Commercial Bee Farming

A talk by Ged Marshall to the Gloucestershire Beekeepers Association

Annual General Meeting (AGM)

Date: Saturday 16 March 2002

Venue: Hartpury College

Notes for: NCBKA

Oakfield Honey Farm lies between Buckingham and Bicester in the village of Steeple Claydon. The farm has about 400 hives, produces about 200 queens for own use and 500 queens for sale and 10 tons of honey per annum. Of this latter, about 20% is bottled for shops and individual jar sales and 80% is sold in bulk.

Ged’s talk used slides to follow the bee farming year and in particular the tasks involved in following nectar sources and migratory beekeeping to Kent in the Spring for fruit pollination then to East Anglia for Borage and Northumberland for heather.

Winter Woodpeckers cause occasional problems but are rather like Great Tits with milk bottles. They need to learn the bees are in the hives first. In areas the Woodpeckers are most often seen, it does not necessarily follow that they are a problem.

Other pests over the year are wasps, hornets and mice.

February When there is a light frost on top of the hives, one good sign that brood rearing is going well is the presence of a circular melted patch on the roof - the heat of the brood nest!

Hives are hefted and, if short of stores, bakers fondant (roll out icing) is fed. This usually happens in late February when the first pollen comes in. Snowdrops, crocus and hazel are available to the bees. A slice is cut from a slab of fondant and placed over the feed holes in the crown board.

March Fondant can be fed to the bees inside a super. A slice is pressed into

An empty frame and this is placed amongst drawn frames in an empty super. The super is placed on the hives. The bees eat the fondant then fill the frame with wax and fill it with honey.

Usually about 100 hives are taken to Kent

- to spend 2-3 weeks on cherries and plums

- then on to the pears

- and then, in early May, 2-3 weeks on apples.

The bees orientate themselves, find forage and start working very quickly.

April The Pussy Willow builds up bees fantastically. Experience suggests that any hive that is alive when Ged hears his 1st Cuckoo should survive the summer.

If the Super has plenty of bees in, then add another Super to reduce the likelihood of swarming. If unsure, put a Super above the Crown Board. If they don’t need/want it, they won’t use it.

Swarm Control Ged’s techniques comprise

· Requeening regularly with a young queen using bees that tend to swarm less than others

· Lots of Supers

· Put an empty Super under full Supers and possibly another Super on top too

· Place Bait Hives around the apiary. In the middle of the Bait Hive, put an empty brood frame and 2 old drawn out frames

Late May / early June Get breeding material in from Keld Brandstrup, Denmark. Start Queen Rearing. Uses a cupful of bee in Apidea Units.

Early June Field Beans are the next crop. This is not a crop that Ged finds reliable and he doesn’t move bees to it solely for the honey. However, it can help to fill the June gap.

Clover is also out. The bees seem to work it in ideal conditions i.e. in very hot weather and when there is some ground moisture.

Borage has spiky stems which tear the bees wings. It is therefore a drain on bee numbers but a massive source of nectar and overall has a rejuvenating effect. It is a great crop for comb honey for, although quite bland in taste, it looks great.

To clear Supers, Ged uses a Leaf Blower which actually works out cheaper than buying Porter Bee Escapes for all hives and avoids the problems when the Escapes don’t work and you find your Supers still full of bees. Delay extracting for as long as possible as takes 2-3 days out of week.

July / Late Summer Lime avenues and Sweet Chestnut usually flower at the same time. These are great crops for blending up with rape. In late July Ged takes off all his Supers for extraction, puts on empty ones and heads north to the heather. Any hive that can go does go. It is food for free! In July and August the moors are often bone dry. When it comes to taking hives off in September/October they can be much boggier! So with any new site, make sure you can get out by walking the course first.

Ged uses a flail to uncap frames and two 42-frame extractors. Two are essential in case one breaks down. Honey flows into a Baffle Tank and goes over a series of weirs to remove detritus.

Feed bees not at heather with bucket / contact feeders

September / October Bring the heather bees back and take off Supers. There is rarely a need to feed heather bees before winter.