The fun begins (and back story)

Yesterday morning a thought entered my head, it wasn't clever or in any way revolutionary but it was this. Since I hit the small 40, every June I have become a bore on one subject or another. Four years ago I was a work bore, three years ago I became an allotment bore, two years ago I became a dog bore, last year I was a van and mushroom bore and this year my June passion is bees. I have bored everyone absolutely senseless on the subject. I love learning new things and have been hoping to keep bees for a number of years now but only since I got chatting to established beekeepers, Maureen and Jim Rooney in the Star Inn have I really got going. They kindly told me about the local bee keeping association and encouraged me to join, if only for the insurance which is included in the membership fee. The insurance, when purchased separately, comes out at over a £100 more than the membership fee for the association so it was a no brainer. I was too late this year to get on a course, they were all booked up well in advance so Jim and Maureen offered to take me under their wing and teach me by doing which after all is my preferred learning style anyways I am so very grateful to them and all the wonderful association folks for giving me access to all this lovely new knowledge. So for the past few months I have been working with the Rooneys, going around to their various sites, assisting in carrying out inspections and very gradually picking up the knowledge. I have also been researching quite a lot, trying to get as much as possible into the little old noggin but it really doesn't click until you get in there and do it. All the novices seem to say that. My only issue is that beekeepers are the most contrary people in the world and when you mix Yorkshire into the equation that contrariness gets amplified! I've been told that if you ask three beekeepers theyre opinion on something you will get four different answers, add in Yorkshire and the list becomes infinite. No offence you Yorkshire types out there, it makes life far more interesting and encourages the novice to find out their own ways of doing things.

Well, here we are, back end of June, I made the decision earlier in the year that unless a swarm found me I wouldn't get going until 2011, I would spend 2010 getting the knowledge and experience rather than to fly headlong into the whole thing. I received a second hand hive and some frames from an ex beekeeping freecycler which I had cleaned up and repaired. I had cleaned up the frames, worked out how they all fitted together and put in foundation wax on the brood frames. This clean hive was sitting, rather lonely looking on the allotment. So, guess what? A swarm found me. We were at Pam & David Askham's on a wonderfully Sunday, enjoying tea and some scrummy cakes in their back garden after being taken through a fascinating inspection of theirs and Russel's hives when Maureen received a call. The was a swarm up the road and round the corner that the owner wanted to be collected.

Off we raced, Jim and Maureen one way, me in the other (different Sat Navs) We arrived at the farm within minutes. The owner was there waiting for us, she had captured one of the bees to make sure that they were honey bees and not some other bee species which was really considerate. Many of the calls the association members get are for bumble colonies, which they can do nothing about. There is a useful identification guide here for bumbles. We set off down through a wonderful cottage garden admiring the beautiful flowers, the owner was has a remarkable knowledge of plant species, down to the wood at the bottom of the garden that adjoins the neighbouring property. Maureen had actually received a call from the neighbour regarding the bees just as her and Jim pulled into the driveway. The swarm was about 20foot up in a holly tree, of course this was in a dense thicket so was fairly inaccessible. It was at this point that I learned not to let Maureen loose with a pair of secateurs anywhere near any of my trees. In she went like a woman possessed, a real Sweeney Todd of the horticultural world. A ladder was called for which duly arrived and up she went, skep in hand whilst I held the ladder and the rest stood back. After more snipping, she cut the branch and about half the swarm plopped into the skep. She brought this down and plopped it upside down on a sheet. She had the queen in the skep so that was the main thing. The rest of the swarm flew about where the queen had been but didn't come down, they were a bit too high up to be able to sense where the queen was and join her in the skep. I was dispatched up ladder, smoker in hand to try and mask the scent of the queen in the holly tree, hopefully this would encourage the remaining bees to fly down into the skep. I didn't work unfortunately. Some congregated on a branch so Maureen went up with a box and tried to get them into that, so did but a lot were left up there. Sadly, due to difficult location it was impossible to get them so they were left to their own devices, they would apparently die off without the rest of the colony which is a shame but another good lesson learned for me. Maureen did explain that in easier circumstance they wouldn't leave that many which is perfectly understandable, that holly tree was prickly!

Skep safely wrapped up and belted in we headed to the allotment where the lonely hive awaited. I did wistfully think that the 30 or so honey bees that had been checking out the hive that morning may have brought their friends along whilst we were away and taken up residence but that wasn't the case. Don't laugh, it has apparently happened! Maureen deftly maneuvered the swarm up the makeshift ramp, into the hive. The way they waddled up the ramp was unbelievable, if you ever get the chance to see it I would suggest you get in there.

This is a pretty terrible video of it but you get the idea :-) (I didn't have my suit on and was a bit giddy with all the excitment so made a bit of a pigs ear of it)



The feeder was put in place with the syrup I had made up earlier in the week when we went out to a different swarm (not to be that time), the hive reassembled and that was it. We watched them for a bit to check all was well and then scurried off to the pub for a swift pint. All in all a good days work!

I'm probably not ready but as with everything I've done in the past I'm learning as I go, will probably make a few mistakes along the way but as long as no one comes to any harm I can't see any problems with that.