The amazing weather continues, and at bee club today, it was too hot to inspect the bees with our bee suits on...
So with so many beekeeping jobs to do, we set about removing the old wax comb out of 33 old super frames which came from other hives.    Infection control is an important part of keeping or bees healthy, and so at every hive inspection we change our gloves, and use clean bee suits. Beekeepers have to be especially careful when they use used bee equipment, especially things like frames of comb which can contain and pass on lots of viruses and diseases. 
We will melt down the wax and turn it into beautiful beeswax candles and wax polish.

Once again, the Bee Team have received the help of Kendal & Westmorland Bee Keepers Association... this time being able to use one of their Observation Hives, allowing our bees a day out in the classes in school!
Year 4 and Nursery had the chance to get 'up close and personal' with the bees, and were super at quickly spotting the Queen bee.  We watched as the worker bees (all girls) went about their business, tending to the brood and looking after the Queen bee while she laid eggs in the cells in the comb. 

Lovely morning spent with our Y6 beekeepers today. Smashing weather, lovely bees and really great children!  The children checked our 'towering hive 1' (which we need a step ladder to reach it is so high with Supers!) and our 'old Queen' with her artificial swarm.  Both colonies are doing well, especially hive 1, which has almost 2 supers of capped honey we need to extract as the bees are running out of room!  
It is wonderful to see the journey of all our young beekeepers, who quietly, respectfully and confidently look after our bees, if our children are anything to go by, the future of beekeeping is in safe hands! Well done Y6!

May and June are typically the months when Honey Bees may swarm.  Swarming is natural behaviour for bees, but beekeepers can help keep this urge to swarm under control by providing lots of space in the hive and ensuring the Queen is young and laying well. 
When a colony swarms, up to 60% of the colony leaves with the old Queen, beekeepers do their best to control swarming as not only do we lose over half our bees, but good Queens can be lost, the honey harvest is diminished and swarms can be a nuisance and alarming for the public.   
Hive 2 in our apiary have been trying to make swarm preparations for a couple of weeks now...! The children have been great at spotting the signs and keeping a close eye out for any Queen Cells.   Queen Cells are made by the workers when they are producing a new Queen for the colony.  The Bee Team have now carried out 2 artificial swarms, 1 by moving the old Queen into a different hive, and another by moving a Queen cell into a nucleus hive with some nurse bees who will care for it.  

Today we checked the 1st artificial swarm to see if the cell had been sealed, usually done on day 8, it was and the workers were making the finishing touches to the cell!  We will leave these two new Queens to emerge, go on a mating flight and come back to their new colonies. Fingers crossed we will now have two more colonies for the bee team to look after and inspect. 

Above is a sealed Queen Cell being attended by the worker bees

What a day we had yesterday! A full day of assessments, demonstrating to the BBKA examiner Mrs Cuthbertson, (who is a Master Beekeeper, only one of a few in the country) all the skills and knowledge it takes to look after our bees. The children had worked so hard in producing an amazing selection of projects, from self-build hives, instructional DVDs to show new beekeepers what to do...(we will be using it in school, and I will try to post it in the blog if I can!) 
We had weather research, to see what effect the Cumbrian weather has on our bees ability to forage, (collect food) An anatomically accurate Queen bee, a Mayan beehive...  a super solitary bee house, and a curriculum plan, for a short beekeeping course for other children!

The children had to present their diaries to Mrs Cuthbertson, and then inspect a hive of bees, showing her all the elements of a brood frame of bees.  As it is 'swarming season' (more of that in another post!!) The examiner asked lots of questions about how we try to control swarming in our hives... half way through the examination, our 'eagle eyed' candidates shouted, 'Queen cell!' which meant they had to put all their skills into practice there and then, by splitting the colony and performing an artificial swarm!!!  Amazing! (though a little stressful for me having to watch!) They did brilliantly, and so now we have 3 colonies in school, which means the enterprise element of bee club can come in, as the children plan to sell colonies to fund bee club...genius!

Although we won't know the results for at least 6 weeks, as they have to go to the National Centre and be ratified by the exam board..(all very formal!) Mrs Cuthbertson was really impressed with the level of knowledge and skills the children had, she was especially pleased as the children had such a good understanding of what to do in an emergency in the apiary... she said she wished her adult beekeepers were so safety conscious and prepared!  I was so unbelievably proud of all our young people, it was such a privilege to watch them confidently and independently show what they can do... well done everyone!

Well for some of our bee team children, the big day has almost arrived!  Tomorrow they will do the BBKA (British Bee keepers Association) Junior Certificate Exam. 
After lots of hive inspections, a huge amount of theory, making frames, new hives and apiary management, they are ready!   As well as all the extra work in school they have had to do, each child has had to complete a 'beekeeping diary' produce a piece of project work linked to the BBKA syllabus in their own time and be able to inspect a frame in a hive of bees, telling the examiner what they see, and if it is healthy. There is also an oral part of the exam, where they have to talk to the examiner and answer questions on the syllabus!   No mean feat, when our children will be the youngest in the country to ever take the exam!!    To say as a school we are proud of their achievements already is an understatement, so all we can do is wish them all lots of luck tomorrow!

This week is our 'First Anniversary' as a beekeeping school!  What a year we have had! The children have been amazing, their enthusiasm, respect for the bees and team work to care for them has been wonderful, and we are so proud of them, and indeed the whole school who have quite frankly, gone 'bee' mad! We now have our 'bee shed' which thanks to local businesses and the children's amazing fund raising efforts, means we have an outdoor learning space the whole school can use and enjoy...(though not at the same time, it isn't that big!)
So, what do the children think about keeping bees? We thought we would ask them their 'best beekeeping moment' and why they like keeping bees.... here is what they said...

Emma Y5: " I like keeping bees, because if we didn't have them to pollinate plants, we wouldn't have many fruit and vegetables.... My favourite moment is everything! I like it when a bee lands on your hand, because you can look at it closely"

Lily Y4:  "I like that we can tell other people about how important they are and they can learn too... even when people are scared of bees, you don't need to see them to learn...

Josh Y5: "I love bee club because you get to look after one of the coolest bugs on the planet!"

Will Y4:  "I find bees intresting because I like how the spread pollen and collect nectar to make into honey. My favourite bee moment was when a bee landed on my veil as I got a great look at it. 
Fin Y4: "I haven't got a favourite moment, because I love all my beekeeping moments"

Mason Y5: I like watching the new bees being born, emerging from their cells"

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