It's a good news day for bees today as ministers rejected an application from the National Farmers Union to use banned pesticides on one-third of oilseed rape crops in this country. This is the first time our government has ruled against farmers using neonicotinoids which are bee-harming pesticides.
In 2013 the European Commission banned these pesticides from being used on flowering crops as they were shown to be harmful to bees.
It has now been five days since the girls moved into their new residence at 59a at the bottom of the garden and there's a sense of complete calm and all is well in the world when sitting and just watching them going about their daily business. Before going to work, I eagerly peer out of one of the back windows to see if any of them are up and about. I'll go downstairs, put the kettle on and sit at watch for any early risers in the hive. You can easily lose hours - honestly.
As a newbee, when it comes to buying frames for the brood and super boxes, do you go for ready assembled or roll your sleeves up and do a bit of DIY? Having never made up a frame before, it was a really valuable lesson David Packham, our tutor, went through during one of the hands-on practical sessions at the apiary towards the end of the Beekeeping for Beginners course. He showed us first how to knock up a frame, which only seemed to take minutes. Simple right?
Well in this instance, it certainly does! Meet the new neighbours - a colony of bees at the bottom of the garden settling into their new home. All day they've been making maiden flights to learn their new surroundings and sources of food to go and forage. Because they are still planning their flights, it's important to feed the girls and so later tonight I'll be adding a feeder with a supply of sugar syprup (1:1 ratio of white granulated sugar and water) and keeping an eye on it over the coming week.
Today's the day when "Plan Bee" finally gets its first colony of bees. After waiting for what seems ages, I happened to be chatting with a lovely lady called Sylvia at the Annual Nosema Testing Day I went along to help at this weekend. It turned out that she had far too many bees herself and was thinking of getting rid of some of them. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
This week I've had to come to terms with killing some bees and the only way I can look at it is that it's all for the good of the colony. Thirty bees was all that was needed for me to take along to the Exeter Beekeepers Association's Annual Nosema Testing Day where I had previously volunteered to go along to help with getting the samples brought in ready for testing.
Right. I've gone and got myself a beehive so need to get a wriggle on to finish off the patch of garden where the apiary will be. Easier said than done when it involves moving heavy blocks of concrete, broken up paving slabs, a heap of old bricks, a stack of old plasterboard sheets and wood pile. Not a job to be done in 5 minutes - time to roll up my sleeves!
Here we are at the end of our beekeeping course for the final session at the apiary. So, what did we do today?
This weekend brings to a close the Exeter branch Beginners' Beekeeping Course with the last practical session at the apiary on Saturday. At the first practical, the place was really buzzing with bees. With 17 colonies the sound just blew me away as the girls were out on possibly their first flights of the season to go and forage for nectar and pollen.
What a perfect day to meet thousands of bees - sunshine, blue sky and in the company of fellow budding beekeepers as we met at the Exeter branch's apiary today for our first practical lesson on handling bees.