Pilgrim's honey
Small Beginnings
First steps
It all started in May 2023, when I attended a course with the Epping Forest Beekeeping Association.
Beekeeping had been one of those things which had fascinated me which I hadn’t had a chance to explore further, it now seemed the right time to take a closer.
The hands-on course was a great opportunity to work closely with bees, and to meet other aspiring local beekeepers. I also hoped to learn whether this would work for me.
Donning my beekeeping suit (cappuccino, not “brown”) and my sturdy marigolds – under the course tutors’ supervision – I tentatively opened a beehive for the first time.
Though I’d observed a friend inspect his own beehives before this, it was daunting to open a thriving hive myself.
It was quite incredible to observe these amazing communities up close. How was I going to remember all the things I was required to make note of when conducting my inspections; is the queen present, is she laying, are queen cells present, is their sufficient food and space, and all the other observational musts.
And when the course finished, I took the plunge and joined the beekeeping world.
The plan? To buy a hive, hive stand, some frames, a smoker, and all the other bits and pieces needed to build a home for my bees over the winter weeks while my gardening work was on hold.
By Christmas, the hives and frames were built, with the bees, in the form of an ‘over-wintered nuc’ (a small community of bees who have been nursed through the winter) due to arrive in the spring.
On ‘bee delivery day’, the weather was wet and overcast. Not ideal conditions for bees.
But when a beekeeping friend (who’d agreed to lend me a hand) and I started transferring the bees to their new home, the sun finally came out.
With the bees safely installed at the end of the garden, it’s safe to say my beekeeping journey had well and truly begun.
A small setback – Bee space
In mid-June, I split the colony in two – keeping the queen in the original hive and leaving the new colony to raise a new queen from the queen cell which they had produced.
This is known as a ‘walk away split’. While it would potentially reduce the volume of honey produced, it can be a good method of swarm management when space is limited.
This had mixed results.
Splitting the hive into two was a success, a benefit of starting off the colony with two brood boxes. I now had two hives, each with an active queen, and two happy colonies.
Until, that is, one of the happy colonies (the original hive) decided to swarm. Thousands of bees slowly flew up the garden towards the house, formed into a tighter group and eventually settled at the very top of a nearby cherry tree.
They’d settled on a branch at about roof height, so despite being well within sight of the house, were irretrievable.
Disappointing as it was to see them swarm, the sight of the bees forming a large, loose cloud so high up in the air was something I’ll never forget.
Looking back, although in theory the supers should have given them sufficient house room, the combe was only partially drawn and therefore didn’t provide them with additional usable room, so they decided to move house!
They stayed in a tight cluster at the top of the tree overnight, and by the next evening they’d flown away to make a new home somewhere else.
Ultimately, despite my best efforts, the bees had swarmed, and I’d lost half my colony. All I could do was to make sure that a queen cell remained in the hive and leave them to raise a new queen as the bees in the second hive had done when I had conducted the split.
Honey
In late August I decided that I had all the honey I was going to get and decided to harvest what honey there was from the original colony. Whilst there was honey surrounding the brood in the second colony there was very little in the super. The original colony also had honey stored in the brood box but in addition had seven frames of honey stored in a super, my massive honey crop.
In total, with the help of management (my better half), 3.06kg (nine 340g jars) of honey was extracted from the seven frames.
The honey extraction was a magical moment, despite the small amount of honey produced. To see that golden flow, all be it briefly, into the settlement bucket was something I will never forget. The light golden colour and light flavour was amazing, what fantastic creatures these bees are. This exclusive first harvest was distributed amongst family and friends in the hope that next year we will have some spare to sell.
Food Hygiene
In mid-September 2024 I had a visit from the food hygiene officer from the London Borough of Redbridge.
On the beekeeping course we had been advised that if we wanted to sell our honey we would be required to register with the local authority. We had been assured that honey was largely regarded as a ‘low risk’ food and therefore it was unlikely that the local authority would be too concerned. As far as I know I am the only course participant to receive such a visit from a food hygiene officer. Despite some nerves, and management conducting a full spring clean, I was able to answer her questions and she was happy to award me a level 5 Food Standards Agency food hygiene rating.
Over- wintering
The hives although still active during October and into November will soon form a tight cluster within the hives to get through the winter. The bees will require less attention but I will have to ensure that the bees don’t starve. Although they will be less active and will require less food they will require food to keep warm and survive. Regular monitoring of the weight of the hives will indicate the food levels and as the hives get lighter food in the form of fondant will have to be added. The colonies will be most at risk in the spring when the queen will begin laying again and more food will be required to feed larvae.
And finally
Looking back on my first year of beekeeping it has been eventful and at times baffleing. What could have gone wrong seems to have gone wrong, with a swarm in mid-June to vanishing and a failed queen in late August.
It has been a lesson in patience and trust. I will always be at the mercy of my little stripy friends whom I admire and respect. Things will happen which will be outside my control and I will continue to learn to embrace and enjoy the privilege of being involved in the process. It reminds me of my Camino pilgrimages in many ways. It isn't the getting there but the journey and the discoveries you make along the way that are important. Despite the challenges I am hooked and I look forwards to the next season and what it will bring.
Setting up
When it came to setting up the hive, a local beekeeper recommended that I double brood the bees.
This is when your hive has two brood boxes instead of one. The brood box is where the queen lays her eggs, and the larvae mature into adult bees.
The idea behind having two brood boxes instead of one was to help avoid overcrowding and to prevent them from swarming when the hive was up and running. One of the main reasons for bees swarming being that they feel overcrowded and require more room for the colony to grow.
The numbers steadily increased throughout April. But the bees were slow at drawing the comb in the supers, boxes above the brood box where honey is stored. So while they were on the drawn frames in the brood box, they weren’t creating the comb needed to store honey.
I fed them syrup in the first few weeks, and again later in May. I hoped this would encourage them to draw the comb in the two supers. Combe building is conducted by young worker bees and requires lots of energy, if the weather isn’t good or there isn’t sufficient nectar then feeding is required.
By May, the queen was present and seemed to be laying well.
Recovery
About a month later, I spotted a young bee in the original colony (the swarm hive) which was different from its pears and concluded that it was a juvenile queen. She had been small enough to pass through the queen excluder, which is positioned on top of the brood box to prevent the queen laying in the supers. I removed the queen excluder and hoped that she would move down into the brood box and hopefully continue her development and leave the hive on her mating flight. All was looking reasonably good with queens in both hives although it was now mid-July and nearing the end of the season.
Queen Action
Looking for queens in a busy hive is not easy and you must be prepared for disappointment when you are conducting your regular inspections. In the absence of a clear sighting you must therefore be ready to read the signs. If there are eggs and larvae (brood) in the brood box, there is evidence that the queen is present and has been laying eggs within the last few days. If there is no brood and the bees seem unsettled and defensive, then the signs would indicate that the queen is absent and the colony feels under threat. Having a second colony allows you to compare activity and read these small signs more effectively.
The second colony continued to thrive with good numbers of active bees and brood in a good laying pattern. However, the original colony lacked brood and had fewer bees. I began to realise that the new queen was struggling. I had read that sometimes take some time for new queens to get their acts together, however, after several weeks there had been no change and I began to realise that the signs indicated that the new queen had failed.
Another advantage of having a second hive was that I was able to transfer a frame of brood, known as a test frame, from the second colony to the original one. If the colony was queenless they would produce a queen from the donated brood. The bees in their wisdom didn’t produce a queen cell and I therefore concluded that the new queen just needed more time to settle. Unfortunately, the colony became more and more defensive and I began to suspect that this colony was without a queen. A colony must have an active queen in place if it is to make it through the winter. I decided to order a new queen to ensure that the colony had a chance of survival.
Meanwhile, the marked queen in the second colony had disappeared and an unmarked queen was happily laying eggs and getting on with her duties. What on earth is going on? The second colony had superseded their queen and had ensured their continued success without my help. Perhaps they had seen what a mess I was making of managing the original colony and had decided to sort thigs out for themselves. Another advantage of having a second colony, perhaps this new beekeeper was over thinking things and not trusting his bees to sort things out for themselves.
On my last full inspection of the season I was pleased to see the new queen on a frame surrounded by workers in the original colony and the unmarked second queen in the second colony. Having made three attempts to catch and mark this second queen I decided to give up and leave her unmarked over the winter, there’s always the spring. Sometimes you just have to forgo the stress and go with the flow, you can’t control everything.
Wax
As a bit of an after-thought I decided to do something with the wax collected from the cappings from the honey frames. Having washed the wax I then put it in a tray in the oven on a low heat and the melted wax floated to the surface, once it had cooled I had a cake of pure clean wax, amazing.
Treatment
In early September 2024 I treated the hives for varroa, a parasitic mite which is the plague of honeybees and if left untreated can kill the colony. I will treat the colonies again in late December whilst the bees are in their cluster to reduce the mite numbers.
