Gnarly_gnome honey bees

Hi Gnarly ...
Bee blogs are very interesting.

Your photos are fascinating. I'm sure lots of GoYers will appreciate these.

... and the promised pic of a bee-suit would be good ;o)

Useful advice about switching off mobile phones when near bees.

Fantastic..How many hives do you dave Gnarly?

Approximately how many bees are there in each hive ?

2 hives at the moment I wont to get max 4 otherwise too many bees in the one area and not enough plants for them to forage on

At the moment about 50 thousand in each (how scary is that) lol

Gg

Forgot to say the other hives you can see are empty.

Waiting for a swarm to maybe make their home , we will wait and see

Gg

50 thousand ... Wow.

Must be exciting if a swarm arrives to set up home :o)

In a normal year how much honey do you get from 1 hive?

Very interesting Leigh!

Great blog Gg yes more pictures please, bees are fascinating creatures and yes the bee suit pictures essential ;-)

Superb! My great uncle used to keep bees. He was the head gardener on an estate in the borders region of Scotland. He had many hives in his garden. I would never go near them when I was younger!
I have also noticed that the farmer nearby has new hives all lined up in one of his fields!
Thanks for sharing Gg :)

That's interesting. I was toying with the idea of keeping them at one time but never got round to it. I wouldn't be able to do it now ...

Fascinating blog thanks. Re your empty hives, do the workers and or Queen breed in theses hives? if so is it possible to get a new Queen born in your hives that could then move to your empty one?

You lot are as mad as me !!

Good year and we havnt had one of those for 4, from 80lb to (160lb that was my highest yet from the most agressive bees I ever had) they would sting anything that moved .

The empty hives hopefully will attract a new swarm of bees , they breed in the hive that already have bees in they make new queens who are virgins , the old queen normaly goes off with the 1st swarm (prime swarm) , they swarm out and land on a branch of a tree. stay about 24 to 48 hours they send scout bees out to look for a new home the scouts go back and tell the other bees they all fly off together

Gg.

Thanks GB

I could read loads more of your blogs Gg. Im sure you have lots more to tell. A friend of mine used to keep bees and she made all sorts of things from bi-products from her hive. I particularly liked the candles. Do you do any of that??

Hi Poppy (very kind of you)

I wish I had the time, I have 3 hobbies and full time work , but you are right I should do more with the Bi Products

Gg

awesome blog. how are the bees??

doing great just harvested 110LB not bad ehhh a very good year at last for us and insects

I need to update on here I stopped coming on here as at the time I would pick up nasty cookies that would make the PC very slow , but all sorted now

Gg

:-) look forward to that... my friend had bees but sold or gave away iam not sure...but he got to much to do couldn't keep it up... those cookies are annoying.....

I checked on Saturday also to give the guy where my bees live jars of honey as a thank you for letting me keep them in his field , also (couple of jars) popped into the house at the bottom of the lane which keep a eye on them for me as well as we do have bee hive thieves in the locality, plus a lot of walkers that ramble round the area but its all private land so they shouldn't be really or the odd twitcher in the bushes !!! well I hope he was that !!.

None out flying they not daft but they feel heavy I did check they need 40LB of store for winter so I pop down every two weeks just to see they are ok .

I may have a picture of me in a beesuit if you dont laugh

Gg

i will not laugh..promise... just do a sweet smile!!!!

thats a lot of bees!!! i bet the place where they are is very beautiful...

in the film...green fried tomatoes theirs a scene in the film where a girl bravely collects honey from a tree for her friend who is sitting waiting on a blanket, that has been spread out on the meadows floor... the girl watches as her friend puts some of the honey in a jar then returns to her...the friend with the jar of honey presents it to her friend with a huge satisfied look on her face...
i love that moment in the film....

:-)))))

Hi Jane

its just the best 5 acre water meadow , in the very early morning with the mist rising it is magical is the best way to describe it.

Gg

Perfect....:-)))) water is a great factor for the mist too...just perfect...

hi there Gg i was once Janeplant on GoY :-)
I have a terrible memory so i had forgotten about knowing about your bees, just reading the comments i made and i
can say however i do remember my enthusiasm about your bees and this blog.
I had thought of keeping bees myself can it be done on a small scale?
i do hope you do more blogs on bees (at your leisure of course) :-)
thank you for interesting blog.

Hi Jane and Gnarly Gnome ...

There is a new superb TV programme in two parts called Hive Alive ... not sure if you've read about it ... worth seeing on line ... I saw the first part yesterday on BBC 2.

Chris Packham and Martha Kearney ... brilliant photography and packed full of interesting and useful information about bees, their life-styles etc.

It even has good music ... unusual for documentaries these days !!!

I hope this helps.

Hi Both

I have 5 hives and two baby hives now (the family is getting bigger ) lol so you changed your name Jane

I should update what I have been up to

Terratoonie

"Hi Jane and Gnarly Gnome ...
There is a new superb TV programme in two "

yes is a good one to watch and I learnt new things as well , amazing about the electrical charge

Gg

hi terratoonie, thank you for that info i will watch with great interest :-) and also looking forward to hearing the music :-)

Hi Gg yes i changed my name :-) look forward to your updating!!!

How you fixed for doing another motorway run Gg lol, we have a swarm taken up residence in a tree in our wood going to do a quick blog in a bit ;-)

I have already caught two swarms this year , be interesting to see how they get on , when did they arrive ?

This morning, wondered if they were just resting just been to check and they're still there.

have they gone into the trunk or does it look like a rugby ball dangling hanging off a branch ?

Rugby ball definitely :-)
I just did a short blog with a couple of pictures:-)

They are just resting , and scout bees will be looking for a new home in the mean time, they should leave tomorrow
between 11.00 am and 5.00pm

i WILL LOOK FOR YOUR BLOG NOW

more pics on Bees. Love what you have, but more, more, more.

Hi Wells

I am going beekeeping later today time for the honey harvest if I have any ? to come off the hives , I leave it later than most to remove as I have Himalayan Balsam in abundance where they are.
I will see what I can do.

Gg

Wow !!
so glad I found this today GG.
It's so mild this year. Are the bees confused by all this unseasonal warmth? Are they still out getting food for the hive?
OBW

Hi OBW

Yes out and about today not a lot though , collecting water to dilute the honey down for them to eat, nothing in flower for them to forage on ..... they did mange to find some ivy in flower as they were bringing in pollen two weeks ago, plus side as well with ivy produces nectar so its a good bee plant late in the year.

Downside with the mild weather is they will use the stores of honey up before the spring flowers come out and the queen may start laying now normally she stops or just lays a few each day at this time of year so the babies need food and may have to to top up with "bee fondant/candy" basically its sugar warmed up and melted recipe below which I place on top of the crown board which has a hole in the center so they can easily find it.

I will be checking every week in January by "hefting them"

Use 1 part water to 4 parts granulated sugar.

Bring to boil, stirring constantly until boiling commences.

Boil without stirring for 3 minutes, covered.

Insert thermometer, and boil uncovered until 234F is reached.

Remove from heat, and allow to cool to 200F.

Whip with whisk until whiteness occurs.

Pour (QUICKLY!) onto waxed paper having a towel beneath.

Allow to cool undisturbed.

Remove waxed paper, and store each cake in a plastic takeaway tray.