Bees and hive products
We keep our bees with as light a touch as possible.
We care for our bees in a similar manner to our plants, with the least intervention we can. After at least 75 million years they know what they are doing. We use Modified British Standard hives with a top space modification, Snelgrove based swarm management and Integrated Pest Control methodology. Varroa are now endemic in the UK so we use bio-technical methods to reduce mite load, encourage our bees to develop tolerance, and only treat if necessary.
The limited foraging radius of a honeybee colony means they are highly dependent on very localised weather conditions and food supplies. The best foods for bees are nectars, pollen, and honey. We therefore do not take honey from them until they have enough for winter with some spare, and we don’t feed sugar syrup. In some years there is no surplus.
When weather and forage have been good, we have Honey for sale. In recent years we have won awards for its quality. Depending on the exact forage they find it may be runny, or it may be naturally soft set. In a very good year, we can get a small amount of cut comb honey. We also sell wax, and are developing other products. Sales are usually at local Christmas fairs, plant fairs if stock is sufficient, or can be direct to you if you contact us.
2024 Honey Season
Like 2023 a record breaking year on many weather fronts and once more, globally, possibly one of the coolest years most of us will ever see again. Uk wise, and running on from the very wet Autumn in ’23 a very trying year for farmers, gardeners, Bees, and many other insects.
Winter ’23/24 was mild and wet, which poses issues for Bees. The milder temperatures mean that the Bees are more active in the hive, do not cluster so tightly, and consequently eat their way through their stores more rapidly. Although often temperatures were above the 10ºC that is the usual lower limit for Honeybee flight these days were often also wet. The combination of rain and marginal temperatures means that Bees that venture out to relieve themselves, or to forage for water to dilute Honey easily become chilled and may not be able to return. By late January many of our colonies were becoming concerningly light on stores, this was widely noted across the region. I utilised one particularly unseasonably dry and warm early February day to provide extra in the form of crystallised, unextractable frames of Honey from the previous year. Thanks to the extra supplies 90% of our colonies wintered successfully. Across the region many ‘keepers reported winter losses of between 25 & 50%
Spring ’24 seemed to barely happen at all and was, overall, dull, cool and wet. Days that were both warm and dry enough for the bees to foraging were very limited. When they were able to get out they found the local flora also suffering from the conditions and pollen and nectar availability very low. In April the National Bee Unit issued an (unaccountably late to my thinking) national Bee starvation warning. By May the North West was experiencing rainfall levels of 198% of the long term rolling average. Across the UK there were may reports of newly emerged Bumblebee Queens being found dead as they failed to find enough food. A few of our colonies required additional frames of food to survive, most just about kept ahead of their needs and expanded much more slowly than usual, a few colonies proved very thrifty with their stores and grew at a reasonable rate, but still slower than in many years. This has been the slowest colony build-up and latest onset of swarming preparation I have observed in the last 12 years. In most cases they were behind by eight+ weeks at this point.
Summer ’24 , dull, wet, and excepting a few limited periods, cool. Summer mainly seemed a continuation of Spring. Colony build-up continued to be slow, and swarming preparations delayed. In the surrounding countryside light levels and temperature left many plants struggling to determine the season and led to reduced and delayed flowering limiting available forage. As with 2023 the weather limited or totally prevented new queens flying and mating within their biological window of opportunity (about two weeks). It takes six weeks from a Queen hatching until she starts to lay eggs, which she will do even if she does not mate successfully. Having laid these eggs it takes a further 9 days for the larvae to develop before the nurse bees cap the cell. Worker bee cells from fertilised eggs have flat tops, and Drone cells, from unfertilised eggs have domed caps. At that point you can tell if the new queen mated at all or well as the majority of her first brood cycle should be flat topped worker cells. Taking 6 -8 weeks overall, at our latitude there is always limited opportunity to achieve successful new Queens. This year only about 25% of colonies managed to complete re-queening. Regionally reports of missing / unmated or poorly mated queens were widespread. This may well lead to issues overwinter and into next season. Pretty much the only good news this year was that the winter/spring weather, combined with a natural 7 year population cycle led to much less wasp pressure. By the end of Summer most colonies where slowly gaining on their store levels but it was already clear that focus for the remainder of the season needed to be on colonies achieving sufficient stores to overwinter rather than surplus to harvest.
Autumn ’24 was better than summer. By this point the NW was down to “only” 148% of annual rainfall against the long term average, so still wet enough to compromise foraging time & with a couple of sharp early frosts reducing available late forage such as Himalayan balsam. Surrounded as I am by large acreages of Maize, Silage and recreational turf, this year I found it especially galling that Councils continue to basically clear cut road verges at peak flowering in late spring. Honey harvested this year was minimal to try and ensure our bees make it through the winter. Of the small quantities harvested it was notable that the bees had capped off honey stores with moisture contents of over 20%. Unless prevented by temperature and humidity levels like what we have seen they never normally do this as it is likely to ferment in the presence of natural yeasts if the temperature is over 14ºC. In the UK it is illegal to sell Honey with a moisture content of 20% or over, so for 2024 it looks like I need to put a brew of melomel (fruit mead) on the go!
This year has been hard for our bees, and for most other native bees and other pollinators. As ever, the welfare of our Bees is always the first concern, so we do not remove Honey and feed sugar, we leave them what they need. Honey harvest this year was extremely limited across the region, and the UK as a whole. Most regional beekeepers reported little to no harvest in addition to the difficulties experienced in re-queening colonies. My local association Carlisle Beekeepers were forced to cancel their Honey Show through lack of entrants. The modest amount of Extracted honey we did achieve meant we did not attend any local selling events before Christmas. Currently it looks like even close friends and family will miss out this year and personal usage will be much more of a treat event. If there is any left it will be available at plant fair events we attend in ’25 for as long as it lasts. See our “Where To Find Us” page for details.
2023 Honey Season
A record breaking year on many weather fronts, globally this may be the coolest year we will ever see again, Uk wise we are definitely now seeing the “more frequent and more severe” weather events forecast to accompany anthropogenic climate warming. All in all it was a tricky year for our bees.
Winter ’22/23 was colder and longer that many in the recent past. We had almost a fortnight of unbroken frost and temps down to -13ºC. They were well provisioned with stores in autumn and the cold we experienced counter intuitively reduces their honey consumption. Cold is not a really a problem for bees as long as they stay dry, they cluster tightly in the centre of the hive and gently buzz to generate the 34 to 36ºC heat they require. A greater issue this year was how long winter continued, ultimately all our colonies survived but the extended confinement meant that all were very low in stores by the time the weather broke.
Spring ’23 seemed to happen late and fast. The warmer days allowed the bees out, and with everything seeming to come in to flower at once forage was abundant and the bees began to catch up after winter. This catch up was extended, and most colonies were noticeably late in reaching the level of abundance that triggers swarming. In most cases they were behind by six weeks at this point. Towards late spring it became increasingly dry which reduces the nectar yield of plants.
Summer ’23 , as Spring tipped into Summer the weather seemed to tip into Autumn…cool dull and wet for days on end! When it was warm enough for flying (over 10ºC) it was frequently too wet. Bees will fly in the rain, but not all day every day. Before the deluge started most colonies had undergone swarm control measure which allows for the generation of new, vigorous queens to take the colony in to winter. Queens usually live for about three years so re-queening is required every other year. Some of the newly emergent queens were unable to get out on their mating flights due to the weather and only about 1/3rd mated successfully. Meanwhile the bees, also confined by weather, and now numbering in the mid 10’s of thousands per colony had to consume most of the stores they’d accumulated in Spring to stay alive. This put most colonies back to where they were in late Spring. The Spring / Summer weather suited Aphids & Wasps more than bees. Wasps gorged on aphids, which was great for the garden, but, they managed to complete their yearly cycle quickly this year leaving a lot of redundant worker wasps hungry. Without the carbohydrate normally exuded from the wasp grubs, as usual they looked for other sources. We lost one colony to predation by Wasps. Eventually something like Summer returned and the bees got back to catching up again.
Autumn ’23 was reasonable , but still wet enough to compromise foraging time. Himalayan balsam is an invasive, but welcome late source of nectar for our bees. Especially when our countryside is so bereft of wildflowers. Usually Frost is what stops the Balsam flowering, this year we noted it ran out of flowers well before the first frost.
Across this year our bees have mainly been playing catch up. Some colonies never got ahead enough with this to create any honey surplus to their own winter requirements. A full sized colony requires in the region of 25kg / 50lb to feed it through to spring. Of those colonies that fared better surpluses were low, about 15lb per colony. As the welfare of our Bees is always the first concern we do not remove Honey and feed sugar, we leave them what they need . Honey harvest this year was therefore limited but did include a small amount Cut Comb Honey. To make comb wax bees need to collect and use about six times the quantity of nectar as they do to produce an equivalent weight of Honey. The modest amount of Extracted and comb honey we have will be available at events we attend for as long as it lasts. See our “Where To Find Us” page for details, or Contact us if you are local enough to be able to collect.
2022 Honey Season
Despite a number of historical and extreme weather events 2022 was a reasonable year for our bees.
Winter ’21/22 was warmer than average, and slightly duller. February eve brought some T shirt weather! This warmth can be a problem for Bees, they will not cluster as tightly in the hive and will even fly when it’s above about 10ºC, despite there being no forage to be found. Consequently they use up stored Honey faster than in cooler years. They stayed in during the six named storms we had.
Spring ’22 was also warmer & dryer than average. Night time temperatures however remained cool and many plants withheld their spring flowers until late April. Having by now almost exhausted their winter supplies and lost most of the “winter Bees” all our colonies where slow to build up to strength. Our colonies first swarm preparations where over a month later than usual.
Summer ’22 was overall notably warmer than average. However June & July both had cooler than average starts which impacted colony build. During the Exceptional heat waves the bees where unable to forage for food as plants reduced nectar yield to conserve water. At these times they where observed to only be collecting water. Bees colonies have an internal core temperature of 34 to 36ºC year round which is optimal for rearing thier young. In summer they evaporate water within the Hive in order to keep this temperature stable.
Autumn ’22 was also warmer and wetter than average. Though the rain stopped foraging at times plants welcomed the rain and where producing nectar again.
Across the season our bees have managed to put by the stores they need for winter, about 45lb of honey per colony, and also did well enough to allow us to harvest a moderate amount of Honey which we now have for sale.
