Bees swarming

[Chick]

After two disastrous years I am attempting the bee keeping again. I got a new nuc three to four weeks ago and with the mini heat wave they doubled from about 5000 to about 10,000 bees. It?s a hybrid made from two colonies and one queen which will eventually produce the dominant race. They are about 60/40 the 40 being gentle and non aggressive. The 60 are very aggressive; one of the little darlings crawled up my leg.

This is after much pirriton and antibiotics. Imagine if twenty had crawled up my leg. Next time I do an inspection it will be with bicycle clips.

It?s a very strong colony and all I need now is some good hot weather.

[PeckhamRose]

Oh Chick you poor thing. I too am allergic to beesting but why the antibiotics? I was immediately put on steroids to deal with the poison. I do hope the floods won't reduce their number, but this year I sowed a lot of bee friendly plants on the balconies and on some spare bits of open land and there have been a few bees visit!

[tarafitness]

oh no!! That looks horribly sore

I think I might invest in some bicycle clips too then for when we get our bees, or at least make sure I tuck my jeans into my socks (very attractive)

went to visit some hives the other day, here's the album of pictures I took. One of the colonies was very aggressive so we quickly moved on... luckily there was more than one hive to look at!

[Chick]

Decided to feed the little darlings yesterday because of the poor weather and after my sting thought it might be an idea to wear protective clothing. I didn?t smoke them. They went ape. All I did was take the roof off not the crown board. I have done this loads of times, but this lot were all over me in seconds. So if I hadn?t worn my bee suit I think I might be in hospital today. Very aggressive.

Thanks for the pictures Tara and good luck with yours.

[Dulwichmudlark]

June gap low stores more defensive bees

[Sue]

dulwichbeekeeper Wrote:

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> June gap low stores more defensive bees

xxxxxxx

Do you mean a gap in flowers?

There's loads of flowers out in my garden with bees visiting.

[lizbells6]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

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> Oh Chick you poor thing. I too am allergic to

> beesting but why the antibiotics? I was

> immediately put on steroids to deal with the

> poison. I do hope the floods won't reduce their

> number, but this year I sowed a lot of bee

> friendly plants on the balconies and on some spare

> bits of open land and there have been a few bees

> visit!

Everyone knows bees are a Good Thing but there are now hundreds of hives in London and bees are more likely to die of starvation than disease because there isn't enough forage for them. And with the horrible weather we've been having, even when they can fly, the rain has washed all the nectar from the flowers. So thanks Peckham Rose for planting your bee friendly plants. The more people who do this the better and we need to put pressure on parks to scrap their sterile old bedding plants and do the same.

[Huguenot]

Gosh, that's a revelation!

Your comment about sterile bedding plants made me look it up, and it's true!

The annuals you buy from garden centres are mostly not annuals at all, but sterile flowers grown in laboratories that die in autumn never to regrow. The pollen isn't viable.

That's how the garden centres keep you coming.

Stick two fingers up at the garden center and get yourself some proper flowers!

[enar1948]

up!

http://www.interbankforex.info/kv.gif

[tarafitness]

enar1948, what picture is that supposed to be? Can't see it in my browser

My garden is very teeny and planted mainly with evergreen bushes - and some green beans, tomatoes etc in our veggie trough.

I'm not a massive fan of flowers but I am a massive fan of bees so I'd be quite willing to plant some flowers in pots and scatter them around the garden...

which flowers should I buy though, can anyone advise?

Cheers

[Chick]

I was horrified when I read this:

http://www.rosybee.com/?p=934

Thanks Liz.

[Dulwichmudlark]

Yep gap in flowers or nectar flow the local bee inspector has issued a starvation warning so feed 2-1 syrup if needed

[Chick]

Is neopol ok?

[edcam]

Yes, heard the news this week that there are now too many hives in London as there isn't enough for them to forage. Apparently it should be something like 1 hive per 5 sq km.

[ladida]

I would like to get a bee hive on my roof. Is this a bad idea and/or will it cost a fortune.

[uncleglen]

I have a cotoneaster with small pinky red flowers at the moment and it attracts loads of furry bees with white fluffy bottoms- is this ok environmentally speaking?

[lizbells6]

ladida Wrote:

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> I would like to get a bee hive on my roof. Is this

> a bad idea and/or will it cost a fortune.

First up - practicalities. How high is your roof? 2nd floor is maximum recommended height - the bees use up too much energy flying up higher carrying a load of pollen/nectar. Is there easy access? You will be carrying large heavy boxes up to the site.

Urban bees need managing because you have a responsibility to the public (swarm prevention) and to other bees and beekeepers (preventing spread of disease).

Beekeeping is a very satisfying occupation but it can be time consuming and expensive.

I would suggest you do a lot of research to find out what's involved, visit an apiary (there's one in brockwell park) and go to a taster session to see how you get on. Meanwhile perhaps you could plant some bee friendly flowers up there to support the hundreds of local hives.

[Beek]

Certainly growing flowers and planting trees that produce nectar and pollen and providing habitat for other pollinating insects is much better for the environment than having more beehives in London. Learning to keep them alive, and to reduce the risk of swarming, is also tricky. Bromley Beekeepers and London Beekeepers are both local and do courses. Best to do the course and learn how to look after them well before you get bees.

[Chick]

Checked my bees last Monday. Several brood had hatched and there is now one dominant race(if that?s the right term) of bees. Of five new frames added only two had started to be drawn, i.e.; being built up with honey combs.

Yesterday I would estimate there are about 10,000 bees and they were all over the new frames all of which had been fully drawn and are ready for honey. There were several frames of sealed and un sealed brood, that is grubs that will turn into bees. There were several drones but I am not too worried about this (stingless male bees).

I am still feeding Neopol which looks like marzipan but is a mixture of pollen and honey. They were much less aggressive than two weeks ago.

[tarafitness]

Great to hear that your colony has calmed down a bit :-)

we got our bees this week and transferred them from their nucs to their hives yesterday: see album here.

We had quite a few to choose from and unfortunately one of the women in our bee committee thought it would be good to go for the fullest travel box of bees (despite my saying right from the outset to steer clear as they were buzzing angrily and audibly!).

As I expected, they are pretty aggressive... hopefully they'll calm down at some point and I guess it'll be good experience to have a 'lively' hive to cope with as well as the calmer other one!

It's very exciting now we finally have them :-)

Tara

[PeckhamRose]

On a differnt type of bee subject, I was gardening today and emptied out an old little plant pot of soil which had no plants in it, in order to put a new liner in it. I disturbed three very big colourful bees. They looked quite shaken, ie they were shaking and I moved well away. I brought some water close to them, and then went back inside and shut the door. Later I went out and saw one of the bees burying himself back into the plant tub.

And re. my other post, my bee friendly plants are attracting loads of smaller bees, and I had seeds left so planted them in 'dead' areas of land near where I live.

Chick, hope your new hives are successful !

[tarafitness]

oh fabulous PeckhamRose - which plants are these? I need to make my garden more bee-friendly, it's very small but I'm sure I could find some space for flowers and the like :-)

[gedwina]

I have heard rumours that there are going to be a few hives installed in Camberwell old cemetry. Does anybody know whose these are? would love to have a look / get to know a little more about the hives.

[Knomester]

Thank you so much for the link to the rosybee website. We are looking for some more plants and bee-friendly ones will be perfect!

Best of luck with your bees Chick.

[Chick]

Thanks for your positive comments. Tara, love the pink bee suit. I will inspect again on Monday and post some time later.

This link may be of interest. No pun intended.

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/10/bees-solve-complex-problems-faster-than-supercomputers.html/