Bee Keeping at Compton Verney – 27.8.18
There are many times in each year when we reach a milestone, and the honey harvest is certainly one of our favourites. As such, and knowing how many honey bee supporters there are out there, Rod Oates has prepared a short report about the year he’s experienced as volunteer bee keeper at Compton Verney:
The long hard winter was a real challenge for bees generally but we were fortunate that against the odds all three colonies survived, though it was not until early April that the bees became active. However the weather in late April and May was quite reasonable and all three colonies expanded their population and produced a decent amount of honey.
Rod Oates, volunteer bee keeper at Compton Verney
Early June I extracted and bottled 63lbs of honey all coming from the two long established colonies. The weather then became exceptional once more with weeks of hot dry days. Initially this suited the bees very well and all three colonies expanded to some 60,000 bees per hive and all foraging strongly, building up their food supplies – honey!
Mid June I was called to take a swarm of bees from a nearby garden and this was used to populate the empty (fourth) hive. The bees are good natured and have settled in nicely, growing in numbers so it should be a sufficiently strong colony to get through the coming winter.
Hive packed with honeycomb – there’s hardly room for the bees to move!
The three existing colonies continued to bring in a lot of honey until mid July. The summer nectar flow would normally last until mid August but it seems the hot dry weather adversely affected flowers such that they were producing very little nectar. The consequence has been that from late July the bees have been consuming more honey than they have produced.
However around 30lbs of honey was taken off one of the hives at the beginning of August, bottled and handed to the shop. Over the next week or two the remaining surplus honey off the hives will be removed for extraction and I estimate this will yield something in the area of 80lbs.
Some of the 2018 honey produced at Compton Verney
Once that honey has been taken from the hives preparation for the winter will commence, applying treatment for the varroa mite, checking the condition of hives, cleaning as necessary, followed by feeding the bees with syrup which they will store for winter food supplies.
So what a season it has been. The very challenging cold spring weather. The very hot dry summer. But all the colonies in a good healthy condition and record yields of honey. Who knows what the coming winter will through at us!
Should you wish to try some of the premium honey produced at Compton Verney, the shelves are currently fully stocked!