We’re delighted to sponsor a beehive at the North Somerset Beekeepers‘ apiary at Langford. We hope to post regular updates on Hive 27 as we get them from the beekeepers themselves.

2nd July 2023

We were at the NSBK Apiary early as usual. Not so hot today. There was good activity at the hive entrance, it has a ‘landing pad or slope’ and you can often see worker/forager – female bees arriving with pollen in their ‘baskets’.

These ‘baskets’ are found on the inside of their rear legs. The pollen is very noticeable; bright yellow or orange. The honey bees will also collect propolis (often an orangey red) from plant buds and use it to polish cells and with its antiseptic properties, it helps prevent some diseases.

Studying the entrance is also an indicator of any problems; some bees may have deformed wings/unable to fly or there could be many dead bees on the ground below. The varroa mites are the cause of many problems and can ultimately result in the death of a hive. None were observed at Hive 27, all looked well.

We opened the hive, the bees seemed quite calm and were so throughout the inspection. The top super, a shallower box than the brood box, with shallow frames inside is where the worker/female bees will store their surplus nectar.

On our first inspection we had placed a queen excluder, so that as she could not get through the mesh, therefore no eggs were laid in this box, it was pure nectar stores and it was full.

In the main brood box we checked every frame. We marked with a drawing pin the frame where the brood nest began, about 4 frames in and also where the brood thinned out. This will help find the Queen more easily as she can be a fast mover but will usually stay where it is warmest as explained previously. We spotted lots of larvae and eggs.

Last week we spoke about the drones, the male bees. They are larger than the worker/female bees and have bulbous eyes. Their main function is to mate with queens, not their own. They develop from unfertilised eggs and as they are larger they take a longer time to evolve. As a larva they are also fed less nutritious food. They do not forage or busy themselves with the cleaning or nursery work (thoroughly unmodern males!). They build their reserves and when ready go on mating flights (so not so bad!).

Back to our hive. It was a thoroughly good inspection. All was well, as stated lots of stores, larvae and eggs.

Ruth and Holly

We’re delighted to sponsor a beehive at the North Somerset Beekeepers‘ apiary at Langford. We hope to post regular updates on Hive 27 as we get them from the beekeepers themselves.

25th June 2023

It was another hot day at the NSBK Apiary. This week it was easy to identify the Queen as we had marked her red last Sunday. We use an international colour system of 5 colours:- white, yellow, red, green & blue. This was created to identify the life expectancy of a Queen bee.

We knew that handling her last week had not caused her a problem as there were fresh eggs laid in the brood nest. The brood nest is the heart of the colony, usually starting from the middle frame of the hive where it is warmest. This is where the eggs, larvae and pupae are found.

The rest of the colony consists normally of one Queen, worker bees (females) and drones (males). In a thriving hive there can around 60,000 workers and several hundred drones. The Queen lays her eggs on comb in the middle of a frame and works her way to the edge. She can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day in the height of summer.

The life cycle of a Queen, worker and drone honey bee are slightly different. Looking at worker bees for example… once a fertilised egg is laid in a cell it takes around 3 days for it to hatch into a lava. The cell is then capped and 6 days approx. later the lava becomes a pupa. 12 days on the pupa emerges as a fully grown adult worker honey bee. Amazing!

Ruth and Holly