Propolis carriers

This is a photo I have wanted for a long time, a bee carrying propolis.  I have seen bees returning to the hive loaded like this but it isn't easy getting photos in the middle of a single-handed inspection.  (For non-beekeepers propolis is the resinous stuff bees collect from plants to use as an antiseptic gap-sealer.)

It makes me wonder how the bees collect it.  As it ends up in the corbicula (pollen basket) it must be gathered in a way similar to pollen but it is amazing the bee doesn't end up covered in it.  The bee in the photo above does have a drop of resin under the base of her wing.  The bee below has propolis on her wings.

All the propolis loads I have seen hang over the edge of the corbicula on the tibia and end up half way down the basitarsus.

Propolis collection is a very specialised activity for honey bees.  Here are two propolis carriers greeting each other.

Propolis is not stored in the hive but is used immediately.  It is only collected on warm days because it is hard and brittle at lower temperatures.  I read that bees are unable to unload it themselves, as they do with pollen, but have to be unloaded by house bees although I haven't seen that happening.  Propolis can be reused within the hive if it is soft and pliable but not once it has hardened.

My next task is to take a photo of a bee collecting propolis.  If you have any idea how I might achieve this please leave a comment.

Hexham Beekeepers Association

It is five years to the day since Hexham Beekeepers Association's new apiary was opened.  On 10th June 2012 there was a small ceremony overseen by our then chairman, the late and much missed Robert Furniss.

The opening was performed by Brian Ripley from Alnwick Beekeepers Association, our sister organisation.

I had only just joined HBKA and I was yet to get my first bees so I didn't then know most of the people in the photo below at the time.  It was a cool cloudy day on what turned out to be one of the better days of a terrible summer.

As luck would have it, while we were enjoying tea and cakes a swarm was noticed in an apple tree just the other side of the fence.

This was an ideal opportunity for Robert to demonstrate collection of the swarm, the first time I had seen it done.

Robert had a home made swarm collection box with built in queen excluder.  Here the bees are fanning to encourage stragglers.

Some bees were left on the tree for a short while before finding their way to the box to join the queen.

HBKA has gone from strength to strength since then with a burgeoning membership and continued development of the association apiary.

Poor bees

First swarm of the year

Oh dear.  I was determined not to have any swarms this year after half dozen or more last year but the bees had other ideas.  This one came from a colony I split two weeks ago and was from the half with all the brood but without the original queen.  Just over a week ago I reduced the queen cells from 22 to one (or so I thought) but I must have missed one.  When I see photos of swarms they are always hanging on a single branch, waiting to be cut off and dropped straight into a box but mine are never like that.  This one was spread along several branches of a spindle shrub in my neighbour's garden, about 3m from the hive.

Minutes after it emerged there was a heavy downpour so I didn't think they would be off in hurry, giving me time for a cup of tea.  Here is a small group of bees after the rain.

The only way to get the bees off was to pick them up in handfuls.  I took a nuc box and put them straight in, as many as I could get off the branches.

Within minutes they were fanning at the hole in the crown board

and a few at the entrance.

I collected more stragglers from the bush and there was more fanning, suggesting that the queen was in the box.

Once I was optimistic that I had the queen I put on the roof and left them to settle.

An hour later there were no bees in the bush and a few flying from the nuc entrance.  I went back at dusk and brought them home.  This wasn't the biggest swarm and must have been lead by a virgin queen.  I'll let them settle down but I'll probably unite them back to where they came from in a few weeks.  My neighbour Gill is very obliging and after last year she is quite used to me turning up on her doorstep dressed in a bee suit.  Last year I didn't take any honey and so had none to give her but she'll be top of my list when I get some this year.

Horse chestnut

The horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum) is in full flower so I have been looking out for bees carrying red pollen back to the hives.  One hive was in full sun this afternoon so I watched with the camera.

This hive overwintered in a single brood box and had four frames of brood at first inspection 6 weeks ago.  Since then it has expanded to double brood and a super, with 15 frames of brood yesterday.  There were also several unsealed queen cells containing young larvae so I did a Pagden artificial swarm.  This is the box on the original site with the queen and the flying bees and there were huge numbers of them.  Not much pollen coming in, which is understandable as they don't have much brood to cater for, so I expect most were carrying nectar.  I did manage to find a few with red pollen in the blur of activity.

Horse chestnut is the only local flower I know of with this colour pollen.

It was interesting to compare the activity at the entrances of the two halves of the split.  This box was extremely busy whereas the other one, a metre away and rotated through 90°, was much quieter with a few bees doing orientation flights.  I'll have to keep an eye on them both to make sure they don't misbehave.

Molly the Witch

This is Paeonia mlokosewitschii, a herbaceous peony, commonly known as Molly the Witch.  My plant is about 25 years old and normally produces a couple of dozen flowers although there are fewer this year.  It is popular with my bees but although they were carrying yellow pollen and were climbing all over the anthers, there didn't seem to be any loose pollen around, either on the flowers or on the bees.

I also have Paeonia delavayi, a dark red tree peony.

The bees have been on this as well this afternoon although they seem to be after nectar.  They were carrying little or no pollen and were burrowing deep inside the flowers to reach the nectaries.

Despite the attention from the bees, neither of these plants sets seed within the garden.  Interestingly, another tree peony, P. ludlowii, does but it is not yet in flower.

Preparing for swarm collection

Last year I was on the BBKA list of swarm collectors for the first time.  It turned out that 90% or more of calls from members of the public were about bumblebees, mostly tree bumblebees (Bombus hypnorum).  Others were for a chat or general advice and very few related to real swarms of honey bees.  I had more swarms of my own!

I have started making a list of things I'll need to keep at hand to be ready this year.  It includes the obvious (bee suit, general beekeeping equipment, etc), a box and a sheet, and secateurs and pruning saw.  While looking it up I came across a few photos which show I may have got it all wrong.  Perhaps I just need a straw boater, a bow tie and a feather!

Or a pair of braces.

Maybe I should grow mutton-chop whiskers.

This lady is at least wearing some protection

whereas this one only needed slippers and a pinafore.

Just to be on the safe side I think I will take my bee suit.