Sussex Beekeeping: A Surprising Honey Harvest and Preparing Hives for Winter
The autumn report on The Grain Store’s bee community and honey harvest from our on-site Beekeeper and local Apiculturist, Manek Dubash.
Image credit: Porter-Hardy Garden Design
Now autumn is here, the beekeeping season is over, and it’s time to look forward to next year.
In the July instalment, I said: “From pessimism about a honey harvest in 2024, I’m now cautiously optimistic that there will be some. Probably not a huge amount, I don’t expect, as one box is always left for the bees to see them over the winter.” Wrong!
The last three months have been extremely busy. Not only has there been a hefty honey harvest—twice as much as last year despite predictions of a dire outcome due to the rubbish spring—the bees have been keeping me occupied with ensuring that they are kept warm and dry.
The harvest itself involves a fair amount of work too, of course. With over 40kg of honey from the Littledown Apiary alone, it filled my supply of food-grade buckets, took a day to spin out of the frames, and used up all my jars and lids. Then there’s labelling and selling it on, which contrary to what some might imagine, barely covers the costs, if at all. To be frank, I don’t keep bees for the money, it’s all about the joy of the hobby.
One highlight of the last three months was the big move of the hives: I moved them out of the little enclave next to the Grain Store up to the top of the land, 100 metres or so to the west of the Store.
Moving live bee hives in the middle of the season is no simple task. They’re as full of bees as they will ever be, up to 50,000 of them, the hives are heavy with honey and the bees do not like to be moved. And moving them within their normal foraging range of around two to three miles runs the risk of having foragers return to the hive’s original location, which of course is no longer there. This makes them grumpy, and exaggerates any tendency they might already have had to take out that grumpiness on passers-by.
So why move them? Bees from one of the three hives were in fact becoming aggressive to people using the car park, so Anni and I agreed that they should be moved. Bees are wonderful creatures but they have to be able to co-habit with us people. If not, it’s action stations.
Anyway, long story short, they’ve gone from the wee grove by the car park and have settled in nicely in their new location. They’re fed for the winter, they’ve been treated for varroa and the hives have been insulated against heat loss through the roof. I shall inspect from the outside only every few weeks or so to ensure they won’t starve, but other than that, they’ll be left alone.
Next year? That’s for the next instalment...
- Manek Dubash
