From A to Bee (25 page)

  All in all, it was a very entertaining evening and all the more so for meeting up with a few friendly faces. One of them was Alison Benjamin, a columnist for
The Guardian
and co-author of
A World Without Bees,
which is a really great resource for anyone who wants to know about the problems bees are facing. I felt a little in awe when I bumped into her but she had seen my blogs and Facebook page (with my review of her book which no doubt helped) so it was a great discussion in the end with someone who is obviously all about helping the bees.

  Suffice to say, well done Abel and Cole. I am going to bed now as it is far, far too late.

I am a man of integrity and honesty and therefore I have to admit I am writing this piece with a glass of rosé to my right (yes, I know, not very 'beekeeping') and a leftover piece of cold pizza (with a bite taken out from a cheeky breakfast this morning) to my left. These are the leftovers from last night's World Cup match between England and the US, a rather disappointing result I have to say. Therefore I thought I would write this watching Australia beat Germany; sadly this is not proving to be the case, however, with Australia 4–0 down and with only ten men left on the pitch!

  What a momentous day. You are meant to leave the bees for a couple of weeks to allow them to start building the colony with the only intervention being constant feeding. After all, they have to build a new home and get the queen laying eggs as soon as possible to keep the colony going. Therefore I have done what I am told – there is a first time for everything – and today was the day earmarked to look inside.

  I wanted to film the event for posterity but decided early on that asking Jo to pop up to the hive would not be a husbandly thing to do. Richard from the beekeeping association stepped in. He agreed to help out and film this exciting first inspection of my own bees and generally hold my hand through the experience – absolutely needed, I have to say.

  There are not many things that scare me, and I've been fortunate to have grown up with the confidence to give everything a go. There are two things that have never sat comfortably with me, though. Firstly horses. I am particularly scared of horses. When I was a child, one decided my mop of blond hair looked far too inviting and bit off a huge clump of it thinking it was hay.

  Aside from horses, bees have always held a slight fear and here I was about to open up a hive – and on film. That made as much sense as touching a horse's rear end as I walked behind it.

  Feeling very nervous, I opened the hive, following the correct procedure of smoking in all the right places. The first thing that struck me was the sound. There was this amazing buzzing sound coming from the hive. Yes, I knew, of course there would be buzzing but this was really BUZZING! It didn't just sound louder. I know that bees buzz at middle C but this sounded an octave or two higher. Bearing in mind I have been using the small, almost runt-like hive at our association, this sound was an indicator that perhaps there were more bees than I was used to and also that they were perhaps not as placid as my usual bees. As I continued the inspection it appeared to be the latter and I was feeling a little stressed as a consequence. I can't really describe the feeling of bees, almost kamikaze-like, flying straight at your veil in full attack mode. Attack after attack came as they obviously weren't happy I was there. It felt quite uncomfortable and something I hadn't really expected.

  I will not describe all of the inspection as it would go on for a bit but aside from the kamikaze bees, it was all looking good. I reckon I have about seven frames of bees and some frames where the bees have been building out the comb ready for the queen to lay in or to put stores (this is usually termed as 'drawing out' comb). I am really pleased with this because I also saw sealed brood and evidence of eggs and larvae. Therefore, though I saw neither Cleopatra nor Nefertiti, I know a queen is actively laying. The mystery continues as to which queen I actually have, but I am not overly concerned as long as she is laying.

  It is incredible to see experienced beekeepers look at frames at the association evenings. There I was today studying each frame for several minutes trying to find the queen whereas an experienced beekeeper like Adam would literally spend a second looking and go, 'There you go: Queenie!' I must perfect this art.

  Aside from signs of a laying queen I also saw some sealed stores of pollen and honey, which is great. Looking at the newly generated comb is just magical. Understanding that I have simply put wax strips into a box and within a week or two the bees had made the most beautiful honeycomb is quite astounding really.

  Having put the hive back together again and taken a deep breath, I thanked Richard for all his help and tried to reflect on exactly what had happened. It may sound strange but in a way I am quite relieved that my first inspection is over. Not only was I nervous but they were far more feisty than I had expected. Maybe they were feeding off my nerves?

  The enormity of the situation is beginning to hit me. Last week I was almost a beekeeper and today I actually became a beekeeper.

Everything seems to be coming together quite nicely at the moment. My Beehaus is in transit and finally my nucleus of bees is almost ready. Fortunately there has been another little delay and so hopefully I will have the new hive set up in time for their arrival but based on what I saw in that inspection yesterday, I am also pretty confident that the jar of honey may be possible from that hive alone as they were going like the clappers.

  I am really looking forward to seeing what all the fuss is about with regard to the Beehaus. It has received a lot of press and there have been lots of positive reviews and some not so positive. However, being a complete beginner I am going to be very interested to see which hive I get along with best.

  I find it quite appealing that there are two hives lying side by side in the Beehaus; this seems to be one of the major positives about the design. I am slightly concerned that the old-fashioned method of collecting a swarm by giving your box to a swarm-catcher like Richard would be difficult with the Beehaus. It would be quite funny seeing them trying to catch the swarm in a brightly coloured freezer.

I popped up to the hive this evening and, yet again, the bees have gone through another 3 litres of sugar syrup. I will pop up again tomorrow morning to feed them some more as it seems they are taking it in at a tremendous rate, which is a great sign. I was also pleased as, for the first time in several visits, I didn't get chased away from the hive; they generally don't seem to like me getting close, which is fun when quickly topping up the feed with a large silver saucepan. I can imagine it being very funny for my neighbours to see me scampering away from a beehive while swinging a shiny silver saucepan around my head.

  Tomorrow the Beehaus arrives, which is exciting. Last time I was a little nervous about the hive arriving. I didn't have a clue about anything and certainly not the construction of a beehive. At least this time around I have a lot more of an idea and also I know that the beehive comes almost ready-made. Someone told me today that they see the Beehaus as an oversized and expensive yoghurt pot! I will be fascinated to see if I have the same opinion when I receive mine but, then again, this did come from a 'natural' beekeeper and so I suppose I can understand. A natural beekeeper tends to believe in minimal intervention, i.e. few inspections and no chemical treatment for diseases. They also use what are called 'top bar hives' which, from my understanding, are based on hives used in Africa that don't have any wax foundation, leaving the bees to get on with their own thing rather than being manipulated.

  I have to say, given my time again I would have loved to know more about this form of beekeeping as I do like the ethos behind it. However, I have spent enough time and money this year, Jo has put up with enough and I am not sure Farmer Ray could tolerate another hive! I would like to try it next year though, it sounds interesting.

  Anyway, the Beehaus arrives tomorrow and I've been told I can go and pick up my nucleus next week. All fitting together quite nicely finally, isn't it?

It arrived today. Again, I felt a little bit like a child on Christmas morning though I was waiting for the deliveryman rather than Father Christmas. It arrived at about 11 a.m. in three huge boxes and immediately I went out to have a look.

  Fortunately it was lovely outside and so I grabbed a knife from the kitchen and leaped out of the front door, much to the amusement of the Polish delivery driver as she was walking back through our gate. I was like an opening machine and I reckon health and safety officers would have had a field day with my knife-wielding technique. I started with the smallest box and there were bits of cardboard everywhere as I ripped through it. Gradually I organised it a little better and I had plastic bits in a heap on one side of me and cardboard on the other.

  I am not sure what I really expected when I opened up the boxes for the first time but part of me expected a fully built and functional beehive. Instead I got a whole lot of plastic, which I have to put together at some point this weekend. It didn't look too complicated when I looked at the instructions but I think I expected it to be a little bit simpler than this. Whatever happens, my bees are arriving next week so I had better get a wriggle on.

  I do admit my decision to opt for white rather than a bright colour has only accentuated the freezer type feel to it. Either way, I look forward to getting it built and in situ.

  Tomorrow is my second inspection check and I have a few concerns, which is rare as generally I have very few concerns in life. It seems, however, that both beekeeping and gardening really occupy every thought. My first concern is that tomorrow I will be doing it well and truly on my own with no Richard this time to talk to and calm my nerves. I suppose I will take my video camera with me to talk to instead and hopefully that might help.