Hem Coppice Honey Bees

Hope the bees have got their thermals on 🙂

I rendered down two buckets of old comb today and quite please with the wax disc I ended up with.

Nice size swarm collected from Lilleshall, I'll take them over to Eccelshall tomorrow morning to install into One of Perrys of Eccleshall hives. Thanks to Alison's Bee Class for the info on the hive.

Checking out the hives when this Giant woodwasp landed by me, one impressive insect.

Nice swarm collected from the one of the gardens in Benthall Hall NT, once all the bees were in the box I took them over to Eccelshall to be rehomed in one of the hives belonging to Perrys of Eccleshall.

I've got a love hate relationship with the Brambles in my wood, how ever I'm loving them at the mo and so are the bees who are going ape on them.

Its going to be bee suit time shortly, sounds like one of the hive is ready to swarm.

I find faces in trees all the time, but I've never seen a bee Cowboy log hive before, just shows you how many bees are in a hive. I'm guessing that these bees fancy moving into my new log hive and are just waiting for the rain to stop and the sun to come out.

One of my hives swarmed yesterday around 3pm, I collected them into my swarm box and returned this morning to house them in their new hive. All went well and they are now settling in to their new home.

I collected yesterday's swarm from Benthall Hall NT this morning and set up a ramp for them to walk into their new hive, they are busily marching in at the mo, but it shouldn't take them to long.

Today's swarm from Benthall Hall NT was a bit of a strange one. The bees has swarmed behind some vines which made them a little difficult to get to, luckily I had my trusty goose feather with me so I was able to use it to swish them out. The bit that was strange was that the bees were balling around at least 3 other queens to kill them, making this swarm one made up of multiple queen's, something I had not seen before.

It's all go down here on the coppice, second swarm installed, I collected this one from Leegomery last night.

It was a week later than planned(would have been ideal for last weeks Balanced beekeeping course) but I got the call from Benthall Hall NT that they had a swarm. It was quite a large prime swarm that was virtually on the ground. After cutting some of the branches and putting them ,complete with most of the bees into my box, the rest were not far behind. I've just installed them into a hive in a new location in my wood so hopefully they will enjoy it there.

Starting to hit the Bluebells now that they have opened up a bit more.

What a fantastic weekend spent in the woods hosting Phil Chandler who was running one of his https://biobees.com Balanced Beekeeping courses. People had came from as far as Scotland, Devon and inbetween. The weather was a bit chilly Saturday but today was just fine for looking in the Top bar hives and nadiring the Warre. Emma from The Barn at Lees Farm provided the food for both days which went down a treat.
The general consensus was that the course was very informative and Inspiring.

Joy of joys, the bees have found the Marsh Marigold that has just come into flower.

Interesting to see the bees collecting either water or something else from the moss today.

Beautiful start to the day, luckily the Hazel catkins are fully out and the Norwegian Mapel is in flower so the bees will have something to forage on.

Natural Beekeeping training

Good news if your interested in keeping bees naturaly. Phil Chandler is running one of his courses on the 23rd -24th April in The Hem Coppice. If you click on the link below and you can book directly with Phil.

Natural Beekeeping training Please support Friends of the Bees to keep this site free to use. You can use this button to make a regular or one-off donation.

Last year I used hay bales to create a wind break around the hives, this year I've gone for making a wall from the Hazel faggots that I make. It's two faggots deep so hopefully it will aid the bees to get through Winter, albeit a very mild one so far.

Hem Coppice Honey Bees is now on WhatsApp.

Hem Coppice Honey Bees is now on WhatsApp.

Good to see all of the hives this active, bringing in plenty of Ivy pollen ready for when the queen starts producing the Winter bees.

I popped over to Woodside Allotments Telford to meet up with Ella to check up on the bees that were installed into their hive 3 weeks ago. It was good to see they had built out comb onto an additional bar, giving them 11 bars in total. Their was plenty of honey stores together with eggs, larve and capped brood so all in all they are set up well for going into Winter.

As my mini top bar was free I thought I would have a go at making a late season split. I bought a mated Buckfast queen from Black Mountain Honey and made the slit this morning. I've put a bit of grass in the entrance so the bees will reorientate to this hive, once they have removed it.
I'll leave the queen in her cage for a week then release her and hopefully by then she will have been accepted by the bees.

Back in June I started off a 5 bar nuc ready to install at Woodside Allotments Telford. Ella who sorted out the funding and prepared the plot is going to take over the care of the bees. This is a new venture for the allotment and Ella has already got her bee watching bench set up 🐝☕

I'm giving the Waspbane wasp trap a go this year. I added a mix of 2 to 1 syrup, Guiness and larger to the supplied powder. I'll give you an update in a couple of weeks to let you know how it performs.

I really usefull bit of kit, towling head band from Simon The Beekeeper, first time in ages I've not had sweet dripping in my eyes during a hive inspection.

Great to see the Lime trees out in flower and attracting the bees. I have 6 large trees in the woods so plenty for them to go at.

Nice swarm collected today from the rose arch at Benthall Hall NT. I took them over to the coppice and installed them into my Warre hive. The hive had windows and it was good to see how they were settling in.

Buddleia globosa is like a bee magnet 🐝 it's covered in honey
and bumbles bees at the moment.

The hive that swarmed last week has thrown out a quite a bit cast swarm onto a nearby crate. I thought I would use my Skep on this one. Once set up a scooped up a few handfulls of bees and placed them at the entrance of the Skep, I must have scooped the queen and the rest quickly followed in. These bees are moving to a new home over by Limeklin wood a little later once it's cooled down.

The second hive to swarm yesterday was caught and spent the night in the "Really Useful" swarm catching box before being released this morning and walking into their new log hive. These bees will be completely self sufficient and hopefully I be able to capture the activities inside, with my enderscope, once they have settled in.