MAY 31
The day after the night before… I slept awfully and I have to admit it was all self-inflicted. While I was writing the diary I had a couple of gin and tonics to soothe my overexcited brain. What I had just experienced was bonkers and my mind was working overtime, and despite the alcoholic intervention, I struggled to sleep.
I woke up knowing that a few minutes' walk away there was a hive full of bees waiting to see me this morning and so I wanted to get up there as soon as possible just to make sure that all was well. After all, last night everything was done by torch and car headlight. It probably meant that I had put everything on wrong, or left the roof off or done something else equally stupid.
Fortunately when I got up there all seemed well. A few bees were just showing their heads outside the hive wondering where they were. Over time I noticed some of them actually plucked up the courage to take a little flight. It seemed they would fly about a metre away and would then get a little bit nervous and fly right back again. I put it down as the equivalent of watching your little ones learning how to walk. They stand up, hold on to the sofa or an equivalent, take a few tentative steps holding on, let go for a step and then immediately grab for the sofa once more.
I understand now that these are called orientation flights and they are just getting used to their new location. Gradually these flights will get further and further away from the hive until they are satisfied they know exactly where they are going. Apparently they use markers in the landscape to guide them to and from the hive; amazing.
I lifted off the roof to take a look at the feeder which, to be honest, I dealt with a little bit hastily last night. It all seemed fine but I had no idea what to expect. I must find out just how quickly they should take on the syrup so I can gauge if what they are doing is normal. The only worrying thing was that I saw two dead bees floating in the syrup. Having just done some research though, I found out that this is pretty normal and I shouldn't be too worried. What a way to go, swimming in sugar – it must be our equivalent of drowning in a pool of money.
My concerns abated, Jo, Sebastian and I went about our daily duties and today this involved meeting up with a group of my old school friends for a barbecue. We packed up the car complete with Sebastian's bee backpack which Jo had recently bought him and got going. It looks amazing on him and he loves running around pretending to be a bee.
Ten minutes into the journey there was a little buzz and a honeybee landed right next to Jo's hand. Whoops, one got left behind last night. I lost a few brownie points there! Jo let down the window but I doubt he would find the hive now. Sad, really.
JUNE 1
I had a minor heart attack last night. Just before I got into bed I checked my BlackBerry and there waiting for me was an email from Adam which I opened and my heart sank. It simply read:
'Any white sugar is fine, brown sugar gives them dysentery.'
Oh my God, what have I done? Dysentery, or serious diarrhoea as it is probably better known, is colony threatening so I had made a major mistake. I had fed them brown sugar as I didn't have anything else in the house. I checked the label of the packets that I had used and found out that it was actually 'light brown muscovado' sugar. This meant that at some ungodly hour of the morning I was beginning to fret about whether light brown sugar would be worse than dark brown sugar. I can tell you I have never before sat down and considered this argument but the difference between these two sugars kept me from sleeping particularly well.
I woke up this morning and came to the conclusion that I had to reply to Adam first before I did anything and so I left the feeder on and emailed Adam for confirmation. A little later, just as Jo and I got into the car to go to my mum and dad's he emailed back and basically stated that light brown was just as bad.
So, on the way to my parents' house, Jo jumped out at the supermarket and got some more sugar for me. In she went to Sainsbury's and came out with two rather heavy-looking bags and I instantly felt a lot better knowing that I could now get it all sorted.
Sadly, as I write this it is too late as we arrived home a lot later than we thought – too late to go out there and open it all up to remove the feeder. I am sitting here worrying that these poor bees have not got the right feed, but I plan to wake up nice and early and sort it all out. Here's hoping that they do all right tonight and I haven't done any lasting damage.
I started my beekeeping career knowing I am someone who learns from my mistakes and these last two days have lived up to that theory. A lack of preparation has meant I have seriously messed up again and I am feeling very guilty and slightly annoyed at myself. Usually I am the person that suffers and not a hive full of bees. It is not fair and is unacceptable on my part.