On warm, dry spring days, our honey bees can be seen and heard hard at work all over the garden. Foraging from the flowerbeds and orchard, collecting fresh water from the spring-fed pond, and flying further afield to
On warm, dry spring days, our honey bees can be seen and heard hard at work all over the garden. Foraging from the flowerbeds and orchard, collecting fresh water from the spring-fed pond, and flying further afield to explore the flora on the surrounding hills. At this time of year we try and go through the hives at least every ten days, as long as the weather is good. The main purpose of the beekeeping inspection is to keep an eye on the health and productivity of the hive, but we also like to use it as an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the inner workings of the colonies. We love watching them buzzing about on their busy schedules. In particular we find the variety of jobs undertaken by the bees, in order to keep the hive successfully ticking over, fascinating.
The female bees fill all but one of the jobs. For around the first three weeks of their lives, they will mostly cover hive based jobs. After that they will progress to flying jobs. However, they will all (with the exception of the queen), swap between roles and tasks regularly in accordance with the needs of the colony:
- At the hive entrance are the guards. They appear in response to any disturbances by patrolling the front door and nearby air space; investigating, challenging and, if need be, fighting off any unwelcome guests. Many times in the summer months we have seen intruding wasps attempting to steal honey from the hive, only to be dragged out and shooed off by a handful of the brave bees stationed on duty.
- Deep inside the hive are the nurses, who care for the developing baby bees. They ensure the brood is well-fed with the right mix of royal jelly and pollen, and cap their cells with wax at the correct time, so that they can grow into fully-fledged adults.
- Alongside the nurses, and at the start of the bee career ladder, are the cleaners. These are mostly fluffy newborns in their first few days of life. They swiftly tidy up any mess, repair damage, and generally keep things spick and span. To their credit, the hives are extremely tidy places and the bees are very respectful of that. Even in the deepest, coldest winter when the colony is huddled closely together to keep warm, a bee would rather hold everything in for days until it is sunny enough to nip outside for a quick despatch, than desecrate the hive.
- Occasionally it is possible to spot the undertakers, who helicopter any dead bees out of the hive, dropping them in a final resting place on the grass outside (or human, if we happen to be weeding the nearby veg beds at the time). Bees car