Anyway, I quickly ran up to the hive in the twilight and got started. I then realised that I hadn't removed it since I painted it and so it was essentially glued shut. Out came the hive tool to release it all which made it pretty straightforward but upon opening the floor, the debris was far more interesting than I ever expected. I am not sure what I expected but I was surprised to see so much had dropped off the bees.
There was a multitude of pollen, lots of grey matter and then tons of what appeared to be rock salt. Having investigated this rock salt before I collected it all up claiming a miracle and a new hive product for us to all market, I realised these were the remnants of the wax the bees were secreting from their wax glands. Pretty cool, really.
Apparently tomorrow is going to be the hottest day of the year so far; glad I got that floor off in time.
JULY 10
D-Day. Two major events were happening today. Firstly it was the rematch between me and my traditional hive. They won last week and I had to retreat but, with my pride hurt, I've taken stock and today was the day. It was also the day that I was due to open up the Omlet Beehaus for the first time since the bees in the nucleus were moved inside. Two things I was interested in here. Firstly, had they settled in OK? And secondly, the nucleus contained standard frames and I had inserted these into the 14 x 12 brood box – standard frames are a lot smaller in depth. I wanted to see what was going on with the extra space they had at the bottom of the frames as apparently bees will build natural comb off the bottom of the frame to fill the void left there. I was nervously looking forward to it.
I decided to take on the Beehaus first as I know these were far calmer bees. When I took off the roof I noticed immediately that all the feed had gone and realised that the feeder was a little bit messy. Therefore I decided to take it off to clean it and then put in some more feed tomorrow for them. I then took off the extra supers, which you have to do when dealing with the Beehaus, and was amazed at what I saw. I had put five standard frames in and I could see immediately that not only had they built this beautiful natural comb on the bottom of these frames but there were bees covering at least eight frames. The natural comb was hanging down from the standard frames in a beautiful semicircle shape (they don't build comb in a perfect rectangle shape to fit the space but generally they build in this semicircle shape) and the hexagonal structure was perfect. It was amazing to see that in just a short time they had created this brilliant comb pattern. This was obviously good news as it meant that the bees were thriving and had been busy but to top that I also saw lots of lovely honey. It was all over the top of the frames and was a joy to see, especially when it was literally dropping out of the frame.
I have to say, it was all rather straightforward and it was good to deal with some nice, calm bees. It was great to see that the queen was indeed laying already into newly drawn comb and all seemed to be in order. It was also interesting to see the comb being built beneath the standard frames I had put into the brood box from the nucleus. It looked lovely and I knew that I hadn't had anything to do with it at all as I hadn't put my foundation down to guide them. I suppose this is what happens if you keep bees with what they call a top bar hive as you don't use foundation. These hives, rather than having frames and foundation like my hives do, simply have the top bar of the frame hence where the name comes from. The top frames only have a tiny strip of foundation or sometimes none at all and the bees then build natural comb from the bottom. I really like the philosophy of this more natural approach and really want to try it next year.
I closed up the hive feeling quite encouraged; just what I needed before I hit the rematch. It was probably a little bit like playing some weaker opposition just before a tournament to get a bit of confidence going – I was ready to take on the kamikaze pilots.
However, just to be on the safe side I filled up my smoker again, tucked my T-shirt into my extra-thick jeans – being great protection from the bees but really not a good idea on a 30-degree day – and then I went for it. I usually use the surgical gloves but I was pulling out the secret weapon, Jo's yellow Marigolds. It was almost a mission impossible as I needed to escape the kitchen cupboard without being noticed. How could I explain what I was about to do? But these would give me that little extra protection.
I was trying to come across as a new and modern beekeeper; I have a lovely khaki bee suit which looks as cool as a bee suit could get, and yet here I was with bright yellow Marigolds covering half of my arms. It's just as well that Jo was out of sight and no one could see me for miles.