Bee forage is back online

Honeybee working Thistle flower. Thistles are a fabulous source of
good nectar and pollen. One of the most important flowers at this
time of the year. Thistles are no weed, they are pure gold if you ask me :)

The bee forage was very good all the way from Spring to about the time Rapeseed/Canola stopped blooming. After that there was not much left except some Raspberry and wild rose bushes. One local beekeeper noticed bees collecting honey dew from Plant Lice/Aphids.
Now the nectar flow is back in form of Thistles and White Clover :) and I see busy bees again!

Raw Top Bar Comb Honey

We've got visitors yesterday and after a tasty BBQ I decided to give them a proper treat :) honey directly from a naturally drawn top bar comb! Can it be any better :) yummm yumm

When you eat honey this way you get the taste of propolis, fresh virgin wax, pollen and honey of course. Magical taste indeed!

Ant Invasion on Planet B

I wanted to inspect my colonies a few times for the last 2 weeks but each time I would get a stomach feeling not to open the hives. I respected that feeling and did nothing. But today I've got a strong feeling to do the inspection. I sneaked into the bee suit, armed myself with a spray bottle, long bread knife and a bee brush.

Once I opened the first hive I knew why I've got that strong stomach feeling to open the hives today!

Ants all over the hive! The bees were buzzing very loud trying to shake the ants off with their wings. 

The ants actually moved under the hive roof. Here you can see eggs and a few ant Queens too.

I mean why not move into a bee colony; bees feed your colony with free honey. Smart!

But I decided to intervene and evict the ants from 2 hives which were infested with them. I could see ants hanging on bees trying to kill them. The colonies were under enormous stress trying to get rid of them. It seemed as the ants were winning the battle ... until the bees' bee guardian came into the picture and removed them. I literally destroyed the ant colonies. I was their Armageddon. Im sorry it came to this but they could have chosen to build a home somewhere else. 

The bees felt I was killing the ants since not even one bee attacked me and they were very agitated because of the ants.

I will check those 2 hives in a few days just to make sure the ants are gone.

What a beautiful brood pattern. This Queen is good :)

All 10 colonies have a laying Queen. Some have the old one and others a newly mated Queen. Its nice to see them all have new eggs, larvae in all stages and capped brood. I could see just a few house bees with deformed wing virus caused by Varroa but that is not a big issue.

a gorgeous free-mated top bar hive Queen :) Im in love with her :))

Worker Bees gorging on the honey

For those of you interested how my "Bee-friendly Super Top Bar Hives" are doing here is an image showing positive results :) Only one hive decided to move up and start building new honey combs. Even though the Queen can go up she decided not to. They are building without any wax guides totally wild but as you can see they do keep the as straight as they do in the top bar hive :)

Teaching Sustainable Beekeeping at the University of Copenhagen

Great news! My good friend and I have started teaching sustainable beekeeping in top bar hives on the University of Copenhagen. Two weeks ago it started with a power point presentation and yesterday we begun building the university's first top bar hive :) This course will last until October.

Students building the hive body

... building hive legs

... the roof being made

The finished hive :)

Next week we will be making an observation window and painting the hive as well as placing it in the right location away from passersby. We have 27 students so far and it seems they are enjoying it. In about 2 weeks we are buying a bee colony and the buzzing journey will begin :)

The swarming apiary

The swarming apiary

I have caught another swarm a few days ago :) Both swarms are very likely from my hives because each swarm was hanging on a tree near the apiary. Both swarm are settling nicely. They have already built a few combs and are very busy. Since last year the apiary has grown from 6 to 10 colonies. 

The weather is glorious! Sunny 20'C with some wind. Bees are flying strongly and them Drones are buzzing loudly all over the place :) This is their mating season. So many Drones and so few Virgin Queens. Tough competition  ;)

After catching those 2 swarms I ma more than certain that in the future I will only be catching swarms and will stop making man-made splits. They are absolutely no match to the natural swarm.

First swarm and a laying worker

 I've caught my first swarm yesterday :) My wife was the one who told me that a few bees tried to get into the house yesterday and even into our car. I immediately suspected Scout Bees searching for a new home. We were inside the car on our way to do weekly shopping so I thought to check the hives later but my wife insisted to do it right away and so I went into the apiary to check ... 5 seconds later I was running back to the house to get my swarm catching basket :)

Bees fanning at the entrance, sign that the Queen is inside

One of the 6 colonies which came out of the winter had no Queen. She probably died during the winter which can happen. I decided to give them an brood comb with eggs from another colony in hope they will make a new Queen. I inspected the hive yesterday and all I could see is Drone brood and several eggs per cell! Sure sign of a Laying Worker! This colony had issues last year as well. I gave them a chance to get on with new eggs but even now they seem not able to do the right thing. I will very likely destroy this colony since they are only getting weaker, not many bees left.

Che Guebees