Beautiful Morning At Heathrow
A gorgeous morning at Heathrow, above, the sun breaking over one of the several biodiversity sites that surround Heathrow Airport.
At this time of year, when the temperature drops below eight degrees the #bees stay warm and safe in their beehive.
When the sun warms the site to above eight degrees the foraging bees will begin appearing from the beehive, their endless task being to ensure enough provisions are foraged for, returned to the colony, processed and stored.
Only this single-minded approach ensures that the colony will survive the long cold winter, by having enough food stores and have an excess so the colony can start to build up early spring, just ahead of the earliest nectar flows.
Below the third week in November and the bees are incredibly busy despite very good levels of stores, they do not know how to leave things to chance, they simply do what is required of them to protect the colony.
Even at a time when stores are well guarded, bees can be very gentle when approached calmly and with respect.
All the colonies across the various biodiversity sites at Heathrow are monitored closely to ensure they are healthy and have appropriate stores for winter.
We will continue to monitor the colonies throughout winter and help prepare for their emergence as strong colonies.
2017 also heralds the start of Heathrow’s native dark #bee breeding program, where we will select the best colonies to breed the next generation of queens.
Thaks for reading.
If you have any questions please feel free to get in touch with BeekeeperTom via his beekblog.
Hi,
I used to be one of the Managers overseeing the operation of the CLC. I vaguely recall authorising Darren to deliver you some wood on occassions.
Would you be able to supply and deliver a starter colony to Sandhurst for a small bee box when the season is right?
Kind regs
Tom
Morning Tom,
Yes, I recall popping over to CLC from time to time to see if there was anything that GC could utilise.
As to the starter colony, yes we certainly can provide a starter colony.
Timing varies and given the recent cold weather things have been pushed back a good three weeks, meaning even queen rearing has been delayed.
Please do not be drawn into buying imported bees or ‘British bred’ FROM imported or hybrid bees, they are great year one, then later can become a handful.
A ‘package’ of bees usually consists of 1.5kg of bees and a queen, you simply (and carefully) introduce them to a beehive, these run at around £150.
Or you can go for a nucleus (nuc) of bees, usually, 6 frames of honeybees at a much more advanced state than above, in the region of £250.
OR if you are prepared to wait, and for the cost of a few drinks! You could do is put the word out locally that you are looking for a swarm of bees, usually, late in the season beekeepers have caught all the swarms they need and may offer one to you.
Then if you really want to get off to a flying start! I’d be more than happy to supply you with a native honeybee queen, simply replace the queen that came with the swarm and hey presto, you will have your own ‘native’ bee colony.
Hope the above options make sense, if you need further help please let me know.
BeekeeperTom