Couch Pollen............

It was quite this morning, I had got distracted concentrating working on laptop before leaving for work (last few weeks of work!) when it was one of those occasions when the silence is demanding your attention, something was wrong.

Poppy and Harvey our two dogs were the cause of the silence so something was up! I stopped typing away and went in search of the dogs. Poppy was halfway down the corner of the couch with just here bum sticking out and Harvey was sitting next to her with the treasure they had found............. a hair grip, bit of chocolate buttons wrapper, and a 20p piece.

Poppy after mining and after being told off :-)

After sorting them both out and getting back to my laptop work....which was bee related, I had a thought. 20p -- I know from my work in waste world that the lads on the Waste Transfer Site and likely anyone in waste world dealing with old couches and armchairs know that there is money to be found at the bottom of an old sofa! as they always turn them over, cut the bottom fabric away and collect the stash of money.

Well the thought was, why can't people do that now? follow Poppy's example go mining for 'couch pollen' as if you were a bee and get the cash that is doing no one any good except the lads on a Waste Transfer Site. Why not save that cash and use it to support us on our Bee 365 plan, paying for a bee a 1p per day details on our new web site (only waiting for Andy to do last couple of techy things!)

I'm sure that if you went mining you'd find more than £3.65 so that would be good for the bees and rewarding to yourself with the extra stash.

  

New Bee Hives......well the very start of them!

We have been looking for suitable timber to make some new bee hives, and have finally tracked our timber down. Just in at our local Timber Reclaim Yard three lengths of 11" x 2" x 4mtr reclaimed timber and the very helpful shop staff will cut it into lengths @ 44inches - all we need to do is then get it cut into to a 1" thickness and then we have the main sides for our hives. The cutting will have to be done a local joinery shop, or we will see if our local Men In Sheds guys can help us out.



Our Timber

 

Close up!

 

 



Timber Reclaim Company, Merseyton Rd, E Port - Recommended

 



We have been given the use of an empty garage to set up a workshop to build the hives, this will be such a help as we can leave unfinished work in place at end of the day and will also become our second home base from which to work from, power sockets and tea on tap!

 

Our other working base we will be concentrating on growing bee friendly plants, veg and other plants for the fun of it! We will be developing patches throughout the year, with the first main structure that we are going to install being a 6mtr x 4mtr polytunnel to allow us to bring on our plants and seedling to be used in our 'Bee Buckets'.



 

 

 

 





Bee 365

Ok, Where's Robyn........

I think Robyn must have a big garden as it is taking her more than a day for her to get back to Bee Rewarded!..... No, Robyn has moved on to a new job and a couple of new additions to her own family but has left us a few already written blog posts that we will publish very soon. Robyn was very good bee catcher, gardener, eco friendly person and is sadly missed but you never know she may come back to the hive!

Tara has also moved on from the council but is still around and helping Bee Rewarded, and we're lucky that she is making a career in a new direction of Health & Safety specialist something that's bound to come in useful for our next adventures in helping bees survive.

Me? Well, my job has been deleted at the council! but I am more than happy with the big push out as it allows me to concentrate on our Bee Rewarded social enterprise with time to do more and varied projects that will help bees survive, and be rewarding for myself and all that are involved in paying back to the bees and rewarding for the helpful people who we are meeting along on our beekeeping journey.

I've pestered my old boss for 15 years to come join us, on bee shouts and roping him in on all of our bee projects so it's going to be interesting and fun -- Andy, designation "Worker Bee".......let's hope he's a good worker! and not like a Drone bee:-)

So what are some of our goals for 2015, now that we are working 'more' time supporting bees, first is our new web site(live very soon)

# Building more Top bar Hives for more locations
# Catching more swarms and caring for the bees through natural bee keeping methods
# Planting as many bee friendly areas as we can with a bit of 'guerrilla gardening thrown in'.....on a bike!
# Treasure Biking........find the honey pot and win cash prize to support our projects
# Planting up courtyards and other area's with fruit and veg for people who need a helping hand
# Bee 365 -- Paying it back to the bees!
# Providing free seeds to plant bee friendly zones
# Bee Buckets --- Fully planted containers
# Keys for Bees -- Don't throw them away!

Can't wait.......Err, where's Robyn when you need her!

An afternoon in my garden



Who's who in the hive

In a honey bee colony there are 3 types of bees: The Queen, the Workers and the Drones

The Queen Bee: is an adult, mated female bee that lives within the hive. She is mother to most, if not all the bees in the hive. The Queen Bee can lay up to 2,000 eggs per day, that equates to more than here body weight. The sole purpose of the Queen is to reproduce, the attendant workers collect and distribute Queen Mandibular Pheromone, this informs the other bees that the queen is still in the hive and there is no need to panic. Typically, there is only one queen in the hive.


Unmarked Queen Bee Surrounded by attendants
Photo from Wikipedia

Drone Bees: the only male bees in the colony, they can not sting. Interestingly the word Drone comes from Old English, meaning "idler" or "lazy". The drones are larger than the worker bees, but smaller than the queen, they have eyes that are twice the size of the workers and queens. There can be up to 200 drones in a colony, their main purpose is to mate with a queen from another hive. As a secondary role, drones help regulate hive temperature, by shivering to create heat or cool the hive by moving their wings. Drone bees are known to leave the hive in abundance in the early afternoon and congregate in drone congregation areas a good distance from the hive(sounds like a "boys night out" to me) Drone Bees are ejected from the hive in the late autumn and only reappear in spring(see what happens after too many "Boys nights out!").

Drone Bee, note the large eyes
Photo from Wikipedia

Worker Bees: any female bee that lacks reproductive capacity.

The tasks of the worker bee are varied and they build up quite an impressive CV in their short 6 week life span:

Days 1-2
Cell Cleaning
Brood cells are cleaned before being reused. The Queen will inspect the cell before laying an egg, if the cell is not cleaned to her satisfaction she will not use it and a worker bee in the cleaning phase will have to clean it again.

Day 3-11
Nurse Bee
Nurse Bees feed the worker larvae "worker jelly"

After 3 days of being a Nurse Bee they are promoted to

Advanced Nurse Bee
In their new role they feed "Royal Jelly" to queen larva. The drones are given worker jelly for 1-3 days, after that they are given a diet of honey and pollen.

Day 12-17
Wax Production
Wax bees are expected to build new cells, repair old cells and store nectar and pollen brought in by other workers. Wax bees exclude wax from 4 sets of wax glands of their abdomens.

And if that list wasn't long enough, here are some miscellaneous chores that need to be done as well!

Honey Sealing
Mature honey is sealed with wax to prevent absorption of moisture

Drone Feeding
Drones do not feed themselves, they are fed by the worker bee (starting to think that maybe I'm a worker bee in a household of drones!)

Queen Attendants
The attendants groom and feed the queen.

Pollen Packing
Pollen brought back to the hive needs to be mixed with a small amount of honey and packed tightly in the comb to ensure that it does not spoil. Pollen will become rancid without proper care

Propolising
The walls of the hive are covered with propolis, a substance obtained from plants. The bees add enzymes to the propolis giving it antibacterial and anti fungal properties.

Mortuary Bees
Dead bees and failed larvae need to be removed from the hive as soon as possible to prevent disease and free up valuable space

Fanning Bees
Hive temperature is regulated by evaporating water brought in by other bees. They direct airflow in or out the hive depending on what is needed.

Day 8-21
Guard Bees
Your mission: Protect the entrance of the hive from enemies
 - Soldier Bees: Guard entrance and attack invaders
- Entrance Guard Bees: Inspect incoming bees to ensure they are bringing back food and that they are from the same colony
- Outside Guard Bees: These bees take short flights around the hive investigating disturbances.

Water Carriers
When the hive is in danger of overheating, water carriers will bring water to the hive to regulate temperature

Day 22-42
Foraging/Scout Bees
Collect nectar, pollen and propolis

Foraging bees are worked to death, they usually die outside the hive as they are too weak to make it back to the hive.

© Robyn Clarke

Please sign Plan Bees Petition

The Co-operative realise just how important Bees are and have started a campaign called "Plan Bee", you can help by clicking here  and signing the petition. They are calling for the UK Government to carry out a systematic review of the impact of pesticides.