So, I’d casually mentioned to a friend that I’d fancied having a hive of bees. In March 2021 I unexpectedly got a call from another friend who said “I hear you want some bees?! I’ve got some for you.” I thought “how difficult can it be? I have dogs I train, chickens I look after, I had livestock of all types from a very early age. I few bees will be easy!” It came from out of the blue, but I couldn’t resist! Little did I know from that point onwards my life was going to change, my free time was going to disappear, my bank balance was going to take a massive hit, and YouTube was going to get a battering on how to look after bees every night!
Eagerly I went and got the bees in early April. We’d discussed a price which included an overwintered swarm he caught late summer, 2 full hives and 2 supers for each hive. He’d said to me I should try and catch another swarm, so I had two hives going into winter. I’d not seen inside the hive, but I was assured there was enough food to last them through any cold snaps. I gingerly drove the 45 minutes home in my very agricultural Land Rover hoping the strap holding the hive together held, the foam wasn’t moving, and the hive wasn’t going to tip over. I had so many things running through my mind!
Once home I’d decided exactly where they were going, in a wood opposite my home. I proudly placed the hive on the floor. Stood back and then wondered what I was going to do! I pulled the foam from the entrance reducer, stood back, and watched the annoyed bees fly out of the entrance. I stood for a few minutes watching in amazement at my new purchase before a bee bounced off my face and I though it was time to leave.
I left them alone in the wood and suddenly, my mind was constantly thinking about them. “What if a tree falls on them? What if it snows? What if someone takes them?” No doubt all the things a new beekeeper with no knowledge thinks. After a couple of days, the forecast changed to snow, snow! Well, that was enough for me to ring my friend, in a panic, and ask for advice. He assured me they would be ok and that they had enough food. I waited until the bad weather had passed and went to see my new bees. I opened up the hive in my very cheap eBay bargain special suit and quickly realised I was out of my depth! Earlier I mentioned “annoyed bees”. I was being generous.
The bees were pinging off my cheap veil, the hive was on the floor, so I was bent over, little did I realise the cheap suit I bought had ridden up at the back and my ample love handles were now exposed! Well, I soon realised when the searing pain of numerous stings to my back. I persevered and got through my inspection and retreated to the house where Kirsty (a qualified Aromatherapist) used her, “Stings no More” balm she has created for just this type of thing . For a while I was her best customer!
Despite this experience I was hooked. Week after week I went back, struggling to get through the inspections, angry bees bombarding my head, stings to my ankles, then I managed to get a spark from my smoker on my cheap veil which made a hole just large enough for a bee to enter. You guessed it one of the bees managed to get in and I got stung on my face. I decided enough was enough and made an order with “Simon the Beekeeper” for one of their professional suits.
It was getting to the time where people was talking about extracting honey, so I decided to give my friend a call and see how he was getting on. He’d just taken his spring crop of rape honey, so I made arrangements to make the drive over to him the following week with my first super of honey. The week came and went. I put the clearer board on the hive on the Saturday, went to the bees on Sunday, and remove my super. I took it to the utility room and left it on the cold concrete floor where it stayed for 2 days until I put it in the Land Rover to take to my friend who was going to show me how to extract it.
I went over and he showed me how to uncap the honey, he kept mentioning “crystallisation”. The excitement was growing as he put my frames into his spinner, he turned it on and watch in wonder as more of less nothing happened! The frames span faster and faster and the honey was stubbornly welded into the frames. I think he must have either known, or took pity on my forlorn face, as he’d got one of his supers there which we did extract. They golden honey was being thrown from the frames, running down the sides of the extractor and I realised clearly, I’d got it very wrong! Whilst I was there, I told him about the bees’ grumpiness and showed him a picture of the frames. He immediately said, “that’s not right!”
He went on to explain the brood was patchy, their temper wasn’t right, and I’d have to do something about it. With us living a little distance apart I asked for on the local beekeeping group on Facebook for someone to come and have a look. They confirmed the brood pattern was poor, there was a lot of drones, and went on to say they wouldn’t have those bees anywhere near their house after they followed us the 200 yards or so back to my house where we had to go and stand in the dark in the garage to get them to leave us alone! I was pulling stings from my neck and beard.
I made the decision the queen had to go. The next inspection found me having to find a queen in a grumpy, but small colony full of drones. I looked through them and didn’t find her. Annoyed, I closed the hive and came away. A couple of days passed by and many hours of YouTube watching on how to find a queen and I went back to the hive. I looked through once, no luck, I decided I was going to persevere and on second look there she was. With a squeeze of my fingers, she was no more, and I closed up the hive. I felt a great sense of achievement but as when anything has to die, I also felt some sadness that my first queen was no more.
I’d been watching numerous YouTube videos and obviously I’d come across a certain Mr Edwards of Black Mountain Honey! I had no hesitation due to the amount of information he’d put out there I purchased my first queen, an F1 Buckfast, from BMH. I used the video Laurence had produced to introduce my newly bought queen The Safest Method To Add Queens - How to Replace a Queen - How to Introduce Queen Bees (youtube.com). Surprisingly after my first few weeks of beekeeping foolery, it worked exactly as described!
I remember the concern I had going into the hive to see if she was still there week after week, but I had no problems at all. It must be said since, I have had numerous problems introducing queens but that’s for another time! Within 3 or 4 weeks the hive was totally different to go into, no longer were the bees bouncing off my veil, no longer were they actively trying to find their way into my now, slightly, better bee suit, there was frame after frame of brood, the brood was no longer spotty, if I wasn’t set on this beekeeping lark before I definitely was now.
The bees were fascinating, and the change was like night and day. The requeening was too late to get much honey from but I was now on the right track. The bees were growing, and I decided to do a split with another BMH F1 queen very late in the season, I think it was the last week of delivery Laurence was doing. I’d made it through my first season of beekeeping and just had the winter to contend with. Thankfully this was much less eventful, I’m sure partly down to the queens I’d bought.
I am excited to go into my second year which I will go on in my next blog to explain my highs and lows. Thanks for taking the time to read my rambles and hopefully I’ll see you here next time! Nick
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