Today's the day when "Plan Bee" finally gets its first colony of bees. After waiting for what seems ages, I happened to be chatting with a lovely lady called Sylvia at the Annual Nosema Testing Day I went along to help at this weekend. It turned out that she had far too many bees herself and was thinking of getting rid of some of them. Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
Right. I've gone and got myself a beehive so need to get a wriggle on to finish off the patch of garden where the apiary will be. Easier said than done when it involves moving heavy blocks of concrete, broken up paving slabs, a heap of old bricks, a stack of old plasterboard sheets and wood pile. Not a job to be done in 5 minutes - time to roll up my sleeves!
Where to start? We have two Nationals at work and my knowledge on beehives is practically zero but with the imminent arrival this year of a nuc (short for 'nucleus') of bees in a few months and still lots to learn, I musn't forget to clean the two hives and furnish them inside with what the colony will need for them to thrive and live a happy life. Basically, all the old frames, foundation - and anything else lurking inside - needs to come out and replaced.
It's official, I'm now a member of the British Beekeepers' Association and this week I went along to the first Exeter branch Beginners' Beekeeping Course session along with another 20-30 people from around the area all budding beekeepers. The course itself runs from January to April when we'll get to meet bees for real at the apiary and our introduction is looking at hives and equipment.