girlmeetsbee.blogspot.com

The outcome is that I’ve continued beekeeping albeit with big, thick gloves and I have an appointment at the Adult Allergy Clinic in Birmingham next Monday. A glorious book about beekeeping and gardening written by famed horticulturist Alys Fowler and Steve Benbow of the London Honey Company called Letters to a Beekeeper (although you don’t have to like beekeeping or even gardening to enjoy it). In the book, Alys - who is a new beekeeper - says, “All I can say is keeping bees is like finding yourself flying a plane. I tried in the early years to do what suited me in terms of hive manipulations and swarm control rather than what suited the bees and I paid the price as half of them still swarmed, which was infuriating but natural because that is how they reproduce.

It could have ended in disaster (and divorce) but thankfully it didn't as all the bees (apart from five that I counted) made it to the new site. The reason being that the bees would all be out foraging at 2pm and wouldn't move with the Beehaus. With no barrier between the bees and ourselves, we decided to drive the three miles to the apiary site in our bee suits (he will eventually look back on this day and laugh). This is supposed to make them realise that there is something up with their new location and so orientate themselves with the sun before flying off and not being able to get back to the hive, or flying off to the hive's old location.

This is a great sign because pollen is protein for baby bees which means the queen is laying. I helped them out by placing some more fondant (basically, the stuff you get on Christmas cake) onto the frames for extra energy. Generally, the rule is that if you can comfortably wear a t-shirt then you're good to go. It's not feeling quite like that yet, so will give it a week or so.

UK shed and garden building company '10 brilliant beekeeper's blogs' and Girl Meets Bee was one of them. As a gesture they posted me this super cool mug I'm pretty chuffed but feel pressure to live up to this accolade so keep your eyes peeled for a new blog post soon (although the bees are still clustering and not doing an awful so it won't be that soon 😉)