Unfortunately our single colony of bees didn’t survive the 2013/2014 winter. This spring we bought an over wintered nuc from Paynes Bee Farm to replace them. They have done really well so far this year, expanding rapidly and are now packing honey into the supers.
Here is a short film of them arriving home after a slightly nerve wracking car journey around London. The mesh lid is a special travelling lid to the nuc box to reduce the chance of the bees overheating.
Walking down to Dartmouth Park earlier A noticed some wild flower planting, so we had to have a closer look.
We were really chuffed to see some honey bees enjoying them.
Thank you people of Laurier Road!
The Lime trees are in flower!
We spent a few minutes gazing upwards at the bees busily working yesterday. The scent is almost overpowering in this hot weather. Our hive 1 has drawn and filled an entire super in just 10 days since the local limes flowered. I have heard of this happening, but never really believed it – how wrong I was. For once I’m delighted to be corrected!
This year all the flowers seem to be about a month ahead of usual. Our bees have been very busy collecting nectar from a huge range of plants and trees. This gives our honey a complex flavour and makes London honey unique.
Here are a few that I’ve recently spotted while walking around our local area
Callistemon
We are lucky to be surrounded by gardens and parks with such a wide selection of flowers at the moment.
Hebe
Geranium
Around here there are a lot of privet hedges, they are humming with bees at the moment.
I’m particularly pleased to see bumbles busy dipping in and out of the foxgloves that I’ve grown from seed.
Busy on the blackberry blossom
Evidence that they have been here!
The huge lime tress are just starting to flower, on our walk to school every morning we check their progress. If the weather stays warm I’m sure our bees will be feasting on the nectar soon.
