Pruning Trees and looking at old cuts

Old Cut after a couple of years

Stump sticking out

I've started pruning the trees this year in the cold and wet windy weather. The winter pruning is to increase vigour in the tree and to encoruage it to grow in the direction you want it to. While pruning I was admiring some of the work that been done previously. 

The trees have been sealing and growing over the cuts. To me that make attactive scars on the barl escpcially after a couple of years and the work has grown around it.

Old Pruning healing

Old cut with some new cuts

One of the hives had fallen over

On Christmas Eve last year I had topped up the hives with  12.5 kgs block of  fondant. One of the hives had toppled over when I checked the orchard on the 16th January. Its been very windy and lots of rain. 

I checked on the hives the other day and the bees were coming and going.  I'm very pleased the bees are ok.

I've started winter pruning should have all the apple trees done by mid Feb.

Update report

Line of Apple Trees

Cobnuts

Its been a while since I have done an update. However the orchard doesn't stop. It continues and the cycle of life goes on.

Its been a very successful year in the orchard. I still hear hundreds of grasshoppers, and see loads of moths and butterfly's, that's this week the 1st week of September. Fruit wise we have had a bumper crop, we have had cherries they are all gone, we still have plums and apples and pears. The cobnuts are plentiful and we have had some almonds.

Almonds

I haven't had a very successful year at bee keeping. I lost my weakest colony to wasps a couple of weeks ago. That was very disappointing. I was away for a weekend and over that 2 week period I wasn't able to carry out my weekly checks and lost the colony. Upon my return I found the hive contained no bees but hundreds of  wasps, that was scary. I have had problems with queens this year getting them mated and had a drone layer.

The wasps I see this week have started suck up the sugars from decaying fruit.

Apple tree with Fruit

Multiple eggs on a Frame.

Frames with cells with multiple eggs

Brood 

On my routine inspection of the hives I found a frame which had multiple eggs in a number of cells. This is really strange as the queen has been laying well for the last couple of weeks and she is about a year old. This normally happen when you have laying workers or its a new queen and she is still learning, how to lay eggs.

Bees on the Frame

I also noted a couple of bees with K wing over the previous weeks. As a result I have applied MAQ Stripes to all the hives. I want ensure that the varroa mites are are low levels.

Bees from all the hives have now started to produce Drones as well as traditional workers. I have not seen any Queen cells yet, although I found a single play cup which I think is new. It looks like the swarming season will be upon us soon.

The orchard is now alive and murmuring with life. Every thing from bumbles bee's collecting pollen and the cherry trees coming into blossom alone with some of the Pear trees. The Almond trees have almost finished flowering. We are well into spring and Summer is just weeks away. I still have to start cutting the grass and that should start to get underway in the next week or so.

Bumble Bee Collecting Pollen

2015 Spring Convention

I attended the British Bee Keepers Association (BBKA) Spring Convention held at Harper Adams University. I attended a number of lectures and also attended the trade show.

Biology, diagnosis and control of SHB Peter Neumann
This is was an interesting lecture. Peter Neuman a Swiss expert who has travelled the world and given advice to various governments on various Bee diseases gave a lecture on the SHB.

How lucky we are; bees and the public Adam Hart
In this lecture professor Adam Hart spoken how bee keepers act with the public and how bee keeping can encourage people get interested with bees, bee keeping and science.

Honey bees surviving varroa without control Peter Neumann
Another intesresting lecture about the life cycle of varroa and its effects with honeybees. He also highlighted Breeding for Varroa tolerant bees

Thinking super-organismally: how evolutionary biology can make us better beekeepers Keith Delaplane
I enjoyed Keith's lectures enourmously so much so that I also attended the second lecture the following day. This was on what makes the Honey bee a super organism, and how they would behave and in the wild, and how some of those points could improve bee keeping in general.

How thinking super-organismally can improve honey bee breeding Keith Delaplane
This was a continuation of the lecture from the day before. However this lecture was sponsored by Bee Craft. He also mentioned lots of research that had been carried out here in the UK on bee breeding and how with the aid of artifical insemination he had been able to breed bees to be good at specifc traits. It was an intresting lecture.

I have made notes in most of these lectures and will get them written up and also upload them as a blog/diary entry.

St Andrews Botanic Garden

Picture of Peace Garden St Andrews Botanic Garden

Orchard at St Andrews Botanic Gardens

I visited the small orchard at the St Andrews Botanic Garden whist on a trip to Scotland.

Lichen

Hives at St Andrews Botanic Gardens

The Gardens are nice and if you are in or near St Andrews its worth a visit. The garden has a small orchard with various fruit trees, but this time of the year they are still relatively dormant. They have small trees not sure what root stock but I can see they have little space left to add more. I did see trees that looked like they were going to plant elsewhere and they have an area in which they grow rootstock for future trees before grafting. The air in St Andrews is very clean and lichen is growing on many of the trees, I saw at least 4 different varieties. Lichen on trees is a very good indicator of air quality.

Picture of the orchard

Picture of the orchard

The gardens also have a number of bee hives. The hives are not really for public viewing, they aren't visible to the public, you need to know where they are, as they are in the staff only area. I spoke to one of the gardeners and he said I could go and visit the hives. He pointed me in the right direction and I was off. They have a good number of hives. I wanted to see Smiths Hives but I didn't see any Smith Hives. Smiths Hives have traditionally been popular in Scotland, they hold around 50,000 bees, they are smaller than British National Hives and much smaller than Langstroth's.

Bees Buds and Blossom

First Blossom

Bumble Bee

Honey Bees

Spring is finally here.

The buds are getting bigger and the blossom is starting to bloom. That's obvious as the pictures show. The ground is still a bit wet and the muddy in places.

The grass is also looking brown as some of the older grass is had dried and died out. The young shoots are coming up.

On the down side a couple of horses have been in and had a wander round.


The pictures also show the bees all the hives in the orchard have done well. On a couple I have seen 5/6 frames of bees s they have done very well. I can also see the eggs and the larvae coming through. I will have the supers on the hives by the end of the week. I want to get them on sooner so as to deter them from swarming.

The bumble bees have also started appearing.

At the moments its just the queens that are rearing the next generation.

Start of spring

Daffodils starting to come into bloom

 Its the start of spring and the 40 Kgs of daffodils that I planted back in the autumn months have started to come into blossom. They are are nice. They also brighten up the orchard floor this time of year. They aren't bee friendly  and they are also poisonous but make the place nice.

Mole Mounds

The past couple of weeks have produced a large number of mole mounds and hills, near the entrance of the orchard. I see them most years, and its also good to see them. I always worry when parts of the orchard are flooded cold that the moles will survive.

Crocuses starting to Bloom

The crocuses are also coming out and they also add lots of colour and they are more bee friends however I need to get more planted later this year for spring next year.

I have started putting suppers on the hives, but as yet not on the hives in the orchard. Its been a busy couple of weeks study for the retake of the Module three British Beekeepers exam and a recent trip to India where I saw Apis Cerana, Aps Florea and Apis Dorsata bees.

Bees starting to come out

The bees at the orchard are also getting ready for the coming year, I have seen them coming and going however I have not yet checked the brood. However will when we get a couple of days of good weather.
I did attended the BeeTradex show on the 7th March and have bought a couple of bits for this year. However I still need to get a couple of bits and more on that in the next couple of blog entries.

Started Pruning the apple trees

Apple tree before Pruning

 Its that time of year when the apple trees get a prune. It encourages growth and vigor. I have pruned a number of the smaller trees and started on the larger ones. The larger ones will take a couple of weekends to get done, and a ladder.

Larvae found in a dead branch

I am using a pair of secateurs and a small bow saw. I am aiming for a goblet looking tree. So that branches are not touching and everything is growing outwards and not into the tree, this will open up the tree to light and hence give it more space also to grow. It will take a while.

But it will mean that this year the tree will grow more and be able to stretch out. Anything that is growing in the wrong direction is cut out.

In terms of wild life I saw honey bees out looking for forage and taking advantage of the warmer weather for cleansing flights. I also sow a number of caterpillars and larvae of one sort or another.

The ground is still wet but the daffodils are coming up nicely and because of the wind its bitterly cold.

BBKA Introduction to Microscopy Stoneleigh

Attended the Warwickshire Bee Keepers Introduction to Microscopy.

I took my own microscopes in and used them for the practical work
We looked at Pollen grains and attempted to look for Nosema spores in dead bees under compound microscopes.

I also did a dissection of a been looking for acrine and Tracheal Mite using a dissection microscope.

All the practicals were very useful, I need to gain more practical experience using the microscopes. I would also like to have my own library of pollen samples from the orchard.

We learn to setup microscopes, the chemicals used to stain pollen, How to identify pollen, which is difficult but the pollen grains are very pretty. I had sample of Jasmine, and Snowdrops. The Jasmine pollen was nice very intricate the snowdrop pollen was a little boring.

It was an educational day.

Daffodils are coming up

Daffodils coming through

Towards the end of last year I had planted kilos of daffodils and they have started to come up. They will look great in a couple weeks.

I have also hefted the hives and they all have food and they seem fine. Lots of bees. I collected some for a microscopy course I will be attending.

Module 3 results

The results arrived, and I didn't pass. The pass mark was 60% I got 45%. It was disappointing a very disappointing result.

It wasn't just me but all of us in the study group that had failed the exam. We had started the study for module six but we have dropped that and begun again on Module 3. We plan to retake the exam again in March.

Over the past couple of days I have started to reread the notes and its going in much easier I hope that its stays. Some of it is just a recap. So I have gone through European Foul Brood and American Foul Brood the most serious illness that bees can get infected with . AFB the bee dies of septicemia and EFB the larvae dies from starvation as the bacteria competes for food with the larvae.

Lots more study to get done.

BBKA Module Three Exam

I took the module three exam today. I was prepared for the exam and I can remember 2 mistakes I made. One of the questions related to wax moths, I didn't explain myself as well as I should have. I should have said that the greater wax moth "Galleria Mellonella" is larger than the less wax moth "Achroia Grisella". I didn't mention the Latin names or the fact the the greater wax moth is larger that then the lesser, both these facts would have gained me some points.

Also I had a question on the the Honey bees Excretory organ I put rectum when I should have but the Malpigham tubules.

So i'm not sure how I have done in the exam. I am certain I got other parts correct. I waffled on the third section which was about American Foul Brood.

In section two one of my answers was on Chalkbrood "Ascosphaera Apis" not exactly sure that went to plan either. So I wait for the results which will be months away.

I look forward to the next round of study Module 6 with the study group.

Bulbs planted in the orchard

Bees stilling producing wax and honey in one of the hives

I have managed to plant 35 kilos of Daffodils, they are just for fun, and will give the orchard a spot of colour in the spring.

All the hives are doing well lots of bees and when its warm the bees are out and about. In fact in one of them the bees were still building wax and making and capping honey last week.

Beetle found while planting daffodils

Whilst planting the daffodils I saw loads of insects, and small mammals. All good for the environment and for the bio-diversity of the orchard.

Also the planting of the bulbs gave me a real chance to get a  real feel of the soil and I have to admit it has improved over the last couple of years.

I also visited Tatton Gardens and saw where they store the apples that they have picked over the past few months, it wasn't that impressive but interesting. At present I don't really store my fruit for long but will have to in the future.

I'll be sitting the next module exam for the BBKA soon and been having to grips with the study.

Started planting daffodils

Son eating apples

Orchard

Started to plant daffodils in the orchard. They should bring in more wildlife. They aren't really a bee friendly plant, but I have also planted a much smaller number of crocuses. More blub flowers will be planted over the next couple of weekends. We have also ordered other seed plants.
It been tough work I started on Friday and the ground was dry and very hard. I then continued on Saturday and as it had rained in the morning it was much easier to get them planted.

Checked on the Bees and have started to feed. Its been a strange September as they are still bringing in pollen and building up stores. I placed a 12.5Kg fondant block on one of them. The others have lots of food so they should be fine.

The most aggressive of my colonies was a little disappointing as I didn't see much brood in the hive, loads of bees, stores and pollen so will have to check on that again in the coming week.

The bees weren't happy with me going to the hive and I got stung a couple of times a while later, when I had removed the veil and returned to planting. One sting was below the eye and it now looks like I have a black eye.The swelling has started to go down and its been almost 24 hours.

Fondant block on hive

One of the nice things about working in an orchard is when your feeling peckish you can help yourself to a juicy apple, as my son demonstrates. He was helping with the daffodil planting and was having fun with his toy dragon. Still a number of apples in the trees and they are very refreshing after you have been planting very crisp.

My wife made a delicious black current and apple pie, with the fruit from the orchard of course, it was very yummy.

The weather over the weekend was lovely to get the blubs planted and the rest of the week seem wet lots of rain forecast.

RHS Wisley (September 2014)

Wisley Apple Orchard

I visited RHS Wisley over the weekend. They have wonderful orchards and its a nice time of the year to go. The gardens are always picturesque however with the sense of change in the air I enjoyed it more, just wish I had more time to linger.

I know and I can see and feel the seasonal changes occurring, you can see the trees reacting to them, the changes in colour, the dying back even the smells are of Autumn.

At Wisley they have loads of fruit still in the trees but you can smell the fermentation of the fruit. Its not the most pleasant smell but its a smell of autumn. The leaves of some of the fruit trees have started to fall this includes the cherries. Some of the apple, and pear trees have started to become dormant. The leaves are various colours and even the grass is starting to change colour.

Many of the flower beds are past thebest but it makes it easier to find plants that are bee friendly and you can see them whizzing around.

The orchards at Wisley are great and I hope that in time, mine will also be as productive and as beautiful.

Warwickshire County Honey Show

This weekend was the Warwickshire County Honey show held at Hatton Country World in Warwickshire. I contributed to a composition piece this year to do with the first world war.
My contribution was the candle show.

We didn't win. I thought it was rather good personally.

You needed a number of contributors to make up the composition I think we had at least 4. Then  all the pieces were judged. My candle got a 5 out of 10. The Poppies at the top of the piece are made from wax. We had the 1914 18 dates made from wax blocks. 1 jar of honey. 1 bottle of mead and a piece of cut comb.

Bee Travels Around The World - Monthly Lecture

Bernard Diaper gave an interesting talk titled "Bee Travels Around The World".

He gave an interesting talk with pictures of bee keeping trips he has made around the world. He has visited various countries and seen honey bees around the world.
He had some beautiful pictures of the "Apis Dorsata" large Asian honey bee. He has been to Nepal to see the Honey Collectors in practice. This is something I have also wanted to do.

He also showed us pictures of various other trips including trips the Oman and Saudi Arabia where we were surprised on amount of honey collected.

Samples of the bees he had collected and including of some very small bees Apis Florea were passed around for us to see exactly how small some of the bees were.

On one trip to Brasil to had found stingless bees that collected honey and would full the hair of potential aggressors. They had even been reported that the bees could pull eye lashes and if that didn't deter people they could get behind in person's eye and attack the veins located in the eye socket. Very scary.

Bernard gave and interesting and will lookout for his talks in the future. He was the Apiary Manager of my local association and is also a very respected bee keeper and honey show judge.

Managed to get the grass cut

I have managed to get the grass cut. The first cut of the year. I started about 1pm and finished about 5pm. I had a couple of breaks and managed to clock up 25000 steps on the pedometer for the day. 

The majority of the grass  has been cut at the orchard. It looks lovely. I did a fairly high cut and the plan is to do another shorter cut next week, its dependent on the weather and time. 

Once the second cut is done I will get loads of daffodils planted for the spring. I also need to get other plants that are bee friendly.

Update for the Summer

Apples on the trees

With the school holidays and my daughter getting ready for entrance exams, I haven't made any updates.

Brood on the comb

So here is whats been happening. I still haven't cut the grass, that's not even once this year. I plan too this weekend. I have bought a trailer to get the mower to the orchard, and back. Its all loaded and and ready to go, just need the weather and several hours.

Cobnuts eaten not by me

Black Berries

MAQ strips on one of the hives

Fruit, been a good year. lots of apples, pears plums and cherries. I have also had cobnuts and black berries. I have collected some, lots to still be collected, and some had ripened on the trees. Some damage from natural pests, as I am still not using chemicals to deter them.

Honey, productive year, I have extracted twice and I have left the honey on one hive. I also entered my local honey show and got second prize for one of my candles.

I have put the MAQ strips on all the hives, one of the queens went of lay but she is now back on.

So all in all a good year so far.

I also have huge heap of horse manure which is well rotted, that needs to get spread under the trees.

I also have 2 sackfuls of daffodils that need planting. I'm planing on getting some caolourful tulips also. So much work and so little time.

The diary entries should get more into line now.