Artifical Swarm

We inspected the hives yesterday. At the house the wild hive was ok but nothing special and the other three were bringing honey into the supers. Lots of brood but, surprisingly, no queen cells. We left them to it and went to our out apiary. There the hive was heaving and with queen cells a-plenty. Since we had no extra equipment with us we went back the house to get things ready and make a plan.

We have always bottled out of doing an artifical swarm in the past. If you don't know exactly what you are doing it is disturbing to try and work it out with thousands of bees getting understandably angry and pinging you. This time I was determined. The weather this morning was perfect - sunny and almost no wind at all. I took out Clive de Bruyn's book and made notes. I sat down and talked it through with Max. We prepared a hive with floor, box, frames, crown board and lid and off we went.

This is what we did.

1) Moved the original hive onto the ground and replaced it with the new hive. In this new hive were frames of both drawn and undrawn foundation. The drawn foundation was placed so that there was space for one frame between them.

2) Found the queen in the original hive. This took some doing but the whole exercise depends on finding the queen. We placed the frame she was on into the new hive together with the bees on that frame. We also checked that there were no queen cells on this frame.

We then replaced the queen excluder, the super with honey its frames and the lid.

3) We relit the smoker! This is a fairly typical exercise but actually it worked to our advantage as it gave all the flyers time to go back to the new hive and settle down.

4) The original hive was placed about three metres away. We then went through all the frames and removed all but one queen cell. We chose the largest cell and were careful not to shake this frame at all as it can damage the larvae.

5) We closed up this hive.

So now we have a queen from 2010 in a nearly empty hive but with all the flying bees still going back to this hive with nectar. She has a frame of brood which will hopefully keep them in that hive - de Bruyn says that without a frame of brood they are more likely to abscond - and she has the super with some honey in it.

Close to this hive we have a hive with one queen cell and frames full of brood and honey together with all the non-flying bees. Gradually these bees will start to fly and bring in nectar; in the meantime they have plenty of stores in the frames. The brood will start to hatch to boost the numbers. With any luck the queen cell with hatch, she will mate and then start laying. This will take time. What they definitely cannot do at the moment is swarm - they don't have a queen and they can't fly.

And the point of this? Well, if we had left everything as it was the old queen would have swarmed as soon as a new queen had hatched. I would have lost all the flyers and lost a good deal of the honey harvest. I hope very much that I have fooled her and the bees into thinking that they have swarmed already. In a week or so we will check again to check she is still laying and there are no new queen cells.

Will it work? We'll see!

The Smoker

As you know we take two (last year three) weaners each year to raise for meat. Although it started as an experiment four years ago it was a huge success and we now do it annually. Last year we took two Berkshire Blacks and a British Lop cross for bacon. The pigs are killed here by a local debiteur and then, after cleaning them and cutting them into two, he takes them back to his premises for hanging and subsequent cutting.

Last year we asked him to give us more larger joints so that we could smoke them. However, we didn't have a smoker. Small problem! I looked all over the internet and finally came up with an idea and some dimensions for Max to put into practice.

Over the years Max has recommended our local charpentier to a lot of people. He is a charming man, in his late 70's (my estimate!) and his work is exceptional. And solid. Max asked him to quote for supplying the wood and explained what it was for. We heard nothing for two weeks then a phone call out of the blue asking Max to go and collect "it" - bring the van. When he arrived he found this work of art, enormous and solid awaiting him. Slightly alarmed because we couldn't afford to pay for it Max just stood there open mouthed. Monsieur Billy laughed and explained that he had made it as a gift and a thank you. A real case of what goes around comes around.

Max bought it back and was followed by two of M. Billy's workmen - it took all four of us to carry it from the car into the shed opposite the kitchen. We felt slightly ashamed when we saw it next to our "burner" but it works a treat.

I have prepared hams for roasting before but they taste nothing like the ones that have been smoked first. We have just finished smoking so bacon backs - one will be used tonight for lardons in a pasta sauce. The other I hope to slice for breakfast.

Potatoes 2011

I have planted less potatoes that in previous years partly because last year the Colorado Beetle was so dreadful. Yesterday I put in one row of Pink Fir, two rows of King Edwards and I still have two rows of Maris Piper to plant.

If anyone has a dream cure for Colorado Beetle I'd love to hear it! Too many to squish by hand - a vacuum cleaner might do it but the cable isn't long enough! Any ideas?

Bees - New Season

I have just spent a week in London and was pleased to find lovely weather on my return to Anjou. I have been keeping a sharp eye on the hives during the past four weeks and noticed four of the hives plus the wild hive bringing in pollen. The other two were just flying and not bringing in very much at all.

They say that the first inspection should wait until the flowering currant is in blossom and certainly it is now. So this week we have eaten our first asparagus of the season, planted our potatoes (more to follow in another post) and today, done the spring inspection of the hives.

Straight away I should say that one of the hives has been abandoned. Lots of honey left behind but not a single bee, dead or alive, nor any brood. Is this Colony Collapse Disorder? I don't know but from what I've read it's showing at least some of the signs.

The three busy busy hives were in great condition. Although we only found the queen in one of them there was so much brood in the others that there is clearly a queen present. The brood boxes were in fact very full of honey and brood although there was no evidence of queen cells.

The oil seed rape (or colza) is just beginning to come into flower one kilometre away so, with the full boxes, we have put a super on each of these hives. I'm aware this is early but I would rather be too early than too late and risk swarming. Mind you, I said that last year too!

The wild hive is difficult to assess as we obviously cannot look into the main body of the tree trunk. However, we looked down from the top and there are plenty of bees. If there is brood present it is further down but I've never seen brood in this hive so I am not worried. This is a colony that we leave to its own devices and are grateful if there's any honey for us later in the year.

Then we went out to our "out apiary". Frightfully grand name for one hive a few miles away. We collected a swarm from a friend last year and they asked us to leave it in their garden. It suits us well as it is far enough away to benefit from other crops. The queen in this one wasn't marked last year - it's a very "flighty" hive and when we found her she was very quick to move off so we didn't worry. Today we found a hive stuffed full of honey and brood and the queen, still quite flighty, conveniently placed for marking, which I quickly did. However, if the possibility arises I will change this queen. The bees are very quick to be irritated and I suspect if I can requeen with a calmer strain this would help. I don't like being pinged by dozens of bees when I'm inspecting a hive.

Finally I should mention the second weak colony that I mentioned earlier. A bit of history. Last year, just after we had collected the honey harvest, I discovered Foul Brood (not sure if it was European or American) in a hive. Although I hadn't come across it before I recognised it immediately. It is a requirement to inform the local Agent Sanitaire d'Apiculture if you come across this nasty disease and rather alarmed I telephoned him straight away. He came round that afternoon and it was an education in itself.

First of all he inspected all the other, apparently healthy hives first and confirmed that they were indeed in good health. He then put a disposible cover over his bee suit and told me that from now on I was not to touch anything of the diseased hive. He would do it all and would leave me his disposible suit and gloves for burning.

We set up a fresh nucleus hive with undrawn wax on the frames. He then put a white sheet in front of this hive and bashed all the frames from the diseased hive onto the sheet. The frames, empty of bees, were put into a large paper sack for later burning. The next job was to find the queen. How he did this I do not know. She was unmarked and there were literally thousands of bees all over this white sheet. However, after a couple of minutes he became very intent and there she was. He scooped her into the fresh nucleus hive and within minutes the bees began their march into the hive.

Everything was gathered up scrupulously. The frames and the sheet were in the sack for burning, together with his suit and gloves. The hive, floor, crown board, lid, etc were immediately given the once over with the flame thrower. The hive tools and my gloves were soaked in a bleach solution. Then the formality of form filling and reassurance that Foul Brood can be picked up from other bees during foraging and has no reflection on the beekeepers ability. He was in fact pleased that I'd a) recognised it and b) informed him - apparently not all beekeepers do.

I couldn't possibly say that I was pleased to find this disease in one of my hives but the silver lining was a couple of hours of one to one instruction from a real expert.

I checked this hive, as instructed, three weeks later and sure enough there was food and brood and the queen which I marked. However, by now it was October and I was worried the colony wasn't strong enough. There was nothing I could do but wait.

Today's inspection found a very small colony and the original queen. I fear it won't survive. I'm tempted to put a frame of brood and young bees into the hive to help it but suspect it will be too late. I also don't want to disturb the stronger hives just at the beginning of the OSR season.

All in all I'm happy that we have four strong hives at the start of the season. Let's hope it continues well!

Bees - New Season

Noisette

A friend of ours has just moved house. She is downsizing and moving from a country setting to a small village. Her dilemna? What to do with Noisette. Her solution? Call Jean and Max. Simple really. Her logic? Well, you don't have a goat so you probably need one. Hmmm.

Actually, cutting the grass and the brambles on the banks of the moat is a real pain and involves the most appallingly dangerous acrobatics whilst juggling with a machine. Being a mountain goat, Noisette could well eliminate the annual risk to life and limb. We agreed to take her.

We collected Noisette on the day of Le Crunch. Rugby fans will know that this was the big England/France match for the Six Nations. When we arrived Nicole's son (approx 30) was firstly very helpful with getting the goat into the van and secondly very excited about the match. The discussion was short as we were worried about what Noisette would do to the inside of the van.

As we left, the son told us that he had explained to Noisette that we would probably speak to her in English and she wasn't to worry. I asked him if he had also explained that animals at Grand Gennetay are expected to work for their living? "Oui, oui, pas de probleme." Had he also explained to her what happened if she broke her side of the bargain (I was enjoying this!). He looked a little perplexed. Nicole muttered "Mon dieu!" and explained more fully where Noisette was going to be living and where we find our food.

I was, of course, joking. I am not squeamish about eating our animals as I think this blog shows, but I couldn't possibly do so when we had been given what was effectively a family pet.

The good news, apart from the outcome of the match, is that Noisette is cutting the grass very effectively. We will move her down to the banks of the moat shortly.

New start in the garden

Today heralds a new start in the garden. It was a beautiful day and, apart from general maintenance, the first day we have actually done any constructive work towards this year's produce. This is a photo of the main veggie patch this morning:

The plastic sheeting is left over from last year and needed to be lifted so that we can reuse it this year. The greenhouse is fine after its wonderful overhaul last year. However it needs a clear out (Sunday's job).

This year I want to add an extra bed in here. We have too many paths and where there are paths there are an abundance of summer weeds. I don't mind using glysophate before I've sown/planted but once veg is in the ground I don't like to use it at all. So, my grand plan is to have an extra bed, thus cutting down on the paths between them.

I know the rotovator is the bain of all good, sensible gardeners but in this case we used it. I am quite sure the penalty will be paid later on but I'm hoping it won't be too bad with the help of the plastic sheeting.

Max turned the soil and by the end of the afternoon we had a well turned plot. Tomorrow I will put the plastic back and start planning what is going where.

One surprise that greeted me while I was weeding the asparagus bed:

I don't think I've ever seen asparagus shoots this early. More frost is forecast so I piled a stack of soil over the top to protect it for a bit longer.