3 posts tagged “honey”
This is a picture from the inspection of the hive last week.
Things are coming along nicely in there. The new brood box doesn't contain as much brood as I'd like, but they have almost completely filled it with honey. It weighs an absolute tonne!
The new super I put on a week before is looking good. They have half draw out the honeycomb, and have even started to put some honey in there.
Just to give some idea of the task they have when drawing out new comb and filling it with honey........A bee needs to visit 1 million flowers to make a pound of honey. The bees then eat this honey and secrete wax from glands in their head to make the honeycomb. They need to eat 3 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. That's a lot of honey and wax before they have even started to fill they comb with honey. Thankfully there is a lot of flowers and nectar around at the moment .
I'm intending to go and inspect the bees again tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how much honey they have put in the new super. I've bought a second new super just in case they really get moving.
In the picture, the white area around the outside of the frame is capped honey, and the spotty bits in the middle are the brood. One of the brood was hatching while I was there, which was nice.
Things are coming along nicely in there. The new brood box doesn't contain as much brood as I'd like, but they have almost completely filled it with honey. It weighs an absolute tonne!
The new super I put on a week before is looking good. They have half draw out the honeycomb, and have even started to put some honey in there.
Just to give some idea of the task they have when drawing out new comb and filling it with honey........A bee needs to visit 1 million flowers to make a pound of honey. The bees then eat this honey and secrete wax from glands in their head to make the honeycomb. They need to eat 3 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax. That's a lot of honey and wax before they have even started to fill they comb with honey. Thankfully there is a lot of flowers and nectar around at the moment .
I'm intending to go and inspect the bees again tomorrow, so it will be interesting to see how much honey they have put in the new super. I've bought a second new super just in case they really get moving.
In the picture, the white area around the outside of the frame is capped honey, and the spotty bits in the middle are the brood. One of the brood was hatching while I was there, which was nice.
This is one of the frames in the super (ie the bit with just honey in). It got a little scraped while I was pulling it out of the super, so you can see the honey in the cells. This frame had been in the super all season so far, so they haven't just filled it over night, but I am still amazed with what they have achieved :)
The rest of the hive is looking good. I still can't find the queen, but I did see some eggs this time, so I know she is around. Hopefully I will see her soon so I can mark her. Also the new bottom board is in place now, so all I need to do is put another super on so that they have more room to store honey.
We are officially the owners of this hive.
The hive is on a different plot and moving it is going to be difficult. We have had a chat with the people who are taking on the plot, and they are happy for us to leave it there until the winter when it will be easier to move. This is a result as I was begining to worry about moving a hive full with 20,000 bee's!
In the picture you can see that there are two main sections to the hive. The bottom section, in the darker green, is called the Brood Box. This is the main area where the bees live. They enter the hive at the bottom of the brood box via a small opening. You can just about see it on the picture at the bottom left. They then go up into their 'home' and fill out the comb inside. This area has a mix of pollen, honey, and larvae. The queen is in this area and she spends her whole day laying eggs into the honeycomb. These then grow into larvae and eventually become bee's.
Above the brood box is a box which is called a 'Super'. The name is derived from the Latin for 'on top'. The bee's also live in this part, but it only holds honey. Between the two sections is a metal grid that stops the queen moving from the bottom to the top. This is called the queen excluder. As the queen is the only one that lays eggs, the beekeeper can be sure that the super only has honey in there as she is too big to get through the holds on the queen excluder.
The hive looks slightly different now because we have put another brood box on. This means that the queen has more room to lay eggs. This is good for everyone because more bee's means more honey! The new brood box is exactly the same as the one in the picture, if a little cleaner, but it has never been touched by bee's, so they to will need to create the honey comb from the wax that they make. Then the queen will start laying eggs in there hopefully. This weekend will be the first time we have inspected this hive since we have put the new box on, so we are quite excited to see what they have done with the place.
On another note, the bees seemed to be a bit calmer this time. I think they have got used to me poking about in their home now :)
Next time I will try and get some pictures of the inside of the hive. Hopefully you will be able to see some of their handywork, and all our lovely honey.
The hive is on a different plot and moving it is going to be difficult. We have had a chat with the people who are taking on the plot, and they are happy for us to leave it there until the winter when it will be easier to move. This is a result as I was begining to worry about moving a hive full with 20,000 bee's!
In the picture you can see that there are two main sections to the hive. The bottom section, in the darker green, is called the Brood Box. This is the main area where the bees live. They enter the hive at the bottom of the brood box via a small opening. You can just about see it on the picture at the bottom left. They then go up into their 'home' and fill out the comb inside. This area has a mix of pollen, honey, and larvae. The queen is in this area and she spends her whole day laying eggs into the honeycomb. These then grow into larvae and eventually become bee's.
Above the brood box is a box which is called a 'Super'. The name is derived from the Latin for 'on top'. The bee's also live in this part, but it only holds honey. Between the two sections is a metal grid that stops the queen moving from the bottom to the top. This is called the queen excluder. As the queen is the only one that lays eggs, the beekeeper can be sure that the super only has honey in there as she is too big to get through the holds on the queen excluder.
The hive looks slightly different now because we have put another brood box on. This means that the queen has more room to lay eggs. This is good for everyone because more bee's means more honey! The new brood box is exactly the same as the one in the picture, if a little cleaner, but it has never been touched by bee's, so they to will need to create the honey comb from the wax that they make. Then the queen will start laying eggs in there hopefully. This weekend will be the first time we have inspected this hive since we have put the new box on, so we are quite excited to see what they have done with the place.
On another note, the bees seemed to be a bit calmer this time. I think they have got used to me poking about in their home now :)
Next time I will try and get some pictures of the inside of the hive. Hopefully you will be able to see some of their handywork, and all our lovely honey.
