The Bees @ Rhyddings

You may have noticed a small fenced area at the back of the garden, well if you take a closer look you’ll see some strange boxes. And if you look closer you’ll see bees flying out and bees flying in.

The bees leaving are heading out into the surrounding countryside in search of nectar and pollen. They take in the nectar and carry the pollen on their back legs.

Once loaded, they head back to the hive and if you pay close attention to the returning bees you may see the brightly coloured pollen stuck on their legs - it varies in colour depending on the plants on which they have been foraging. But inside the hive there is also a lot of activity. 

The queen, and there is only one, lays eggs - up to 2,000 every day. These eggs mostly hatch into worker bees and they can number up to 60,000 inside the hive.

Before the workers are ready to take on foraging duties they are put to work inside the hive, cleaning and preparing cells, removing debris and some tend to the queen.

At this time of year, it’s all systems go - the workers prepare cells for the queen to lay eggs as fast as possible. Foraging bees work from sunrise to sunset bringing back nectar and pollen.

The bees produce tiny plates of wax that are used to make the honeycomb into which everything is stored.

Eggs are laid in the cells and workers provide enough food before capping the cell and three weeks later the newly hatched bees emerge.

The cells are also used to store food.

Incoming bees pass their stores to other bees who pack the pollen into empty cells, and the nectar is processed into honey which is stored in cells that when full is sealed with a wax lid.

All of this is so that the queen and all her brood can survive the winter during which they seldom leave the hive, huddled together and living off the honey stores created during the long hot days of summer.

You might ask where are the boy bees? 

Well that’s a story for another day.

Andrew, The Bee Keeper @ Rhyddings