Chris's explanations and direction, oh and the answers to many questions.
The others and Chris may like to add or explain in more detail where I havent quite, and answer questions or observations anyone may have.
Cheers
Pete D
 
Fantastic insight for the rest of us - many thanks!
Its a different world ...


I have to say that something has got me confused.
I do understand the importance of good hygiene habits, to minimise the risk of spreading disease and pests from hive to hive, and apiary to apiary.
But what I don't understand, other than the importance of making it a habitual part of every routine, is quite why such things as hive tool soaking/scrubbing should be regarded as "paramount" at a time when there are boxes, frames, comb, brood, stores and bees being comprehensively mixed between colonies, and some very mixed-up bees, brood, comb and hardware are also being moved from one apiary to another...
Hive-to-hive hand and tool washing is a great habit, but on a day like that, is there any point other than reinforcing the habit?



... We now had to combine the stack of spare frames and bees for transit, amongst all the chaos and confusion of bees everywhere we just slipped the frames into half the amount of boxes on a floor, gave them a roof, strapped them and inserted foam in the entrances, loaded the pick up and set off for home apiary.
...
Back at base and we were to combine our cargo into 6 queen rearing hives already in situ. This entailed newspaper on the original top super (of 2) and stick 4 or 5 brood boxes on top, huge stack of bees. If the stack was gonna be to high then the last couple of boxes were shook in, but making sure all brood had gone in and just empty or stores frames remained in the boxes now devoid of bees. Again bees everywhere !
...
Key learnings for me on day one were;
not worthy Spreading bees and brood to other colonies to boost them and to make queen rearing colonies.
not worthy Bees will mix without too much fighting when there is chaos and confusion everywhere, they all find a home.
...
not worthy Apiary hygiene is paramount, bucket of soda with spare hive tools in, rubber gloves, hand and equipment washing. Common sense but easily missed at home.
...
 
That wasn't all we did that day - the afternoon saw three other unconnected apiaries visited - so yes it is good practice to clean tools etc between each apiary regardless of what you are doing there
 
Fantastic insight for the rest of us - many thanks!
Its a different world ...


I have to say that something has got me confused.
I do understand the importance of good hygiene habits, to minimise the risk of spreading disease and pests from hive to hive, and apiary to apiary.
But what I don't understand, other than the importance of making it a habitual part of every routine, is quite why such things as hive tool soaking/scrubbing should be regarded as "paramount" at a time when there are boxes, frames, comb, brood, stores and bees being comprehensively mixed between colonies, and some very mixed-up bees, brood, comb and hardware are also being moved from one apiary to another...
Hive-to-hive hand and tool washing is a great habit, but on a day like that, is there any point other than reinforcing the habit?


It's a good question.

The answer is my hygiene regime is a compromise based on relative risk.

Cleaning hive tools avoids spreading a potential problem from 1 colony to dozens of others, and in particular from apiary A to apiary B etc. Without it a single incident would soon spread to just about every colony I have.

Uniting colonies or splitting to make nucs is never risk-free but the worst case scenario is a single incident would spread to a small subset of my bees - it would be a pain but it wouldn't kill me to be honest. Underpinning this is a thorough health check on every colony at least once in the spring (usually twice), so developing problems are detected and dealt with before they escalate.

In 2009 we did actually pick up a case of EFB in April when only a few cells showed symptoms. Bee Inspectors came and found another case in the early stages. Both were shook-swarmed and came back strong. It didn't spread.

In the case described by Pete we've had 6 colonies receive bees and brood from a number of others. It's only those 6 that could potentially receive something nasty from an undetected disease case. I'm comfortable with that as it's both low risk and low impact.
 
Commercial beekeeping work experience day 2

Chris picked us up from the lodge at 8.15 and ten minutes later we were at his vast kitchen table drinking tea and running through the days plan.
Another day of sunshine a showers was forecast with max temps about 13 in the sun.
We had 4 apiaries to visit, some honey to bottle and a trailer to load with hives bound for Leicester in the morning (as Wednesday was forecast to be the wettest day we were to spend half of it in the relative comfort of Chris's Landrover).
Bill and Ian joined the 3 of us and again I teamed up with Bill in the pick up, we loaded a few hive parts just in case and some feeders.
1st Apiary was just 6 Nationals and a general health and swarm check was the order os the day, adding a super if necessary.
We were quickly back in the vehicles and heading for apiary 2 which had 35 Poly langs and would take a bit longer. These were to have a general health and swarm check and 10 of them needed the queen finding for clipping and marking. 1 was broodless but had hatching queen cells so had swarmed a few days previously. A few of these virgins were slipped into cages as they may be required later, certainly Hombre had his eye on 2 of them for a couple of nuc's he had on the go. A couple of hives were light and needed feeding but several more were doing well and needed a 2nd super.
We moved on to apiary 3 which had 8 poly Langs and again the order of the day was a general health check, swarm control and clip and mark the queens.
There was a bit more travelling today and the next apiary was back in the home direction which prompted a stop for lunch and cups of tea. Whilst the kettle was on Hombre nipped off with Brian and introduced a couple of virgins to his Nucs using a cage blocked with fondant. Hopefully the sun would shine and they would get the chance to mate over the next couple of weeks.
Straight after lunch we were in the honey house, we had 150 jars to do for a quick order and our hastily cobbled together production line had them filled and boxed up in 20 minutes.
Back in the yard and a lorry pulled in with the latest additions to Chris's stock. 60 poly mating hives, frames and feeders. A load of flatpack plastic mesh boxes for bee packages again with feeders, funnels...........and loads of bits that were destined for the stock shed, assembly or painting.
Apiary 4 had 11 poly Langs and by now the familiar health check for healthy brood, laying queen, sufficent stores and or space along with clip and mark the queen was becoming easier, I found myself as a 2nd year beekeeper becoming more efficient and effective at this which was just the experience I was here for. Lots of hands on bee handling, great.
The rain had set in for the afternoon as a light drizzle and the next apiary (yes Chris slipped another in) was a quick stop off at 8 poly Langs to perform the now 'usual' check and take action as required.
We headed back for more tea, bit earlier than planned and made our plans for the next morning. The rain eased up though and gave us a window to nip to yesterdays overwintering apiary and load up 30 hives on the trailer for delivery tomorrow. Foam in the entrances, straps checked and loaded and strapped into the trailer with great efficency saw us heading back to base ready for drying out, tea and then back to the lodge for quick shower followed by the pub. Before we parted Chris announced that Thursday was curry night.....on him so plans were made to meet Ian at 7 as he wouldnt be with us the next couple of days as Mon and Tues was his lot.
The 3 of us drank beer, had some grub and reflected on the day and the week so far.......oh and drank more beer.
Key learnings for me today were
Let someone else inspect hive 333..........well done Ian
You can inspect in cool and drizzly conditions if you have to, be quick and efficient (and gentle) and the bees will tolerate you for a few minutes.
You can add a super even if the hive isnt quite ready for it yet as the hives were on OSR and wouldnt be looked at for another 10 days.
On polys its essential to have a frame against the side to lever against when pushing the frames all back into position.
Make sure the smoker is sealed before moving on to the next apiary, or share 20 Woodbines with your mates in a very small room.
Several hives needed feeding, yet plenty more in the same apiary needed another super.......you wont know unless you check.
When taking 12 stings to the forefinger doing 1 hive Emyr didnt complain after the first 9.
Another good days worth of experience for me, my aim was to get a years worth of bee handling experience in a week and be more comfortable when opening a hive and being greeted by thousands of hungry, cooling bees who were joining their friends from neighbouring hives and buzzing around me whilst I quietly got on with the task in hand.
 
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Ian (Hombre) or Chris could give a far better description as to the unwelcoming nature of this hive.
I believe its on a double brood as it was to agressive to get any proper inspection done last summer / autumn and it was chuck another box on it and run..................:eek:
I have a decent memory for relevant things and in our Sunday evening chat prior to the weeks activities in the current weather cycle hive number 333 was mentioned as being a bit 'stroppy' even on a warm day.
Its card was duly marked in my book and when we rolled up at this apiary in the drizzle I clocked it and smoked a hive furthest away from it !
Ian drew the short straw.............but Emyr took the award for most stings at this Apiary from the hive 2nd from right............hmm I wonder as I did the hive furthest on the right..........was this the one I told him I had smoked.........but hadnt...:biggrinjester:......or did I nudge it inadvertantly with my wellies a couple of times...........:smilielol5:
 
Pete, I don't know about, "it was like smoking 20 Woodbines" I think it took 20 years off our lives!
The problem was that the smoker was in the back of the Land Rover and there were dog bars in the back, so we could not get to it and we were on motorways and couldn't pull over... cough, cough.....
 
Day 3.........

Its raining......... pouring in fact when Chris picked us up from the Lodge at the slightly later time of 8.30. Todays plan was quick cup of tea at Base then off in the Land rover to Leicestershire with a trailer full of finest Poly langs and their colony contents. The later start was to miss the heavy traffic on the M42 and M6 :driving:
So tea duly drunk and pile into the Land rover....................... err no actually.
We had to change a wheel, front O/S was u/s.. 10 minute job........err no
Factors to take in to account...........
Pouring with rain, locating the jack and wheel brace, removing the locking nuts and covers, realising that the nice alloys on the motor were a set of 4 and the spare was a conventional Landy wheel........... and did I mention it was raining.
No Ian today (resting and finished for the week) and Bill was in the workshop making up frames, queen cell bars and bait hives. A couple of us sneaked off and joined him............. more tea arrived, then the neighbour with a bigger spanner and hammer............ then a chap with a Land rover fleece.......this could be handy I thought.
Anyway he had turned up to see Chris about one of his hives that needed some swarm control and Chris was going to help him (mentor) in the next day or so. (apologies for forgetting chaps name). We watched from the workshop door as his fleece got wetter whilst he struggled chnging the wheel for us with warm tea fuelled encouragement from us. Once complete we all had more tea to celebrate and promised chap we would be over tomorrow during out travels to administer some swarm control to his hive......on mass.
Still raining and now sitting in a steamed up Land rover on the M42 patiently queuing or hogging the inside lane with our sweet cargo strapped securely on the trailer behind we made our way to Leicester and arrived just in time for a cup of tea and sandwich at CO-OP HQ.
Suitably refreshed and refueled we headed out to the first apiary site to off load 12 hives, put pallets in place, un strap, brick on roof and when all were ready whip all the entrance foams out and watch the clouds of bees exit, relieve themselves and dash straight back in to avoid the rain.
We followed the same pattern at 2 more sites dropping off a further 8 and 10 respectively. Next job was a quick check on the sites where the hives from the previous delivery 2-3 weeks earlier were situated. Feeders and feed were added to several of these and at the last one the rain stopped and the sun popped out for a surreal 15 minutes tops. Bees everywhere almost whooping as they spilled out into the sunshine, relieved them selves and headed for the nearby OSR (loads of it everywhere). We had an inpromptu picnic with the remains of our packed lunch before climbing aboard the Landrover and heading back to base near Bromsgrove.
Within 5 minutes of leaving the rain came down with renewed vigour and stayed with us all the way back.
Quick Diesel stop and a chance for Brian to grab 40 winks on route before stopping at Bromsgrove's finest chippie for Fish & Chip supper that Chris kindly treated us too at the end of a long day, we didnt seem to do a lot but were all knackered when Chris dropped us back at the Lodge just after 7 and we mutually agreed that it was a quiet night in for us all and we would meet up for breakfast in the morning............what no beer.......!:eek:
I shall not offer any key learnings from today, experiences and good conversation and company would more than suffice.
Tomorrow is exciting............gonna do some grafting and hopefully start to raise some queens :party:
 
Unusual for me I remembered the nice chap in the land rover fleece's name - Nigel
As Pete said not that many learning points but good company on a long journey - not much use for a smoker that day so we travelled in a smoke free environment :)
First comment from me as we approached Coop HQ was 'pity they didn't invest in some decent traditional hedging to replace all the concrete posts' - round the next corner............ loads of newly laid very posh method hedges well done!
 
In the excitement of hive 333 we forgot about the tunnel of lurve! maybe Pete should elaborate - I'm sure the poor chap's ardour was cooled at the sight of five beekeepers leering at him!
 
Aha how could I forget the tunnel of love............:blush5: :blush5: :blush5:
All in good time, my notes tell me that the tunnel of love was visited on day 4, which was also the day I saw a swallow (not connected........er :gnorsi:).

But something I should of mentioned about day 2..............
we visited the apiary which bore witness to the infamous incident with the farmers wife, the hot tub and the beekeeper..........:smash:
Chris may tell more, if not then in my summary of the week I will give you my version.........:biggrinjester:
 
Thanks for this guys for this its very interesting. Looking forward to the queen rearing and the odd cup of tea :biggrinjester:
 
Day 4..........

Normal drill, 8.15 from the lodge to Chris's, cup of tea and go through the plans for the day ahead. Overcast and drizzle on and off 8 degrees.
First job in the home apiary is to go through the 6 colonies that were enhanced on Monday with the unites and surplus bees from the colonies that were reduced in size for low maintenance as they were destined for the out apiaries 70 miles away.
These 6 consisted of many boxes of bees, 6,7 even 8. The queen was in a brood on the bottom along with all the old brood (capped), some empty comb (space to lay) and some stores. Next was the QE, on some there would be another brood with old brood in and stores, then a box or 2 of just stores (either a couple of broods or 3 or 4 supers) and lastly on top was a brood with all the young brood and some stores. By old brood I am talking capped, and by young brood I mean in all stages but uncapped.
Our task with these hives was now to make some queen starter colonies, these were to be a sealed 5 frames colony (the bees cant get out), these were to consist of 2 empty drawn frames, 1 frame with pollen and 1 frame with stores, then our queen cell bar frame with our grafted larvae would go in the middle, a dummy on the end and then shake a load more bees into the space, young bees, house bees, bees from supers, bees that would know they are queenless and had the resources available to create a new one. The grafted frames would spend 18 hours in these starter hives before going into the top of the finisher hives, the big stacks previously mentioned where they would go into the top box, along with all the bees and frames. Right time now to let the hives settle for a few hours whilst we hit the apiary trail again.
First stop was an apiary containing 25 nuc's which all had new queens, we were to check the new queen was accepted, laying and had space and stores to expand. 24 were, 1 wasnt and it was decided to leave her another week.
Next apiary had 9 nuc's the same as above, result 8 yes and 1 no
Next was one of the over wintering apiaries where amongst the hives were another 7 nuc's to check all the same as above except 100% result this time.
Load a hive up which was destined for home apiary as it was to be one of Chris's breeder queen colonies as this little lot had produced nearly 400lb of honey last year and Chris was keen to have some of her off spring..........
Back at base and unload the breeder colony, then cup of tea and lunch.
Right then, now its out with the grafting tools, 4 frames of 20 cups and set ourselves up at the grafting lab, I mean kitchen table.
A frame containing very young larvae was taken from the 2 breeder hives Chris now had on site and let the grafting begin. Chris demonstrated the technique first, several times and before long he and Brian were sat side by side taking very small larvae from the frames and placing them into the queen cups on the bars with a deft touch, a grafting tool, good light and glasses all round. When they both had 20 done they nipped back out to the starter hives and put them in to the middle of the 5 frames, their names were added to the top of the frames so we could see who was most sucessful with the ladies.
Myself and Emyr assumed our positions at the grafting table (err kitchen) and started our grafting, I struggled at first picking up larvae that were small enough, but eventually got into the swing of things, lifting them out gently by the 'back' of the 'c' shape and depositing them into the cell with a wish that each one would be the best queen ever. I got my 20 in and slipped my frame back into my adopted hive, when I returned Emyr was on about his 8th and was struggling a bit but was being very thorough. Once he got to 10 Chris took over and did 10 more before Emyr slipped it back into his hive.
We would know how many had been accepted when we looked in the morning (approx 18 hours) then we would move them into the top box of our finisher hives.
Back out to the apiaries and a 25 minute journey had us nipping under the M5 through an agricultural acess tunnel which was at the bottom of a steep, muddy and rutted lane. I think someone should complain to the highways agency about the condition of this and the poor signage...............because a poor chap in his 5 series had obviously become very confused and lost and had parked up in this tunnel to check the map with his lady friend, it must have been to much for him as when 4 beekeepers arrived she seemed to be reviving him on the back seat.............:smash: Got to admire the 5 series for its spacious interior which can allow rapid dressing and moving between front and back compartments and admire its versatility as a motorway mile gobbler and an off road rally car :smilielol5:
The apiary just round the corner from said tunnel of love had 16 hives which all needed full health check, swarm, stores etc.
Payback time next, across to Nigels apiary (newish beekeeper from Chris's association) who wanted help with swarm control / split and who helped change our wheel the day before.
He had 2 hives that he was in the process of changing from national to 14 x 12 (box of foundation for them to move up into) but one of these was keen to swarm and Nigel had seen queen cells 2 days earlier. He had 2 empty nuc's and was hoping to do an increase too if possible. After opening up we found 2 sealed queen cells and the queen.........it was drizzling. There then followed a 10 minute discussion about how best to go about this with the combination of boxes, frame sizes and foundation we had. 5 of us and at least 6 solutions........ we eventually settled on 1 as if we had of took much longer the queens would of hatched and mated.
The queen cells were on different frames so 1 was put into each nuc along with the bees, then another frame of brood, one of stores and 1 foundation and 1 drawn comb. The main hive was made up with drawn frames and foundation. All 3 then received a feeder and feed.
Off to next apiary and 17 hives awaited us, general health and swarm check, clip and mark queens. 1 had swarmed.
Next off to an association meeting where Chris had again agreed to do some instruction and help with a split and swarm control. We were 20 minutes late but rolled up suited and joined the throng of beekeepers assembled in Richards garden for the lesson / event.
The set up here was a 14x12 brood at the bottom with the queen, QE, 2 supers and a brood on the top with 3 sealed queen cells (proper ones) and 2 or 3 small, stunted cells sealed with larvae in.......emergency ? This hive had previously been on double brood following a unite and once the queen cells were spotted they were moved away from the queen to the top. Again the course of action was to put 1 into each nuc (2) with some brood, stores and drawn frames all from the top box, ensuring any other queen cells were removed, reduce the original hive back to single brood, check through and remove any more queen cells and close up. A third good sealed queen cell was gently wrapped in tissue and magic away by a lady watching from the wings who hot footed it back to her own apiary to introduce it to a queenless hive. A 2nd hive was checked and was stuffed full of bees and brood but showed no signs of swarming.
After saying our goodbyes we were off, it felt a bit like we were 'flying doctors' nipping around the country performing miracle ops on bee hives..........
Time was getting on now and tonight was the eve of the curry and beer feast, Chris had booked a table for 7pm but as he dropped us at the Lodge where Ian was waiting it was 10 past 7 already.......... Chris then confessed to calling ahead this afternoon and changing the time till 8pm as he could see a long afternoon unfolding.
We had a mad dash and were all in the pub in 20 minutes or so with a beer. Bill had also joined us so now we were 6, beers drunk and off for a curry. The restaurant didnt have a licence to sell alcohol but Chris knew this and had loaded the car with honey beer for the evening. I sat at the end of the table and was nominated beer monitor (playing to my strengths) and ensured that no one ran dry.
Lots of laughs, good grub, great beer and tales of bee keeping till late.

Key learnings
Where do I start.................
the whole subject of queen rearing which is a chapter of my beekeeping career (my 2nd year) that I was happy to leave for another couple of years................but I now have the bug.
Making Nuc's with queen cells
The versatility of a 5 series
Honey beer goes great with curry and lemon rice
Despite what he does for a living............. Chris still makes time to put effort and resources into the local bee keeping community
Wet weather beekeeping is not ideal but possible if you are efficient and have a reason to open the hive.
Emyr can sing.
Chris didnt notice or choose not to when the remainder of the honey beer didnt make it back to his car boot ....

Day 5 tomorrow and the results of our grafting...........
 
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Interesting nucs in the third picture (and another interesting instalment, thanks!), poly national but not paines ?
 

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