No wasps... then LOADS of wasps!
Being a responsible beekeeper has many elements, one is observing the colonies at times when they may be under threat from pests such as wasps!  Summer can be a difficult time for colonies, especially small or nuc colonies, who lack the numbers to fend off attack from wasps.
  A little knowledge of the life cycle of the humble wasp is needed to know why these amazing creatures can cause havoc, not only with your carefully planned picnic, but with our bees.
Although wasps get 'bad press' they are vital to the healthy eco-system of our gardens and countryside...eating 'pests' throughout the year, which help us as gardeners & are vital to the bigger picture in the food chain. 

 Wasps are carnivorous, they feed their larvae meat, (in most cases aphids, spiders etc) making 'protein pellets' to feed to their hungry larvae. Towards the end of the summer, when there are fewer larvae to feed, the wasps start to CRAVE sugar... this is because the wasp larvae convert their protein-rich diet into carbohydrates that they secrete as a sugary droplet to feed the adults. With no larvae, all those adult wasps must find other sources of sugar - hence why they are so attracted to our honey filled hives, (and your sugary drinks & fruit on your trees!)

The Heron Hill hives are all strong vigorous colonies, but we have a few nucleus colonies, new this year, who need careful watching to ensure they can fend off any attacks!  
As beekeepers we reduce the size of the entrances, this helps the guard bees in their defending, we can also put a plastic wasp door on the front of the hives, allowing the bees entrance, but 'out witting' the wasps.   In severe cases of 'robbing' wasps can decimate a colony in a matter of days...  Those colonies would have to moved out of harms way to make sure they survive. 

So far so good, our 'guarding girls' are doing a fine job, but we will be watching them carefully to make sure it stays that way!  

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What a weekend of examinations we have had at Heron Hill Apiary!

We have a well set up apiary at Heron Hill (with lovely bees!) and a super 'bee shed' to share with other beekeepers and groups. Over the past two years, we have hosted the BBKA exams for the area, and this year was no exception, with 7 candidates from the Kendal Beekeepers and beekeepers from further afield using our facilities to be examined for the 'Bee Health' examination and Basic Assessments in Apiculture.  
Among the candidates were Mrs Harper and I...!!  continuing our education, studying hard and (fingers crossed!) continuing our Bee Qualification CV's!   Although it was quite stressful making sure all our revision had paid off, it was  a super to spend the weekend with other beekeepers, especially to meet and talk to Mr George Eames, the assessor, who was very patient and kind, but also taught us so much over the weekend. 
We have almost 6 weeks to wait for our results... but whatever the outcome, through our revision and experience over the weekend, both Mrs Harper and I have learnt a lot, so all good! 

Four of our founding Bee Team members travelled to London this week to be presented with the 'Bees' Needs Champions Award' 
What an experience for four of our founding Bee Team children! Over the last 3 years they have worked weekends and holidays to care for our bees...even visited other schools to teach them about bees & beekeeping, so it was only fitting that these children represented school to collect our 'Bees' Needs Champions Award' for their contribution to beekeeping and encouraging pollinators in school. 

It was a long but wonderful day, leaving Kendal at 6.20 am to get to 'Carna'bee' Street in London to receive our award from Lord Gardiner the Under Secretary of State for the Environment & George McGavin, TV entomologist & environmental champion.  The children then had opportunity to work with The University of Reading, investigating how much of our food is pollinated by bees... They made seed bombs to bring back to school and gave their expert opinion in a honey tasting session!  
  It was then off to the Houses of Parliament to meet with Tim Farron, where we passed on a petition about Climate Change and spoke to him about plastic waste. The children presented him with some of their 'beeswax wraps' made with our bee's wax, part of a project they are running in school to reduce plastic waste with the help of our bees!  We had tea on the terrace and Mr Farron even sneaked us into watch a live debate in the House of Commons!  It was amazing!

It was a super day, the children were wonderful ambassadors for school and for beekeeping, we were so very proud of them all and incredibly thankful to Kendal Beekeepers and James from Virgin Trains for their support in making it all happen!  Thank you everyone! 

Our 'buzzy' bee week continued today, with the last 'Advanced bee team' session of this year... and a special 'birth' in Year 4!
Year 4 were amazed to watch a Queen cell 'hatch' in front of their eyes in class! The Queen cells had been cut out of a hive in our 'out apiary' & brought in for the children to see... While the children were asking questions about the cells... one Queen began to emerge! To say we were a little bit excited, is an understatement!    This new Queen has now been placed in an Apidea, a mini hive containing nurse bees to look after her every need!  Hopefully her new mini 'family' will expand to be a full sized colony next year. 

The advanced team used their fabulous queen spotting skills to find an elusive new queen in a nucleus hive, quickly spotted by Poppy, then expertly marked by Mason!  Although this was the last advanced bee team session of the year, these dedicated beekeepers will be back during the summer holidays to care for our bees. 
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Mrs Harper and I were incredibly excited to go over to the Lancaster University Eco Hub this week, where along with Dr Phil Donkersly & Dr Mazza, both eminent professors working in bee and pollinator research, we will be collaborating on a piece of unique research into pollination over the Heron Hill school site and University.  This pilot 'Citizens Science' project is centred around our children doing real 'hands on scientific research' with the University, visiting their site, having valuable lessons from the professors on microscopy, apiculture and pollination.. At the end of the project, they will feed back their data and findings to a panel of scientists from the world of bees!   It is an amazing opportunity for us as a school and the children, we will keep you posted when the project commences in the Autumn. 
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Bee Musical, extraction, beeswax wraps & drone culling... what a bee day!

Today we covered just about everything practical!  The 'new-bees' (fuelled by some smashing bee shaped bee shortbread, thank you Corey!) Extracted our first lot of Heron Hill Honey... Mr Tett, our beekeeping buddy is taking it to The Great Yorkshire Show soon for our entry into their prestigious honey show. So fingers crossed, we will keep you posted!
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As part of our Integrated Pest Management to control the dreaded Varroa mite in the hives, we cull some of the drone brood to count the mites present... It is a horrible job to do, but the best and only way mid season to see if the level of Varroa in the hives is below the level to cause harm to the bees....Any Varroa is bad news as they spread nasty viruses which can harm and kill our bees, so Varroa management forms a central part of how we care for our bees. helping us keep our bees healthy. 
The children were AMAZING today... They used an uncapping fork to 'pull out' the drone brood where they checked each larvae for evidence of mites. 

Though not a bee team production...Year 3&4 performed the most wonderful Bee Musical today... I can quite honestly say it was the most amazing show!! Not only did every child sing, act and dance their hearts out, but so many important mesages were shared about the plight of bees were shared with the audience... Well done, superb!!

You may remember last year we signed up to submit our honey for sampling as part of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Honey Monitoring Scheme.

The scheme analyses honey samples from apiaries all over the country to gather information using advanced analytical techniques to identify the species of plant pollen present in honey samples. This will tell the CEH what bees are feeding on in different parts of the country and at different times of year. This information will help them identify possible threats to bees linked with floral resources.  

Our results are really interesting, firstly showing our honey is just about perfect in regard to concentration of sugars and water, (a sign of quality!) It also shows exactly in a 2km radius of school, our bees preferred sites and forage.  So here are the forage areas in summary...

The chart shows that a large proportion of our bees forage comes from Suburban areas, ie, all the children's gardens around school!  The other large area is classified as 'Improved grassland' that means managed fields and land, so that could mean areas where pesticides have been used, had lime applied or fertiliser... 
When we look at the areas surrounding school, we have a cricket ground, football pitches and parks, all areas where the land is intensively & actively managed. 
It is great to see the bees are using the local woodland including our wood to gain valuable year round forage. 

When the scheme looked at plant species, over 25 different plants were seen to be 'favourites' for our girls! Top of the list was White Clover, with over 60% of the bees vote! Next up, Bramble. 
This really shows how important 'wild and natural' areas are, not just to our bees, but all pollinators.  We will be looking closely at the rest of the results and will of course share them...

It is almost time for this years sample... I wonder what difference a year will make in the honey and the landscape available to our bees...?   Hopefully our new wildflower area will feature in next years results!!

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