Apple blossom starting to bloom

Apple Tree Blossom

Apple Blossom

The Apple trees are starting to blossom finally. I like the smell of apple blossom. I like getting my nose into the blossom and smelling the faint scent. 

Its a wonderful time of year. The smell is a gentle soft smell and its only around for a couple of weeks. Apple tree blossom is very attractive and white and the pink on most varieties of apple trees, within the orchard. Some of apple trees haven't started so I will have a couple of weeks to enjoy the blossom. I recently became a life member of the Mid Shire Orchard Group. I am hoping to gain more skills and talk to people about orchards and the like. Must as I do with the bee keeping. 

Kazakhstan Blossom

Kazakhstan Trees

The Kazakhstan tree that we have the so called father of apples is in full bloom and blossom petals are a beautiful white. This was the first of the apples trees that blossomed fully. Its also the only apple tree that we have that has pure white flowers. Its not proper apple tree its more of a crab apple.

The cherry blossom is still going, but the trees that came into blossom first almost all the blossom has disappeared, and the fruit is starting to grow. Yeah, yum yum.

Cherry Trees Blossom disappearing

I didn't get a chance to go into the hives today as it started raining just as I arrived at the orchard. I could see the bees at the entrance, I need to go into the hive and check if they are likely to swarm this weekend. 

 
The farmers kid dropped off a quantity of horse manure today. I think it was a way of him saying sorry for driving his quad bike on the land. This also gave him a chance to to drive his new quad bike and trailer to drop of the manure.

Blossom here in full effect

Cherry Blossom

Lots of Cherry Blossom

Checked on the bees and wondered around the orchard, the blossom is out and in full effect, some rabbit damage but spring is here. Wondering around its obvious that the whole place is growing and full of energy. The grass is getting longer and the trees are getting taller.

Cherry blossom is out, as is the plum. The pear is starting to blossom and we are still a couple of weeks away from the apple coming into blossom.

As soon as I arrived I could see loads of rabbits out and about. Plenty of bees also whizzing around.

Me checking on the bees today

 I check on the bees and I found a sealed queen cell in the one of the hives, I think I may have lost a prime swarm, but lets see. The bees in the hive was very gentle, lots of brood and eggs I didn't see a queen, and if they have swarmed it would have been in the last 24 hours.

The 1st hive was very aggressive and I didn't spend much time going through that hive. They must have stung me a 20 or so times. I used a new bee jacket and 2 of the ladies managed to get in  a crawl up my body.

I have seen that much of the pollen from the fruit trees has been removed, I can only suspect that the pollen has been consumed by the bees in my hives. 1 point of disappointment one of the quince trees has some damage. Not sure its frost damage or an insect that caused it. Will have to monitor it.
 

Plum Blossom

I recently collected my certificates from the BBKA module exams 1-2. I also sat the Module 5 exam. Not sure how I have done not as great as previous exams. In the previous ones I have only just managed to pass. I have started to study for module 3. The exam is in November so I have some to get up to speed.

BBKA Spring Convention 2014

I attended the convention on the Friday 4th  April and the Sunday 6th April.

On Friday I attended a number of lectures and the trade exhibition

My plan for lectures was 

Wild honey bees in Britain - Catherine Thompson - This was cancelled and Dan Basterfield stepped in and gave his talk on Nutrition for honey bees. 

Dan Basterfield gave an excellent talk on the nutrition that bees need and how in the UK with more diversity of plants makes for healthier bees, with comparison to bees that are forced to live on mono cultures. Bees need protein which they get from pollen and the more types of pollen that bees are collecting from the better. They need essential amino acids just as humans and do and don't thrive well on just one type of pollen. 

Reading Bees - Ken Basterfield

Ken gave an interesting informal lecture in which he explained how he has improved his skills over the years by studying not just his bees but others bees and the more exposure you have to different bees the more you will learn. The point of his talk was the more experience you have the better. Take the time to have a proper look and study, not just the BBKA modules, but books and articles that have been written and make sure that you are think about what your are seeing. He regularly talks to his bee inspector as the bee inspector will have seen more and is more knowledgeable because he handles more colonies and is more exposed to different bees. In hindsight this was my favorite talk although at the time I didn't enjoy it as much as it was informal. 

Beenomics: tools for bee health - Jay Evans

Jay is from the States and gave a rather technical talk on the research he has been carrying out in the states. Jay is a bee keeper but firstly a scientist and that was evident from his talk. 

Age distribution in a colony - Sjef van der Steen

Sjef from Holland gave a light hearted talk about some research he has been doing on bees in Holland. He has studied where bees are in the hive and what they are doing at particular times during a bees lifecycle. 

Inbetween lecture I hit the trade stands talked to couple of people. I bought a couple of books but later found they would have been cheaper on amazon. I also bought a couple of wax moulds for candles. Plans to make more candles in the next couple of weeks.

On the Sunday I attended a single Session Celia Davis Introduction to BBKA Module 6 course

We went over Biological Terms, looked at various pheromones and glands that bees have. The also heard about various dances that the bees does and also the differences between summer and winter bees. The various roles that bees do in the hive and when.

Some of the things I had studied for this exam were in the module 5 exam.