Throughout the winter and now again in the spring, I've noticed a number of large native bumblebees in the Wild Garden. These, I believe, are the Buff-Tailed Bumblebee.

One was buzzing around me in early January... others have been feeding on snowdrops and hellebores... and just the other day, I had to extract one enthusiastic queen from my greenhouse. 
Last summer one group took up residence in the wooden roof above our back door. Hopefully this will be a good year for them. Check out the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for help identifying your native bees.

A wild bees nest
During the early summer, I helped a local beekeeper remove a wild bee's nest from someone's house. The bees had been living above a bay window, nice and snug between the ceiling and the roof. They had been there a number of years, and their nest was about three to four times the size of a National brood box. 

Transferring the bees into a hive
Over several hours, Clifford used a large knife to slice up sections of the nest. He handed these sections down to me. I then crammed the comb (which contained brood) into empty frames, binding it with string. We slotted these frames into a brood box, planning to let them settle, and then move them into clean, sterile frames in a few weeks time. 

Wild honeycomb
Clifford gave me the honey, to repay my time, and I arrived home later that day with a 60 litre tub full of honeycomb. I had no honey extractor, but even if I had, it wouldn't have helped, since extractors are designed to extract honey from foundation frames. 

So I did a little research, then applied that old method, trial and error. I will spare you the details, but the summary, for those who face a similarly sticky situation, is this: 

For old comb, which is firmer to the touch, and darker, even black, you can squeeze the honey out of the comb and into a bowl with your bare hands. You will be left with a lump of wax in your hands, and lots of honey in the bowl. 

But this does not work with fresh new comb, which is soft and crumbly to the touch, and a paler colour. The wax is too soft, and will merge into one sticky mess in your hands. Instead, crush the new comb in a large saucepan and heat it gently. The wax will separate and float to the top. Skim it off with a large spoon as best you can. Then strain the remaining honey through a fine wire sieve into a bowl. You should then put the skimmed wax into a further saucepan (or container) and repeat the exercise once more. 

And then voila! Lovely wild honey - simply stacks of it - and lots of happy family members and friends, all enjoying honey on their toast. This cheers me up, despite my problems with my own bees (see previous post on Robber Wasps). 

I found a good description of how to do this from some outdoor folks in Oz (Oz outdoors). Looking again more recently, I also found a lovely description elsewhere (check out this link). But in essence the learning from my experience is that you need one method to extract honey from the soft comb, and another to extract it from the firmer comb. 

Surprise surge in honey consumption at Neats Home 
I was surprised to see even Mr P spreading honey on his toast. He'd never been a honey lover before - he always ate marmalade. Why the sudden change in taste? 

He smiled. "I never ate it before because it was so expensive to buy! But since this is free, I'll eat it as much as I want now!" 

Deep disappointment. My bees are being overtaken by wasps. I inspected them a week ago and was alarmed by their low numbers and their overly placid behaviour. I concluded that during my summer break, they'd replaced the queen, and there had been a drop in numbers for that reason. But I was worried to see that they still hadn't begun working the super, and there were wasps entering the brood box. 

To survive the coming autumn and winter I needed to start feeding them. So a few days later, having made up a batch of sugar syrup (flavoured with lemon verbena!), I returned. Bad news. Dead wasps littered the crown board, but many more live wasps were in the brood box and entering the main entrance. 

I spoke to my beekeeper mentor, and he advised me to block the hive entrance completely, and leave them for 48 hours; after re-opening the entrance to a tiny bee-size gap, the bees would be more aggressive, and resume defending the entrance. 

I blocked up the entrance, but couldn't bear to leave them for more than 36 hours like this, so early this morning I unblocked the entrance, leaving a small gap, and inspected quickly. 

Bad news. The wasps had already managed to create a small entrance, and were entering the hive freely. Inside the brood box, the remaining bees are completely overwhelmed, living in the central brood frames, and are reacting sluggishly. 

I am really worried about them. If anyone has any suggestions, please contact me via my contact page. /contact.html