Where do bees live?



Kent_Mackem said:
Honeybees will swarm when the queen runs out of room to lay eggs. The existing queen leaves the nest with the flying bees. The workers (who are in charge in reality) then feed royal jelly to an existing grub and convert the cell into a ‘queen cell’ shaped like a peanut. If there is more than one the first queen will hatch out and kill the others while they are still in their cell.

The queen leaves with the flying bees as a swarm. They will generally climb into a rugby ball shaped lump somewhere nearby. Then scout bees go off to check out potential new homes - chimneys, hollows in trees, space under eaves etc. They waffle dance the direction and range so that the others can go and check out the new gaffe. Eventually a decision is made and a pheromone is released. They all take off to the new home, build comb and the queen will continue to lay eggs.

Meanwhile back home it takes a little while for the younger workers to be able to fly so nectar collection and therefore honey production takes a nosedive. The bee economy becomes temporarily fucked. It’s why beekeepers will try to intercept swarming behaviour before it occurs. The new virgin princess will fly out on her own to a “Drone Congregation Area”. These are generally in the same places and may well have been for hundreds, maybe thousands of years. The male bees (drones) all hang around waiting for her then she mates with around a dozen or so mid-flight. The drones the die, job done. She stores their DNA and then spends the rest of her life - maybe 2-5 years - laying eggs.

It’s quite common for honeybees to be feral - the swarm originated from a beekeeper’s hive 1 to several generations ago. However the parasite mite called Varroa tends to do for feral colonies within a year or two.

The honeybees are just for the next few months collecting nectar from the oil seed sugar fields. The nectar is so full of sugar, and in such abundance, that they will prefer this to most other sources. Also the sucrose and glucose levels in OSR honey is high, compared to blackberry and lavender which is high in fructose. It makes the OSR less soluble and it tends to granulate and go hard - not to everybody’s taste.

Hope this helps?
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Bloody Bexit, screwing up the honey economy for everyone, just because a privileged few have convinced the rest they'd be better off no longer in the hive.
 
becs said:
A few of the tubes have been used. My back garden is a bit basic as it's been a playground for years, but I'm starting to reclaim it for myself now the bairns are older. I'm going to plant bee friendly flowers as I transform it so hopefully they will use it more.
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thought this might attract a few comments
 
When I kept bees and the villagers knew there was a honey sale on in the local pub one evening it was like a scene from Snatch or Bloodsport. Fivers flying around the place and a fight to get the jars. I was left with an empty box and a handful of notes that paid for my beers for the next few months.

The locals were funny though. "I saw a bee in the garden the other day. Was it one of yours?"
"Errrrr" Then I asked if it had red and white stripes but they just looked puzzled. Not as puzzled as when I tell them "The hardest thing about being a beekeeper is remembering all of their names."

I still do talks for schools and clubs where I take in a glass-fronted observation hive. The kids all want an "I found the queen" sticker but the young Reception teachers just get carried away with the moment and often quite forget they are wearing a loose-fitting top. "Where is she then?" "Well... she was down on the bottom frame last time I looked..." The best answer I ever got from a Year 4 girl to the question "Why do you think we stop the queen from going into the honey boxes at the top of the hive?" (The answer being obviously, that we don't want grubs in the honey.) This lass put her hand up and said "Is it so she doesn't get sticky feet?" From the mouths of youngsters.....
 
Kent_Mackem said:
When I kept bees and the villagers knew there was a honey sale on in the local pub one evening it was like a scene from Snatch or Bloodsport. Fivers flying around the place and a fight to get the jars. I was left with an empty box and a handful of notes that paid for my beers for the next few months.

The locals were funny though. "I saw a bee in the garden the other day. Was it one of yours?"
"Errrrr" Then I asked if it had red and white stripes but they just looked puzzled. Not as puzzled as when I tell them "The hardest thing about being a beekeeper is remembering all of their names."

I still do talks for schools and clubs where I take in a glass-fronted observation hive. The kids all want an "I found the queen" sticker but the young Reception teachers just get carried away with the moment and often quite forget they are wearing a loose-fitting top. "Where is she then?" "Well... she was down on the bottom frame last time I looked..." The best answer I ever got from a Year 4 girl to the question "Why do you think we stop the queen from going into the honey boxes at the top of the hive?" (The answer being obviously, that we don't want grubs in the honey.) This lass put her hand up and said "Is it so she doesn't get sticky feet?" From the mouths of youngsters.....
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Are there tax breaks for keeping bees in the UK? I used to work with a bloke over here in the US - he lived in a regular house but had 2 small hives in his back garden. If he sold x amount of honey a year, and if memory serves, it was a small monetary amount, say $100, he just gave a mate $100 to buy a jar of honey off him for $100, and he got to claim tax breaks as a working farm :lol:
 
Crayola-Kid said:
Are there tax breaks for keeping bees in the UK? I used to work with a bloke over here in the US - he lived in a regular house but had 2 small hives in his back garden. If he sold x amount of honey a year, and if memory serves, it was a small monetary amount, say $100, he just gave a mate $100 to buy a jar of honey off him for $100, and he got to claim tax breaks as a working farm :lol:
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I’m not aware of any, but I only had 2 of 3 hives maximum. There would be a minimum limit in place too be declared a farm I would have thought over here.

In recent years hobbies such as beekeeping and other gardening / self-sufficient “green” activities have become far more popular. I had a business plan written out and I was seriously considering an idea of basing a business around beekeeping tuition. Farmhouse and 5 cottages, top-end country cottage self accommodation. The catalyst to get full occupancy throughout the summer would be beekeeping tuition - both practical and theory. At the end of the week the students would be ready to take their exam. I’d also sell equipment and honey. In the off season I’d offer corporate residentials, IT training and bespoke courses (photography, flint knapping - that kind of thing) plus people can just stay in beautiful Northumberland.

Work, children and mortgage got in the way. Maybe in 15 years time.
 

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