I simply cannot imagine how a beekeeper would feel if he had to dig a hole in the ground and then set fire to the whole lot. That must be terrible.
Therefore, tomorrow I shall be looking more carefully than usual to make sure everything is OK. Apparently, because I have new frames and bees from a nucleus, I should be fine, but you can never be too careful.
JULY 31
This afternoon I approached the hives with rather more trepidation than usual. All appeared fine as I opened up and inspected the Beehaus. The bees are continuing to draw out comb and are building a healthy level of stores ready for winter. The bees are now covering about nine of the frames and have eggs on at least five of them so all seems to be cooking nicely in there. I spotted Queenie and she seems to be laying well and so I closed the hive up feeling pretty happy. There was no sign of EFB anywhere, which is a relief.
As I looked over to my feisty National hive while inspecting the Beehaus I could only wonder at the activity around the hive entrance. I can only describe it as thousands of bees gathering at the entrance clambering to either get in to or out of the hive. When I got round to inspecting it, the bees on the frames were relatively calm and yet there was mass hysteria outside the hive. The inspection went without incident, though I was disappointed not to see Queenie for a second week. However, I know she is there as there was again evidence of her laying recently. There were only two frames' worth of brood, which just shows that everything is starting to slow down a little bit. It's quite sad that autumn is fast approaching.
I saw that there was a little honey deposited into the frames of the super – then I realised it wasn't really honey, though, as it wasn't capped – this means that it was still nectar. It is my understanding that when nectar is deposited into cells it is 70 per cent water and this needs to reduce to around 20 per cent before the bees are satisfied that it is honey and cap the cell to cure it for another time. Sadly, none of these cells were capped meaning the chances of my getting any honey are becoming fewer and fewer. Unless I do something pretty drastic like move my hive to some late-flowering crop, it is unlikely that I will be getting any honey this year.
I have heard from discussions with other beekeepers that heather is particularly late-flowering and this has reminded me of Steve from the London Honey Company. He said he would move his hives to the heather later on in the year to get a late crop of honey but this was in north Wales somewhere. Apparently the really good areas of heather are in the north. As much as I have been storing up the few brownie points I have earned this year, I don't think it is conceivable to suggest to Jo and Sebastian that I needed the weekend to drive my beehive to Wales or anywhere else north of Watford. This meant the option of finding an area of heather is probably out of the question. I won't be put off, however, and so I wonder where I can find some heather locally, even a small patch, and whether I would be able to put my bees on there? Hmm…
So much to do and so little time and I am not hopeful of any success. It would be devastating to get this far and not manage my jar of honey but at least I would have learned some valuable lessons for next year.
AUGUST 7
Jo's friends were coming over for a 'girls' afternoon today which meant I was told to leave the house for a few hours. I started by feigning disgust that I was being asked to leave my own house while they all sat around drinking tea and gossiping. In the back of my mind however, naughty thoughts harking back to pre-fatherhood days were swirling around. These included:
• watching the football
• going to the cinema
• going for a walk
• going to a pub with an open fire, which I would just stare at
• meeting up with friends
• reading the paper over a leisurely coffee
And even…
• going shopping
In the end I decided on taking shopping to a new level and went on the search for beekeeping equipment. Oh dear, what have I become? I think this must have been going through Jo's head when I told her. My poor wife. I'm no longer the husband she married.
I left the house with a spring in my step and made the forty-minute drive south to Paynes, the beekeeping store in Hassocks, Sussex. Driving down I was imagining it to be just a normal-sized, modern-looking shop on a high street but selling beekeeping equipment.
I was driving down a normal main road, which was looking suspiciously residential, when a sign appeared on my left hand side – that was it – Paynes Bee Supplies. It led me down a tiny one-way private road, only just large enough for a single car to travel along safely, with houses on each side.
I came to a small row of houses and what appeared to be a large shed off to the back of it. And that was the shop. I couldn't hide my delight. A really well-known beekeeping company was basically being run from a shed!