Birnie Apiary was opened by Richard Lochhead MSP on Friday 26th April. Over 50 guests attended together with pupils of Mostodloch Primary School.
Mrs Priscilla Gordon Duff (Moray Local Action Group Chairman) LEADER. presented a plaque to MBA Chairman, Bob Malcolm.
Many thanks to all the members who turned out to help at the two recent work parties at our Birnie Apiary. As you can see, block paving has now been installed beneath and around the hives, and a new wooden access ramp built to the portacabin. Thanks again!
It seems that the first thing I say in most of these blog posts is usually something to do with the weather. Being a beekeeper makes you very focused on it. Everything revolves around it when it comes to bees. And this year has been a year of extremes. From the blast of winter we had at the apiary back in April to the extreme heat we had on Saturday 26th May when we welcomed a group of newcomers to one of our Introduction to Beekeeping courses.
The first thing that happened when we arrived was a swarm issued from one of the hives and set off into the neighbouring whins. Everyone dived into their suits and off we went in pursuit. I forgot the camera in the excitement so no pictures I’m afraid. We found the cluster in short order a few yards from the apiary and with a skep placed over them and a little smoke for encouragement they headed upwards into its dark interior. The next step was to move the skep on to the ground on top of a white cloth and we left them alone to allow the rest of the bees to catch the scent from their fanning sisters.
Back at the apiary it was so hot (about 27C) that we decided to move the classroom session outside.
Tony in full flow
Everyone was given a quick but thorough grounding in all things bees and beekeeping which took us up to lunch time. At which point another swarm decided to issue from another hive!
We left that to find a spot to make its cluster and went back to deal with the original swarm. Luckily the bees had taken up residence in the skep and so were collected and moved back to the apiary where a new hive had been set up to receive them. In they went and all was well with them.
Swarm in the hive
The second swarm had likewise clustered not too far away if in not as convenient a spot.
Swarm in the whins
The same technique was applied to this swarm but using my own bodged sawn-off wash basket skep instead of a posh shop-bought one!
Dodgy skep time!
At last we were able to head off for a bite to eat and something cold to drink.
When we returned to collect the swarm it was clear that something different had occurred with this one. For one thing the skep felt awfully light.
Not many bees in this
And this was borne out when the skep was emptied into a hive.
Where've they all gone?
The answer was that the hive that swarmed had a clipped queen and all the bees had flown home to it once they realised she hadn’t come with them. Never mind, it was still a great beekeeping example to be able to show the beginners.
Onwards to the afternoon session which was spent going through the hives and giving everyone a good look at what goes on inside.
Some boiled beginners!
I’m sure everyone felt the heat to some extent during the afternoon and a few had to take a break in the shade of the portacabin.
So quite an eventful day for all concerned and we got to show some of the more unusual aspects of beekeeping.
It wasn’t the warmest day we’ve ever seen in May but for once at least the sun was shining as Moray Beekeepers gathered for their annual visit to the hives at Pluscarden Abbey near Elgin. The setting was as beautiful and inspiring as ever and it wasn’t long before beesuits were donned, smokers were lit and 4 groups led in turn by Tony Harris, Andy Watson, Tom Baulch and Gerry Thompson headed off to inspect the Abbey’s hives.
Gerry's group
Inspections were fairly uneventful although a few of the hives (cared for by local beekeeper Rob McKenzie) needed fed as they were running low on stores after the long cold snap we’ve had.
A wee puff of smoke
The Abbey uses Modified Dadant hives and the sight and weight of a full frame in one of these hives is impressive indeed.
A fair few bees!
We had quite a few novice beekeepers with us and a couple weren’t sure where to stand in relation to the bee hives.
Don't stand in the flight path!
After that it was back to the Abbey for a well earned cup of tea and a cake baked by committee member Anne Black.
There were a fair few members of the public visiting the abbey and they were clearly fascinated by the sight of a bunch of strange people in funny suits. So much so that one of our members told me on the walk back to the Abbey that he had been approached and asked if we had all been taking part in a charity parachute jump!! Not quite…
Cakes for everyone!
The first sitting!
The weather forecast was not an encouraging one for today’s monthly meeting at the association apiary and of course, as always, the forecasters had to get it right. They never quite seem to do the same when the forecast is for blazing sun do they?!
Brrrr...
In any case an intrepid band of Moray beekeepers braved the conditions to make an appearance at the apiary. There was never really any chance of us managing to open the hives and do the work that we had planned.
Bees staying at home
So Plan B was put in place. This involved Tony our secretary giving a talk on queen clipping and marking using the very nifty Powerpoint presentation he has meticulously prepared. No-one thought however to ask the permission of the projector and it proceeded to billow smoke into the air giving up the ghost once and for all. Plan C was hastily improvised and involved Tony’s talk minus the audio-visuals. Thankfully there were no further gremlins and after the talk a most welcome cup of tea was had.
Chat and a warm drink
At which point the sun even decided to make a quick appearance!
Sun coming through
The last piece of business was to draw the raffle and the lucky winners got some very nice prizes. Here’s hoping our May meeting is blessed wih better conditions and we actually get to do some beekeeping!
The lucky winners!
Last summer I found myself on the way to a house at Moss of Barmuckity where I was reliably informed there was an abandoned hive in the garden, still occupied by bees. Upon arrival I spoke to the owner, Jimmy, who told me his father had been an avid beekeeper but had now moved into a care home, and a swarm had moved into one of his old hives the previous summer. I told Jimmy I would have a look and then report back to him.
So I donned my beesuit, lit my smoker and made my way to the very back of the garden where sure enough was a rather old and battered beehive, 
with honey bees coming and going from the entrance and they seemed happy enough.
I puffed a little smoke over the entrance, waited for a couple of minutes and removed the roof. My eyes fell onto an old straw skep and when I removed the box from around it I could see that the skep was occupied by bees and it was firmly stuck to the top bars of the hive. What should I do now? I pondered.
I gave them some more smoke and started trying to prise the skep upwards and after about 10 minutes it was free. I lifted it up to reveal the wild honeycomb the bees had built in the skep. 
The bees were getting pretty bad tempered by now but I decided to crack on. I thought that if I smoked the skep and hive heavily (with the skep still in place) I would drive the queen down into the main hive and then I would place a queen excluder between the main hive and the skep. So I gave them a lot more smoke, waited a bit and gave them even more smoke. 
I removed the skep and then just about managed to go through the brood chamber although it wasn’t easy as the bees had built their own comb loosely around the frames that had been inside. The good news was that there were eggs, larvae and sealed brood present and the colony didn’t seem unduly affected by varroa. I couldn’t however find the queen!
I re-assembled the hive, placed a queen excluder over the brood box and then placed the skep back on top followed by the roof. I would return in a couple of days time, transfer the bees into an empty hive before moving them to our training apiary at Birnie. As I was tidying up my attention was drawn to a lot of bees that were still on the board where I had placed the brood chamber and upon closer examination I saw to my dismay a recently dead queen laying there . The best laid plans hey!
My option now was to let the bees make emergency queen cells and to return after 7 days just leaving 1 sealed cell from which hopefully a new queen would emerge, mate and begin laying.
So I did return a week later and when I opened up the hive there were no emergency queen cells. In fact, the bees seemed in quite a good mood and where busily bringing in pollen. And there were eggs present! What did this mean and what to do now? Well, there was obviously a queen present so I decided to split the colony, leaving half the bees in the old hive and placing the other half in a new hive. This task was made easier when I found the queen and she and her frame of brood and bees were removed into my new hive, along with 2 additional frames of brood, bees and a frame of stores. I sealed it up and took it to our training apiary where it still is, the bees having come through the winter successfully. The other hive managed to raise another queen and they too have successfully wintered in one of my own apiaries.
In trying to figure out what had happened in the hive, i.e. it appeared there were 2 queens in it, I found out that that this does happen now and again. Sometimes the bees will be replacing an aging queen and they will raise a new one. Mother and daughter will happily survive in the hive, often found laying on the same comb until the ‘old’ queen finally dies or is ‘seen off’ by the workers. This is known as ‘supersedure’. The other point is that there was a lot of space between the bottom brood chamber and the top skep in this hive and this sometimes leads to 2 queens surviving in the same hive. Good eh!
I will be re-visiting Jimmy in the summer to see whether a swarm has moved into the abandoned hive, and perhaps I will do it all over again. Jimmy was more than happy as he was compensated with with a couple of jars of local honey and some cut comb heather honey. YUM, YUM!
Those of you who read this blog and who keep bees will no doubt have heard of the name Brother Adam. In short Brother Adam was a monk of Buckfast Abbey who spent his entire life devoted to beekeeping and bee breeding. He developed the Buckfast bee and was a hugely influential figure in beekeeping circles. On his death his legacy was preserved by many breeders in Europe but in the UK he is a figure of some controversy. One school believes that only native bees should be kept (although it’s unclear how native our native bees actually are) and Brother Adam’s views and practices are anathema to them.
Others are more open minded and some have founded a Buckfast breeders group. The founders have even gone so far to re-open the famous Buckfast Dartmoor mating station and the story of that can be found if you follow the link below.
Re-activation of the Dartmoor mating station.
The evening of Thursday 26th January saw Moray Beekeepers hold their AGM in Elgin library.
The calm before...
We had plenty of business to conduct and were hopeful of a good turnout.
A good turnout
Luckily more than 30 members decided to attend. We managed to conduct a review of 2011 of both MBA’s activities and finances and also outline some of our plans for 2012. We wanted to increase our subscription rates by a small amount and the meeting was supportive of that.
Some of the successful participants of summer 2011’s Basic Beemaster course were presented with their certificates as were Barbara Westie and Tony Harris with their certificates for their continued beekeeping exam success.
The certificate crowd
The business concluded it was time to concentrate on the more social side of things. A fine spread of cakes to go with our tea and coffee had been provided by committee member Anne Black and we had a good range of raffle prizes.
The spread
It was nice to see some familiar faces and to meet some new ones.
Mingling
Once tea and cakes were down the hatch we held a question and answer session with a panel of experienced beekeepers (there are no pics of that I’m afraid as I was on the panel!). Many intelligent and interesting questions were asked and I think the answers were satisfactory. At least the old saying that ” if you ask X beekeepers a question you get X+1 answers” didn’t come into play!
Contributing author: Viv Hill
I am happy to write in glowing terms of the success of our three week sugar collection project.
Initially I wrote to all the local Supermarkets and was disappointed that only the three local Tesco Stores responded. Therefore plans were made with them.
Graham and I made some cardboard collection boxes and I had the two information placards laminated, attaching one of each to the boxes plus a plastic envelope containing our M.B.A. handouts with an invitation that folk should take one. I have to say that the staff at both of the Tesco Stores were most helpful. The boxes were put in place on Monday, 18th July. Thereafter we went to Forres every Monday to empty the box and similarly collected the Elgin sugar packets each time we were in the store. The M.B.A. handouts were very popular and frequently needed replenishing.
To our surprise and pleasure we were contacted by the Asda Supermarket in Elgin who, having become aware of our project, was also keen to help us. Another box was found and placed in the store and so now we are also collecting from Asda in Elgin. Their collection point is only available on Friday to Sunday but their Charity P.A. is happy to liaise with me and she puts the box out and away at the weekends. The Asda ‘lady’ is very interested in our project and I am hopeful that we can make further plans.
To date we have collected the grand total of 110 Kgs. of sugar with more to come. I have not included the amount which has been donated at Buckie Tesco Store as Tony Harris is dealing with it.
Andrew Tassell has recently placed a donation box at Tesco Store in Keith and so with those two also ‘on board’ I am sure that we will reach the projected goal of 200Kgs. Many thanks and a big ‘Well done’ to the Moray public for being so generous. I hope that we will be able to have a similar collection next year.
Donate some bags of sugar!
Contributing author: Viv Hill
Moray Beekeepers have taken the initiative to ask our local supermarkets to assist in their bee feeding programme. Any members of the public who are so inclined will be able to find boxes at either Forres, Elgin or Buckie Tesco stores.
for the next three weeks from July 18th – 8th August so please tell all your friends and other like minded people that we will be very glad of their help.
The focus of our initiative is to ask members of the public to donate a bag of cane sugar with a view to them helping the local beekeepers both prepare their bees for the winter and ensure that there is adequate food for the bees over that period.
Please help us by telling everyone about our project. Many thanks.
