Mild weather brings out the bees

Posted by Jon on Jan 27, 2011 in Bee behaviour | 0 comments

Apologies for my recent silence – when the bees are in their quiet season, I get to start my long list of things that don’t get done during bee season. However, I was very pleased to see that in the recent mild weather, all our hives showed some activity as the bees came out to stretch their wings in the sunshine.

The bees fight back

Posted by Beekeeper on Nov 1, 2010 in Asian Hornets, Bee behaviour, Hive problems, Hornets | 1 comment

Asian hornets are still preying on our bees, settling on the landing board and waiting for one to leave or picking off the guard bees who come out to defend the hive – the hornets tap along the landing board to encourage the bees to stick their heads out of the hive, no doubt frustrated that the hornet guards are keeping them out. Many of the bees are too slow to escape as the cooler weather has settled in and as it’s late in the season, the Asian hornets are the new queens getting ready to overwinter – huge beasts, several times the size of the bees.

Drinking their fill on a Saturday night!

Posted by Jon on Aug 15, 2010 in Bee behaviour, Wild bees | 2 comments

Heads down at the Squash Bar – that’s where I found some of our bees when I checked out the squashes in the veg garden yesterday. They have a choice of several different types ranging from courgettes to butternut and pumpkins and last night they were at the pumpkin bar!

Sunflower season and pollen baskets

Posted by Jon on Jul 26, 2010 in Bee behaviour | 3 comments

Living in the heart of the Poitou-Charentes in France, we are surrounded by sunflower fields at this time of year. We can see our bees heading off to our nearest field a few hundred yards away and coming back laden with bright yellow pollen.

For the first time we have seen the front entrance of our hives turning yellow with the volume of pollen coming back to the hive – this is not something that we have seen before so I am very hopeful that this is a sign of a healthy colony bringing home a good harvest!

Honeybee eggs

Posted by Jon on Jul 10, 2010 in Bee behaviour, Beekeeping | 0 comments

During a hive inspection, one of the things beekeepers check for is the presence of healthy eggs as this shows that the queen is in residence and is doing her job, and the next generation of honeybees are on their way. The eggs should be laid in the centre at the bottom in adjoining cells – gaps or random laying may indicate that the queen is getting old or there are some issues in the colony.

A couple of days ago (when it was cooler!) I inspected one of the colonies I had cut out here.

Bee Activity – June 24th

Posted by Jon on Jun 25, 2010 in Bee behaviour, Beekeeping | 2 comments

Finally, the summer seems to have started here so I took some time yesterday to watch the hives in action and check up on the bees entering and leaving. As we don’t treat our bees in any way and try to interfere as little as possible, watching the activity in and out is a crucial indicator of the health of the hive.