An enjoyable inspection during the heat wave. The bees are behaving much better and the honey harvests keep coming.
00:07
Welcome back to a beekeeper's diary podcast. Thanks for coming back for another episode. We are now on the 12th of July, 2026 and I just had a lovely beekeeping experience. Although it's a bit hot, I must admit. It's about 26, 27 degrees, I think. I didn't come...
00:33
inspect the bees last week because it was so hot I couldn't face it to be honest so just left them to it and pray they didn't get up to too much mischief. So we've come back today it's a lovely breeze I've got one of these ventilated bee suits that's full of little holes so just got a pair of shorts on and the bee suit and nothing else apart from my gloves my little nitrile gloves.
01:00
and so the wind was just blowing against my skin through the suit so it was lovely, lovely and cooling. And for the first time this year both colonies temperament was very nice. Five stars, no complaints.
01:18
We're thinking that in the second hive, who's we put a new bought in queen that's now been in residence long enough for her progeny to have emerged and be out and about. And the previous queen's less favorable genetics have been through their life cycle. And now we're left with happy bees, fingers crossed. So they were great.
01:47
No following. I'm sitting here nearby, off, bee suit open, zero interference from the bees. And hive two, more surprisingly, equally as chilled, that is the daughter of...
02:08
the queen whose genetics I didn't like but they were equally chilled. So we shall see. No complaints today anyway. Happy with that.
02:22
So over the last few weeks I've been processing the first two crops of honey we've had. So far from the two hives I've had 90 pounds of honey roughly. So we've been getting to work jarring that, selling that and yes going great guns.
02:43
The second batch was far more runny, think maybe possibly more lime and the like, honey, which is more to my preference. I think there was a tinge in the first batch of some oilseed rape maybe, so that batch I've still got a jar for myself is starting to set. And is, I think so. Yeah, I think there might have been a bit of oilseed rape, but not completely, otherwise that would have gone solid already.
03:11
Yeah, so hive one, I've got one, two, three, four, five supers for collecting the honey in for the non beekeepers. Five supers on top of the brood box. Four are full. The top two are ready to remove, but I can't face doing it today. So I'll do that next weekend. Hopefully it's a bit cooler. So I've got two more that are pretty full of nectar, but it's not ready yet. Not capped off, not ready. And the third is
03:41
empty, that's the one I'm giving them space to fill during this time period.
03:48
hopefully if anything there's probably a dearth on at the moment it's very dry, it's too hot everything's finished really around here apart from wads and sods, of clover maybe not much in this area currently so they've got some space if they need it and in that hive first frame saw the queen em and the brood box is not being backfilled with nectar which is what set my alarm signals going off telling me I need to give them more space so
04:18
boxes dry. Happy with that. 5.2
04:23
similar situation. I've got two normal supers on there which are not ready yet but they're nearly ready, they've just been finished off. I the queen and eggs not being back filled, that's good. So I was most excited to look in my Ross rounds box which is the box you can put on to make cut comb into nice neat round circles which you can just push out and put into uh
04:53
and cell. So I was very excited to see that and bugger all. It's full of bees but they're just daydreaming up there. It could be that there's the dearth on and it's not the right time of year. That's more something I should have done a month ago.
05:10
But we shall see. I did have it right at the top of my stack. But what I've done is I've moved that now directly above the brood box over the queen it's glued up and then put the other supers on top. So the first thing they'll bump into when they go looking for space will be that. Let's see if that helps. Nature wise in this area.
05:35
usual butterflies. Marbled whites don't seem to be flying today. Far fewer butterflies as it goes. This field is mostly brown and burned. Nothing for them to forage on here.
05:48
But back at home in my allotment, em we've got six lavender plants, which has been unbelievable for bumblebees. There's a few honeybees there, but more interestingly to me for nature spotting, the variety of bumblebees, we've got definitely got bufftail bumblebees, redtail bumblebees, males and females I've seen. em Carderbees I've been on there. But most interestingly for me was a southern cuckoo bee.
06:18
we think it was, or a Vestal Cuckoo Bee. I'm trying to send it to various places to get a decent ID, but Vestal, Bombus Vestalis we think. So I'm trying to get that ID which is a, it's definitely a Cuckoo Bee, just which one. uh And the life cycle is amazing in that the queen...
06:42
this particular cuckoo bee will sniff out a bufftail bumblebee nest normally in the ground in an old mouse hole or something like that or under your shed in your back garden and will fight the queen and kill the queen of the bufftail bumblebee and lay her own eggs in that nest and much like a cuckoo that nest will then raise her offspring.
07:09
completely corrupting the bufftail bumblebee nest. So that's quite a fun parasitic activity in nature, so it's amazing to see one of those. I hope I can get a positive identification. That would be great.
07:26
So that's quite exciting. So I've been wandering around with my camera like a lunatic trying to get pictures of it. And I found quite an old end of life one yesterday, which was very still. So I spent ages taking photos of it, although she looks a bit rough around the edges, but it's good to spend time with her. So I'm sitting under a leafy hazel tree at the moment. I hope it's not too noisy, but it's very pleasant just to sit back, listen to.
07:56
crickets, grasshoppers, cheering in the grass, swallows overhead, and the wind in the grass is lovely, very pleasant. Now I've got to go to Morrison's.
08:13
Wishing you all a good week and I'll see you next time.