Greetings from the Forest Farm apiary!
It is quite a sight to see bees flowing out of a hive on a sunny day, much like little aeroplanes, each one on its own flight path. In what has been a very challenging year of beekeeping we enter autumn with one healthy hive. It had been my intention to expand the apiary to at least three colonies of bees, but a constant cycle of wet and dry weather meant that the bees had little to forage on at the right times.
However, I’ve taken the opportunity to demonstrate some beekeeping practices to volunteers who were interested. One of our regular volunteers, Matthew, has really taken to beekeeping as a hobby. Since he started in late May he’s slowly learnt various skills and is very confident when opening and checking the bees.
Honey yield was lower this year. In June some of the flowers that you’d normally expect in late April were only just coming into bloom, such as foxgloves. As a result the light coloured spring honey was eaten entirely by the bees as they expanded and prepared for the summer.
I also missed the opportunity to prevent them swarming in late spring due to the constant rain. They picked the first warm day and half left with the new queen! By late summer the bees had tried several times to raise new colonies (unsuccessfully) and had gathered very little surplus honey for us to extract. I think we had just over 5 litres when I finally extracted the honey reserves in early September.
Usually, I would’ve expected around 20 litres from a strong colony like ours. It has been much the same story with bees that I keep throughout Essex, and other beekeepers have reported similar, so I take some comfort from that.
As we enter autumn and I reflect back on my notes and see that we’ve had three different queens this year. This is in response to swarming and the bees natural instinct to thrive given poor weather. Next year we hope to expand and have more colonies and perhaps some different hive types. The last of the hive checks will take place in the coming week.
So final statistics for the Forest Farm apiary in 2021: 9 people put on a bee-suit to give it a go; 1 thriving colony; 3 different Queens; 3 bee-stings; and 5 litres of honey… perhaps it wasn’t too bad a year.
Graeme Ellis
Bee-keeper at FFPG