Welcome to Sue and Mick's Natural Beekeeping blog.

Sue started beekeeping with our neighbour, Jim in this beautiful coastal village of Welcombe on the North Devon/Cornwall border. They both decided to start beekeeping in 2009 and began to attend apiary meetings of the Holsworthy Beekeepers Association. They signed up for the course they were running over the winter and started this, along with another neighbour, Richard, in January 2010.
It was a very good course, but they were all uncomfortable with some aspects of conventional beekeeping. They then came across Phil Chandler and his Barefoot Beekeeper book and website. This way of beekeeping uses Top Bar Hives which are the type used all over Africa, The Caribbean and many other places in the world. They predate the conventional hives that are used in most developed countries by hundreds of years. The bees build natural comb onto top bars and are managed with as little intervention as possible.
Sue and Jim realised that The Yarner Trust, in our own village, was running a Natural Beekeeping course, with Phil as tutor, in April 2010, what a coincidence ( or is it synchronicity? ). Anyway they both signed up and Yarner asked if they would be prepared to look after the bees for the courses and house them in Sue's field. Jim and Sue decided to say yes and the hunt was on for a nucleus of bees that would be ready in time for the course.
This was not an easy task. No one knew, at that stage, how their colonies had fared over the severe winter and most people had a long list of people already for their nucleii. Beekeeping has become very popular recently with many people realising that bees are in trouble and need our help. Also, as they learned more, they realised that there was a lot of prejudice amongst some conventional beekeepers against Top Bar Beekeeping. Oh dear 'politics', even in beekeeping! This, unfortunately, meant that some beekeepers said they wouldn't sell bees to go in a Top Bar Hive. They also needed a couple of hives to start the apiary off.
After a couple of months of phone calls and headaches Phil managed to source a nucleus of bees and Dave Baker, one of the Yarner Trustees, made 2 Top Bar Hives. So, they were off!
The weekend course with Phil went ahead and was great. Sue & Jim were now very 'green' beekeepers. They had quite a lot of problems over the first 2 months, mostly to do with the fact the bees were in conversion from 1/2 Dadant frames to Top Bars. They then got a second nucleus, which were on Top Bars already. These came from Heather Bell bees on the Lizard.
They began keeping a small book, with notes to each other, in the hive. It served as a record of everything they did and how the bees were doing. Unfortunately there was a leak in the roof of one of the hives and the book got wet. Hence the birth of this blog. They added all the notes from the book on here and have since used this as the record of the progress of the apiary.
In May 2013 Jim moved to Herefordshire and we agreed to change the name of the blog to Sue and Mick's Natural Beekeeping as, over the past year, Mick has become more and more interested in and involved with the bees.

Phil Chandler (The Barefoot Beekeeper) website which has links to UK courses and Phil's books etc:

Heather Bell bees - source of Top Bar nucleii although very expensive. It's probably better to try and catch a swarm locally:


Black Native Queens:


Varroa Mesh:
Flash band for hive roof:


Shellac flakes or buttons, they also sell thinner:


Shellac thinner for making up a shellac coating for the inside of a hive, they also sell shellac:


Good quality affordable suits and equipment:



Top Bar hive tools:



Top Bar Hives and Nucleus Boxes:

Paul Holdaway, in our village, makes the hives and nucleus boxes shown in our blog post of 24th March 2017 - the picture taken in the hall. His phone number is 01288 331252

Monday 18 October 2010

Monday 18th October '10

The Lizards took no feed at all. Removed it last night after 3 days. It was very warm and sunny the last 2 days, so they had plenty of opportunity. Either they don't need it or they couldn't be bothered.

Saturday 16 October 2010

Saturday 16th October '10

Applied a good dusting of icing sugar to both hives on Monday 11th Oct as it was a sunny warm day, 15 C, and the bees were flying well. Lizards looked much more lively than a couple of weeks ago, bringing in pollen. Buckfasts very busy as usual.
Thurs 14th Oct '10 Mick and Jim went down to hives at 8.30pm with the intention of moving the Lizards, because of our worries about damp. However decided that it wasn't worth moving them. Damp seems to be mostly due to the low number of bees not keeping the temp up in the outer parts of the hive. Hopefully the main cluster area, over the winter, will keep warm enough and damp free. We'll just have to sort out the hive next Spring. They put a towel over the top of the bars to absorb moisture and to help keep them warm. Mick will make some boxes to put over both clusters which we will put sheep's wool in to do this job more efficiently.
Gave the Lizards a feed again as we were worried about supplies now they have more bees again. A bit late to feed really, so we'll keep an eye on it to check if they take it or not.

Monday 4 October 2010

4th October

A sunny day!  By 11:30 the temperature had got up to 17 degrees C, so I thought it was worth using the time to check on the progress of the two hives.

As expected the Buckfasts were very active with pollen and stores coming in and around 20 - 30 bees going in and out of the entrance.  At the observation window I could see a dense mass of bees covering a good half of the hive.  I removed the cork covering one of the 3 entrances to give them more access.

Down at the Lizards things were not so busy. A couple of bees were gingerly exiting the hive.  There was a dead drone still clinging to the entrance hole and half a worker in the hole.  I cleared these and a couple more bees came out.  The wasp trap gave off an almighty stench and I think a couple of slugs may have managed to get in and begin to decompose.  When I emptied it there was a large hornet inside.  This may account for the half eaten worker at the entrance.

Sue and I have both been concerned that the Lizard Hive is in a poor state and won't survive the winter, so I took this opportunity to have a look inside.  There had been no further activity in building new comb on the outer edges but the central combs had been refilled with stores and much has been capped.  The truely great news is that on three of the combs there is worker brood, surrounded by stores.  However the hive still has a large number of drones and there was still the occasional patch of drone brood.  The mood of the bees was quite testy.  If I moved the combs too quickly a sudden loud roar came up and dropped down again just as quickly.  The bees that crawled up onto the top of the topbars seemed to be jumpy, occasionally jumping on one another like flies do.
I corked one of the entrance holes to reduce the chance of robbing and noticed there was a steady stream of a few bees returning laden heavy with pollen.  This hive is still the size of a large nuc and will have a hard time getting through the winter, but at least the queen has produced new workers and been accepted.  Lets hope for a long warm dry autumn.

Jim

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Saturday 18th Sept '10

11.30 am Couldn't believe it, looked out of window and saw a tractor spraying herbicide in the field next door!!! The farmer had promised us that he would let us know when they were going to spray AND that they would try and do it in the evening. Warm sunny day, so the bees would have been out flying. Mick phoned Graham, the farmer, he said sorry, he'd been busy and had forgotten to phone. What could we say?

Thursday 16 September 2010

Wednesday 15th Sept '10

1pm Went down to bees with Jim as weather quite good, sunny and 16 C. Went through Lizards. Still not much sign of worker brood although we saw possible uncapped cells. Still some drone brood, but probably from the old queen. Not a lot of activity and numbers low, stil quite a lot of drones around. Didn't see queen, but didn't want to keep hive open too long. Saw a possible supersedure cell, Jim took a photo. Will post when I've got it. They seemed fairly happy. Slowed down on the amount of feed they are taking. Will try to look again in a couple of weeks, weather permitting.

 Buckfasts very busy!!! 20 - 30 bees flying in and out with nectar and pollen. Weighed (L) 31 kgs (R) 27 kgs , exactly the same as a month ago, so they are keeping up their stores well. Should be OK for the winter.

Thursday 9 September 2010

Wednesday 8th September 2010

2 pm We went down to check what was happening. Loads of bees over the cage and clearly VERY interested in the new queen. They had nearly eaten through the plug, so we released her. She was soon covered in a mass of bees who pushed her down into the hive. So it's keep your fingers crossed time for the next week or so. We'll leave them alone and then check to see if she's laying.
We will continue feeding them until they have had enough.
Sugared the Buckfast bees only.



Tuesday 7th September 2010

Robert Bell sent us a new queen to requeen the colony. She arrived this morning, so we went down and committed regicide on the old queen! The queen is dead - long live the queen. Poor thing, however she was pretty useless and we had given her a chance to redeem herself. See the picture of her pathetic brood. All drone and scattered at that. The colony would have died out over the winter if we hadn't done something.


This was one of the better combs too!
Late afternoon Jim took the new queen down and put the cage between 2 bars so the bees could get used to her overnight. The cage had a candy plug which they could eat through to let her out.
He covered it with a blanket to keep her warm.


Thursday 2 September 2010

Wednesday 1st September 2010

Decided we needed to investigate again to be absolutely sure if we had a queen or not. Went through the whole hive very carefully. Temp 20 C, so not too worried about chilling them.
About half way through we found her! I saw her first and immediately started doubting myself, as you do. Then we looked again and Jim saw her too. We took some pictures. The workers didn't seem as interested in her as they should. This picture seems to be about the best one.


                      Follow end of thumb past length of one bee
                                    The Queen

So we do have a queen, but there are definitely an awful lot of drones, only drone brood, which is scattered and in some cases with very large uneven domed caps and no worker brood.
It looks like we have a drone laying queen, oh dear!!!
Will email Robert Bell of Heather Bell bees where we got the nuc from and ask his advice. Maybe we can requeen them if it's not too late. I'll also email our friend Dennis.
We have a new bellows powder blower for icing sugar. Sugared both hives from underneath.
Sue

Tuesday, 31 August, 2010

3 pm I wanted to have a good look at the Lizards so I popped on my jacket and gloves.  From outside the hive all looked pretty good.  Lots of activity, lots of workers carrying pollen.
The wasp trap is working well, although there was one bee inside too.
When I took the top off there was an audible change in buzz, in my opinion it sounded a little angry and stressed.  On the left hand side (without feed) there were some dead bees and 3 dead wasps.  Good, they are protecting themselves. On the right hand side there was a small cloud of bees that rose up.  There was one bee that was stuck to the side and was covered in a green gue, could just be an accidentally squashed one that had gone a bit off, but I'll do a bit of research just to check.
I went through the combs ultra carefully and found no evidence of worker brood.  Towards the middle there was a fair amount of uncapped stores (probably from the sugar) but on each of the middle combs there was nothing but drones with the occasional 'shotgun' patch of drone brood. 
I hate to admit it, but I really don't think we have a real queen.  I think we have a cuckoo situation where a minority of worker bees are working themselves silly in order to feed a majority of drone bees.  Inside the hive there are clearly more drones than workers.
 Where do we go from here?
Jim

Sunday, 29 August, 2010

3 pm Just been down with Brinsley and had a look from the outside.  Lizards are far more busy than the Buckfasts. They are still bringing in pollen and seem more co-ordinated.  Quite a lot of black (new?) bees around the entrance.  Also saw 5 wasps underneath the Lizard hive so have refilled wasp trap and put it down near the Lizards.  This could be because of the feed?
Jim

Sunday 22 August 2010

Sunday 22nd August

Sunday 22nd August
3.30 pm Temp 22C. Jim away, so I had to check the Lizards alone. Had to do it today as weather is meant to be turning bad again tomorrow. Flying very busily and seemed to be behaving normally AND were defensive! Went through the whole hive. Couldn't find queen - AGAIN, but there was drone brood and I think a small amount of worker brood, including uncapped cells. Not a lot, but more than last time. There was also more honey, or maybe it was stored sugar syrup. So I think we can say we probably have a queen who had stopped laying until we stimulated her with feeding. My guess is that she was too hungry to lay PHEW!!! I sugared them as best I could, avoiding the brood.

Monday 16th August
Started feeding 200g sugar : 100mls water daily in contact feeder. They took it all. Carried on for 6 days as weather was so bad we couldn't open up the hive to check.

Sunday 15th August
2.30 pm Temp 20C. Weighed both hives Lizards (L) 19kgs (R) 21kgs. Buckfasts (L) 31kgs (R) 27kgs. Both had lost some weight over past 5 wks.
Buckfasts seemed quite good, although had used up some of their stores, we are glad we didn't take any significant amounts of honey. Applied icing sugar, avoiding brood.
We were worried about the Lizards, as they had very little stores or brood. Couldn't find queen again! Seemed to be behaving fairly normally though, apart from being less defensive than usual (which is not a good sign). Applied icing sugar. Decided to phone old experienced beekeeping friend for advice. He said to check if they were bringing in pollen, then feed them 1:2 sugar syrup for a 3 - 4 days to try to stimulate the queen to lay. Then check for cells. If still worried to check if more than one egg in each cell. This would indicate laying workers and probably no queen. He said our only option, if that were the case, would be to integrate the 2 hives together. Oh dear!!! Checked and found they were not bringing in pollen.
Sue

Friday 6 August 2010

Sat 31st July '10

Jim had heard from Phil that he had some concerns about the Lizards. He thought there was not a lot of brood and could not find the queen last weekend.
5.30 pm We looked in both ends of the hive a couple of bars in, but as the temperature was dropping thought it best not to go any further, at this stage. Bees seem happy, flying back and forth normally. Saw brood one end and a lot of bees. No visible distress or problem. Will investigate further and treat with icing sugar on a warmer day.

Thursday 29 July 2010

26th July

Got a call from Mick saying that he'd seen a strange tight ball of bees around the front of the Lizard Hive about the size of a apple. The time was about 9:30pm. When we went down to investigate the ball had disappeared. The temperature had dropped by this point so I didn't want to open the hive and investigate, but it was evident from the small amount of activity outside the hive that all was now well.

My guess was that either the bees were all rushing to get in (thunder clouds overhead) or they were dealing with an intruder. There was no sign of robbing from the Buckfast hive though.

Jim

24th July Yarner Natural Beekeeping Course comes to visit

Having recovered after about 3 hours from my first sting (just above my right eye)on Friday I was very glad to find I did not look like a prize fighter when the course participants turned up on Saturday.

Phil showed the group both hives, starting with the Buckfast. We added a top bar to each end of the Buckfast which is now pretty much at capacity. We will build our future hives about a foot longer.

The Buckfast bees remained happy throughout and no one was buzzed (warning noise) let alone, stung. This colony is now busy filling the empty brood cells with stores and we feel quite happy that they will be fine for the winter.

We moved on to the Lizard colony afterwards, they only arrived in early July as a nuc (see below) so have had their work cut out to build up quickly. They built an extra 4 combs within 2 weeks, but we will have to hope that there is a sufficent nectar flow to ensure that they have enough over winter. We added another 2 top bars at either end.

Jim

Friday 23 July 2010

Thurs 22nd July
6pm Went to see bees with Chrissy, Lee and Alby. Alby wore his bee suit and decided to pull follower board (gently) aside to show his Dad the bees.A bit worried as it looks like the end comb has broken off 3 - 4 inches down.
Fri 23rd July
5.45pm Phil arrived for course. Came to visit bees. Investigated severed comb; not as bad as I had first thought. The bees appear to have repaired it quite well. Phil seemed fairly happy with their condition.

Monday 19 July 2010

2 pm Removed varroa board from Lizards after 7 days. Count was 65, divided by 7 = 9.28 and x 30 = 278, but as there are less bees than a full colony, wondered if we should multiply by more. I'll get Jim to check count when he gets back from being away and see what he thinks. Otherwise bees very busy today in sunshine.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Alby modelling the new bee suit for him, June and Rufus to wear.

     

Monday 12 July 2010


     The Lizards in their hive

1.30 pm T 23 C. Decided to name hives Buckfast (1st colony) Lizard (2nd colony). Weighed Lizard hive (L) 21 kgs (R) 21 kgs. Very pleased as quite a lot heavier than Buckfast were at this stage. Looked in hive, both ends and found they were building on the new bars. So they now have 10 bars with comb on. Will put another bar in soon. Bees very busy bringing in nectar and pollen. Fitted varroa floor for a 7 day count, depending on weather conditions. Have a very different character to Buckfast hive and are thinner. More Italian in them we think.

Sprayed Homeopathy (8) in Buckfast hive . Building some cross comb, but only extends across 2 bars and is stores, not brood. Weighed (L) 35 kgs (R) 31 kgs, still growing. Put in another bar. A lot of drones around, but no signs of swarming.

Sunday 4 July 2010

6 pm Visited  by Richard B and his Woofers. Very interested in bees. Sunny for the first time today and bees flying very busily. New bees had taken most of their feed. Won't give them any more, especially if the weather stays good now.


                   First colony's viewing window
Saturday 3rd July 9 am 
New bees from The Lizard were picked up for us yesterday by Essie and Richard. Collected them from their house last night. After getting the hive leveled off and high grass cleared, we put them in the hive. Eight bars, 6 have good combs with supplies and brood. One had a small comb on and they were just starting to build on the 8th one. Lots of bees. Didn't see the queen, but they are happy and soon got used to their new home. Gave them a feed of 100 mgs sugar in 100 mls water in contact feeder. Also dusted them well with icing sugar. We put 2 more TBs in for them too. Definitely more feisty than our first colony, but no stings.
Put one more bar into first hive.


Jim carrying nucleus box down to the apiary



   
New bees in their hive

Thursday 1 July 2010

Wednesday 30th June '10 1.30 pm
Weighed (R) 27.5 kgs (L) 31 kgs
Really building up well now. Less than 3 wks ago it was (R) 22 kgs (L) 24 kgs.
Removed varroa floor and moved bees into other hive. Mick had put an observation window in it, made a new roof and put another coat of linseed and beeswax (our own) on. Richard N came to help us and it went very well. Bees had built on new bars, so we now have 19 bars. We put 2 more in. There were 2 lots of 2 bars where they had fixed them together with cross comb. We decided to leave these as we could have damaged the delicate new comb on the new TBs in each case. There was another one however where they had fixed 3 combs together. We removed this cross comb which was full of honey, our first proper taster of our own honey - lovely. No sign of queen cells, a lot of drone brood and drones though. Saw queen. Everyone seemed happy. Dusted well with icing sugar.   
Moved the other hive well away and let the remaining bees fly home when they were ready.
Varroa count 58 over 4 days. So divided by 4 = 14.5 (daily count) and multiplied by 30 is 435. Not too bad, but we need to keep a check and dust again.
5 pm Sue went and helped Dennis, in a nearby hamlet, hive his new nucleus into a TB hive. The more bees the better! His bees are from the same place as our new nuc is coming from. They are feistier than our bees, but OK.
7.30 pm 
Bees still flying well and seem very happy. Looked through observation window and it's great. The children are going to love it. When Mick fitted the window he used silicone to stick it on. None of this was on the inside of the hive though, apart from a tiny bit where the glass had chipped off at one corner. We tried to cover this with wax, but it wouldn't stick. The bees were not happy with this at all and were busy pulling strings of it out and dumping them out of the hive. Have visions of them removing the window and carrying it out too.
The new nucleus is arriving on Friday, so Mick is going to blowtorch the inside of the empty hive, re-oil it and finish it's new roof ready for Jim and Sue to hive them on Saturday.

Saturday 26 June 2010

Fitted varroa floor at 1.45 pm. Planned to do a 7 day count, but will have to be shorter as the new bees are coming next Friday. We need to get the second hive re-roofed, re-oiled and an observation window fitted. Then transfer the bees into that so we can do the same to the first hive, ready for the new bees.
Also put some water out near to the hive, as the water near them has dried out. Used a shallow tray with rainwater in. Put some twigs on the surface to prevent the bees drowning. T 26 C.

Monday 21 June 2010

Went down to check on possible queen cell yesterday at 5 pm. Had spoken to Dennis S, in the morning, about it and he said it would only be a queen cell if it was hanging vertically. We had marked the bar, so I gently lifted just this bar having made a gap either side. Looked almost the same as on Friday, protruding out from the comb at only a slight downward angle. Definitely not vertical. So presumably it's a very large drone cell.
Also moved another of the TBs in between other bars/frames.
Sue

Saturday 19 June 2010

Yesterday lunchtime( 12:30, 22 degrees Celsius)  we popped down to see how the bees had been enjoying the good weather.  I (the Jim bit of Sue and Jim) risked life and death by wearing shorts and flipflops, but our bees are so good natured I really didn't need to worry.
There was much activity from the flying bees at the entrance and still plenty of pollen going in.  The colour of this has changed to a yellow-white-grey now that the grasses and trees are in season.
We had a look in each end and were greeted with a cloud of bees each time.  The new top bar at the end had not been touched, but as we went through checking for cross comb we found 6 top bars with completely natural comb.  This made us both very happy.  Putting stitched comb and new top bars in between the established comb on the old dedants had worked!  There was one comb with a cell which could be a queen cell, but it was hard to tell as it also could be a drone cell at an angle.  I sure there will be many beekeepers panicking at this point, but as it is the only one and within the comb body, it's just as likely to be a supersedure, which we are quite happy about.
Didn't weigh or do any dusting this time round, will do next time.  Will also do another Varroa count soon.
Jim

Wednesday 16 June 2010

7.30 pm Phoned by Graham, the farmer who owns the land next door.  They will be spraying fungicide in about an hour on the field near our house. He wasn't sure what it was called. No wind, just a very gentle breeze from the north, so there will be no drift. Checked bees at 8.15, very few flying and mostly just returning.
8.20 pm Started spraying. Not too worried and really glad that Graham phoned and takes it so seriously.
Sue

Tuesday 15 June 2010

After consultation with Alan and David decided not to use roofing felt on roofs as could harbour pests and diseases. Was going to use sealant and tape, but after examining them, Mick decided to remake roofs instead.
Bees very busy today bringing in nectar and pollen.
Escallonia and loads of flowers in meadow out now, I hope they like it!
Sue

Saturday 12 June 2010


Fri 11th June '10
1 pm T 21 C. Weighed (R) 22 kgs (L) 24 kgs - pretty much the same as last time.
Investigated cross comb, not too bad. Removed 2 small pieces and sewed one of these to a TB and reinserted in between bars, as well as another bar with new comb on it from before. Also put 1 of new TBs with wooden strip in between other bars. Encouraged to do this as the really good news is that they have built some really good combs on the 2 bars we put in 2 weeks ago!!! Removed some brace comb. No sign of queen cells or varroa. Plenty of brood, mostly worker with some drone. Sprayed with homeopathy (7) and small amount of icing sugar.
Roof is leaking and record book got wet. Decided to start this blog instead. Also asked Mick to put roofing felt on both roofs.

Sun 6th June '10
5.30 pm T 17 C. Lots of activity, 40+ bees entering and exiting, many bearing pollen. Good buzz sound. No wax being drawn from new TBs yet, but plenty of bees on them.

Fri 4th June '10
5 pm 2 new TB's with wooden strip rubbed with bees own new wax inserted either end. One spare one prepared and left in hive. Very busy T 20 C.

Thurs 3rd June '10
11 am T 22 C. Lots of activity, pollen bearing bees. Some visible evidence of cross comb. No queen cells seen from looking from each end. Fresh nectar stores at L end. Possible need for more TBs?

Weds 26th May '10 
1 pm Removed varroa tray early, after 5 days, as have to do something about cross comb.
Weighed (R) 22.5 kgs (L) 24 kgs. T 18 C.
Investigated cross comb at entrance side and at back! Not as bad as we had feared. Removed cross comb. Sewed some onto a TB and reinserted, a few bars in, at brood end. Also moved one of bars we did before to in between other bars. Bees have also been building out in right direction, either side, especially on one bar. Also tidied up some brace comb. Dusted with icing sugar.
Sue counted 22 varroa on tray. Jim checked and found 33. This when divided by 5 is a daily varroa count of 6.6. This multiplied by 30 (as suggested on our conventional course for this time of year) comes to 198. The worrying level is apparently 1,000, so this is really low - great. Dissected some of the drone cells we had removed in cross comb. Found approx 1 in 5 had a single mite in it.

Fri 21st May '10
7 pm Advised by neighbour of a swarm flying over Linton Farm. Rushed home to check bees. Looked in, either end of bars. Seem fine. Still flying well. Seem content and very strong buzz from main brood area. Unlikely to have swarmed. T 18 C still! However building fresh comb again at R-angle to bars. This time on entrance side.

Fri 21st May '10
2 pm Have attached another varroa mesh to tray, so bees can't get on it. Thought this would prevent any live mites getting back on bees and also bees coming into contact with Vaseline, as used petroleum based product this time (cheaper). Put tray under hive to do a 7 day count. T 23 C. Bees content and flying well.






Mon 17th May '10
Flying very well and working blossom in orchard and brassica flowers. Jim noticed bees in his garden on the Rosemary.

Sat 15th May '10 
Very warm and sunny. Now have a thermometer T 15 C. Sprayed with homeopathy (6) in warmed rainwater. Only opened bars very small amount to do this. Removed feed as almost empty. Flying well and seem happy. Homeopathy now monthly for 3 months.

Weds 12th May '10
2.45 pm Joined by Essie and Richard (from course) to observe and help. Removed cross comb and attached to TB's. Removed one old frame and replaced with this TB. Also moved one of TB's with new comb on from last Weds to brood end as no activity on it. Removed more side bars from dadant frames. Left 2-3 on as bees were building comb in right direction to side of them. Dusted with icing sugar. Much less traumatic operation than last time. Bees less angry. Essie got one sting. Taken most of feed.
7 pm Farmer sprayed field at back of orchard with herbicides. Mick asked what it was - Hussar plus another one (didn't catch name will try to find out).

Sun 9th May '10
4.30 pm Some activity still despite drop in temperature. Powdered bees from underneath and above. New comb being built at R-angle to old comb on the frames again. Counted 12 dead bees and 2 at entrance that hadn't been removed.
Fresh comb that we moved had been patched up and extended slightly.

Fri 7th May '10
1.30 pm Put bait flowerpot out in case of swarm. Took old comb out of hive to put in this. Bees still very busy repairing their new comb that we moved. No feed taken as yet.

Thurs 6th May '10
Varroa count 50. This was after sugar dusting and moving fresh comb. Will do a 7 day count soon.
150 gms sugar in 150 ml rainwater given in contact feeder and pinch of salt. No chamomile this time.

Weds 5th May '10
Varroa count 10.
1 pm Weighed ( with roof on as forget to check what we did last time ) (R) 18 kgs (L) 19.5 Kgs
Replaced varroa counting board at 1 pm. Removed fresh comb that was at R-angle to dadant frames. This contained both drone and worker brood. Possible queen cell or more likely a queen cup. Varroa seen on pupae and in fresh comb cells. Sewed 2 bits onto TB's and put them back in hive.
Removed side bars from 3 frames. Will do rest at later date. Dusting with icing sugar carried out in brood area. Next dusting due on Sun 9th May.

Tues 4th May '10
6.40 pm Little activity as sun is low and temperature has dropped. Observed collection of 5 bees on the underside of varroa mesh. 4 look dead and 1 alive. Observed one dying bee repeatedly trying to clean it's abdomen with hind legs.

Mon 3rd May '10
1.30 pm Homeopathy (5) given. Some bees with small abdomens and dying! Also some with tatty wings. No sign of varroa. Bees building 3 combs at right angle to sidebars of the dadants, away from entrance, at stores end, across several frames! HELP!
Phoned Phil - Do varroa count for 24 hrs as may have K wing virus and varroa. Then do dusting with icing sugar over backs of bees in brood area. Then repeat 24 hr count. Will get board fixed underneath to do this. As for the 3 R-angled combs. These must be removed. Will try to sew to TB's and put back in brood area. Also try to take off second halves of dadant side bars. Check for drone and queen cells at same time.
7.30 pm Fitted floor invented by Mick to catch varroa. Fitted graph paper to it covered with Nature's World Petroleum free jelly (like Vaseline).

Mon 26th April '10
4 pm Rained yesterday, so didn't do treatment. Sprayed today instead using warmed rainwater and homeopathy (4).

Sat 24th April '10 
4 pm Due for homeopathy today, but cooled down. Will leave until tomorrow.

Tues 20th April '10
3 - 4.30 pm Fitted varroa floor on second hive. Transferred bees into this. Saw queen in brood area. Bees very docile. One frame unattached from TB, so reattached. Lots of brood and stores. Some brace comb.
Set old hive up as possible trap for a swarm.

Mon 19th April '10
3 pm Very busy, crowded at entrance. Removed grass bung from 3rd hole so they can get in easier.
5.50 pm Little or no activity now. Cool northerly.

Sat 17th April ‘10
4 pm Sprayed with homeopathy (3). Lots of bees.  Lots of activity. V sunny & warm. Homeopathy now weekly for 3 weeks.

Fri 16th April ‘10
12.15 pm Lots of activity. Many bees returning with pollen. Sunny, but with cold easterly wind going into entrance. Syrup feed only a few cms down.
5.30 pm Removed feed. Weighed without lid on: (R) 14kgs (L) 17kgs. Still flying well
Sprayed with homeopathy (2).

Thurs 15th April ‘10
10 am Not much of syrup gone – will leave in for now. Bees flying already. V sunny.
4.15 pm Sprayed with homeopathy (1). Peaked in, lots of activity. Grass stalks falling down in hive so removed. Mat seems to do the job on it's own.

Weds 14th April ‘10
Fed with sugar syrup in contact feeder.150g sugar / 150ml chamomile tea & pinch of salt. Very cold, no bees flying.
Checked late afternoon and they have started flying, as warmed up a bit.

Tues 13th April ‘10
Cleared a few more dead bees out. Opened follower board at stores end & looked in. Not started building new comb yet. Flying well.

Mon 12th April ‘10
Took roof off. 6 dead bees & debris on top of mesh. Removed these. Bees seem happy.

Sun 11th April ‘10
Last day of course. Bees escaping up between bars because wire ties causing gaps. Grass stalks packed between bars & mat put over the top.




Sat 10th April ‘10
Natural Beekeeping Course. Bees transferred to TBH by Phil. Bottom bars and ½ of side bars removed from frames. Trimmed at bottom to fit into TBH. Fixed to TB’s using wire. Very docile bees, aren't we lucky!





Thurs 8th April ’10
Nucleus delivered by Phil Chandler from Buckfast Abbey on ½ Dadant frames.

Welcome to Sue & Jim's Natural Beekeeping blog. 



We are neighbours in the beautiful coastal village of Welcombe on the North Devon/Cornwall border. We both decided to start beekeeping about a year ago and began to attend apiary meetings of the Holsworthy Beekeepers Association. We signed up for the course they were running over the winter and started this, along with another neighbour, Richard, in January 2010.
It was a very good course, but we were all uncomfortable with some aspects of conventional beekeeping. We then came across Phil Chandler and his Barefoot Beekeeper book and website. This way of beekeeping uses Top Bar Hives which are the type used all over Africa, The Caribean and many other places in the world. They predate the conventional hives that are used in most developed countries by hundreds of years. The bees build natural comb onto top bars and are managed with as little intervention as possible.
We realised that The Yarner Trust, in our own village, was running a Natural Beekeeping course, with Phil as tutor, in April 2010, what a coincidence ( or is it synchronicity? ). Anyway we all signed up and Yarner asked us if we would be prepared to look after the bees for the courses and house them in Sue's field. Jim and Sue decided to say yes and the hunt was on for a nucleus of bees that would be ready in time for the course.
This was not an easy task. No one knew, at that stage, how their colonies had fared over the severe winter and most people had a long list of people already for their nucleii. Beekeeping has become very popular recently with many people realising that bees are in trouble and need our help. Also, as we learned more, we realised that there was a lot of prejudice amongst some conventional beekeepers against Top Bar Beekeeping. Oh dear 'politics' even in beekeeping! This, unfortunately, meant that some beekeepers said they wouldn't sell us bees to go in a Top Bar Hive. We also needed a couple of hives to start the apiary off.
After a couple of months of phone calls and headaches Phil managed to source a nucleus of bees and Dave Baker, one of the Yarner Trustees, made 2 Top Bar Hives.
So, we were off!
The weekend course with Phil went ahead and was great. Sue & Jim were now very 'green' beekeepers. We have had quite a lot of problems over the past 2 months, mostly to do with the fact the bees are in conversion from 1/2 Dadant frames to Top Bars. We are now awaiting our second nucleus, which are on Top Bars already. These are coming from Heather Bell bees on the Lizard. We had similar problems again in sourcing bees, especially as many beekeepers had losses over the winter.
We began keeping a small book, with notes to each other, in the hive. It served as our record of everything that we did and how the bees were doing. Unfortunately we had a leak in the roof this week and our book got wet. Hence the birth of this blog. We will be adding all the notes from the book here over the next day or so and then be using this as our record of the progress of the apiary.
Phil Chandler's website: www.biobees.com
The Yarner Trust: www.yarnertrust.org
Heather Bell bees: www.cornwallhoney.com