Spruce's honey bees

Wondered when you'd notice

You really are The Man, when it comes to beekeeping on GC

Thank you for such a great input and encouragement to all.

 

Did anyone else see on one of the news channels yesterday where some Bee Keepers in France when collecting the honey from their hives were amazed to see it was green,purple and blue...turns out the Bees had been feeding on the waste from an M&M's factory nearby.....they weren't happy as the couldn't sell the honey.....

 

Good advert for 'Hartleys' Spruce! Now that you are the 'GC Official Bee Keeper' I think you should now design your own brand.

 

What about the "Whirpool Dishwasher" its called "product placement" !!

I do have labels and the proper jars but that contains all my address details, new Food Standards requirements , you tend to forget what in the background when doing photo's, good shot of my two bay trees though plus my hands still frecklie from my hols .

Spruce

Spruce

 

Hi Loli

M&M Honey sounds great I woudnt mind a jar

Spruce

 

Spruce,
You are my King
xx Dilly Dilly xx

 

Please

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/s/ban-the-pesticides-that-are-harming-our-bees#petition

 

All done Spruce,
thank you for starting this. I'm sure many other GC members will sign it too,
Jenny

 

Jobs a gud un

 

Hi All

Had some PM requests to give you all a update on whats happening at the moment with the bees and what they are up to over the next couple of months

Honeybees have a very interesting method of winter survival. Honeybees stop flying when the weather drops below 50 degrees. When the temperature drops below that, the bees all crowd into the lower central area of the hive and form a "winter cluster." The worker bees huddle around the queen bee at the center of the cluster, shivering in order to keep the center around 80 degrees. The worker bees rotate through the cluster from the outside to the inside so that no bee gets too cold. The outside edges of the cluster stay at about 46-48 degrees. The colder the weather is outside, the more compact the cluster becomes .
Hibernating honeybees have been studied and shown to consume up to 30 pounds of stored honey during the winter months, which helps the bees produce body heat. Heat energy is produced by the oxidation of the honey, and circulated throughout the hive by the wing-fanning of worker bees

So thats what they are up to if we do have some sunny weather a few of them may pop out to have a fly around and go to the toilet and may also collect some water to mix with the honey the Queen will be laying very few eggs and come late December early January will stop laying.
So not daft just like us would rather be inside on a cold wet miserable day

Spruce

 

Thank you Spruce for the update,
wonderful little creatures....
Jenny

 

Thanks Spruce ....isn't it great how they look after each other

 

Thats not what I heard.

I thought they gathered together what was left of the honey, packed it into an old empty coconut shell, suspended it between 2 African Swallows & then flew south for the winter en mass, swarming around the swallows as they flew over the tip of Italy to prevent them being shot by Italian hunters?

 

Ziggy,
have you been out gathering mushrooms?