ABBOTS LANGLEY GARDENING SOCIETY

( ALGS )

 

 

Beekeeping Course 2011

Looking back over the past 3 months, I am amazed at how much I have learned about bees and beekeeping. Let me rephrase that… I am amazed at how little I knew when I started!
When we have been and continue to be so dependent on the bee, how can it be that most of us know so little about these fascinating creatures to whom we owe so much?
While, currently, it is not possible for me to keep bees in my own garden, the Gardening Society has agreed to have a hive so Chris and I signed up for the Beekeeping Course run by the Chalfont Beekeepers Society. The course has been an eye-opener! With over 40 people signing up, each of the Tuesday evening meetings in Chalfont St Giles has been well attended. The sessions were: an introduction to beekeeping; a session on the bee colony; equipment, including a practical workshop making frames; the beekeeping year; pollination and plants; queen rearing and swarming; pests and diseases; and the final session was on hive products.
Each of us has been given a mentor to help us through our first months of beekeeping and we have had our first Apiary sessions – hands-on working with our mentors’ hives.
The theory learnt over the past 3 months is now to be put into practice. I never thought, when I decided to sign up for this course, that I would be having my first experience of wood-work, nor that I would be using a blow-torch – but I have discovered that, while there is an awful lot to beekeeping and bees in general and that there is a huge amount still to be discovered about bees, keeping a hive is not rocket science. Bees will get on with collecting their pollen, nectar, water, etc., they will feed their larvae and their queen, and they will make honey. It is up to the beekeeper to ensure that their environment is healthy, they have enough space within the hive to get on with their work; they have supplies of extra food when needed, and their hive is safe from mice, woodpeckers and wasps.
I would not have had the confidence to start keeping bees without having attended this course and, now that the 9 sessions have been completed, I realize what a mess I would have made of it had I tried! We have got our bee suits and gloves, we are about to purchase a National Hive, and then the bees themselves. It’s an exciting prospect and we are grateful to everyone at Chalfont Beekeepers Society for their encouragement, hospitality and excellent teaching skills.
Kate Macnish

 


No 1 Apiary Session


Chris Bromwich and I have now completed our beekeeping course with Chalfont Beekeepers Society. At the end of the course we had the best first apiary session we could have wished for – not only did we have the guidance and expertise of our mentor, Sister Mary Christa, we had the additional benefit of the guidance and expertise of Deborah who had been called in to assist Mary Chris with such a large group. In total there were 11 of us – the majority of whom had obeyed the ultimatum from Mary Chris: no bee suits, no apiary session! Booted and suited we gathered on the hottest day of the year so far and split into two groups. The day was perfect – Easter Saturday was unseasonably warm and sunny – the bees were in good mood and we were able to spend almost an hour at the hives. I was with Deborah’s group and, having lit the smokers and checked our suits were done up properly, we went to work on one of Mary Chris’ hives. We took it in turns to lift up the frames one by one to try and spot the queen – as we each studied our frame, we were able to see eggs in some of the cells, and larvae in others, so although we didn’t see the queen, at least we knew she had been there and active within the last 5 days.
Towards the end of the session, we heard a cry go up from the other group, with Mary Chris delighted to have found their hive’s queen bee.
If we had been nervous about encountering bees for the first time at such close quarters, we were all relieved to find ourselves learning how to handle the bee-laden frames without annoying the bees, how and when to use the smoker, how to ensure the frames went back leaving the bees sufficient space to work, and for me one of the achievements of the day was learning how to use a blow torch!
The hour went by very quickly and we finished our apiary session with refreshing ice-cold J2Os while we talked over our various experiences and anticipated our next steps towards becoming beekeepers for real. Our hive is on order and should be on view at the Carnival on 11 June.
Kate Macnish

No 2 Beekeeping – Progress Report

Well our beekeeping project is making good progress.  We bought the kit and all the necessary accessories for the Society’s hive on the Thursday evening before the Carnival and Chris spent most of Friday constructing it.

At the Abbots Langley Carnival we had our new hive on display and were overwhelmed by the amount of interest people showed in it.  We were able to show how the bees lived and worked within their hive, as well as telling our visitors about the need for everyone to help our bees in their fight for survival.  Of course, not everyone wants or is able to keep bees, but we can all grow something in the garden or in a window box or hanging basket that bees will feed on and pollinate for us.

Quite a few visitors to our carnival stall were beekeepers, would-be beekeepers, ex-beekeepers or knew someone who was a beekeeper, and Chris and I were busy all afternoon getting advice, giving advice, networking and encouraging support for the bees.  A number of people have said to me that they could not get near to the stall when they passed by so we apologise if you wanted to talk to us but didn’t get the opportunity.

Before we get our first nucleus of bees, there is more work to be done.  Chris has built the stand for our hive and the other evening we started putting together the kits for the brood frames – where the bees build cells in which the queen bee lays her eggs to breed the workers and drones to build up the colony to full working capacity (approximately 60,000 bees per hive).  At this time of year we don’t expect the bees to produce more queens, but you never know! The eggs hatch and the larvae develop into workers, drones or queens according to the food they are given by the worker bees.

Once the hive is in place with all the frames ready and waiting, we can buy our nucleus and then it’s down to the bees.  We are not really expecting the bees to provide enough honey for us this year – it all depends on the weather.  However sometime in the not too distant future we are hoping to have our own Abbots Langley Gardening Society honey on sale.

If you have any questions about the project or about beekeeping, use our contactus link and keep checking out our website to find out what’s happening.

Kate Macnish