Annual Bee Keepers Christmas Dinner

It was lovely, thanks. I had goats cheese, followed by the turkey. We learnt an awful lot about some aspects of bee keeping which had me throwing worried looks at hubby. One of the reasons I learnt so much was because we were sat right next to a Bee Inspector. Yes, thats his actual full time job. Well, that and looking after the 70 hives he has.

So the potted version is that Bee Inspectors are employed by DEFRA to look after bees and bee keepers. They can go anywhere on land that bees are kept though due to a recent change in legislation only on private gardens with permissions. If they contact you and ask to see your beehive, you have to let them view it. They are primarily concerned with the health of bees. We didn’t get around to the ‘funny stories a bee inspector might tell you’ part of the conversation as service was quick and we had to get home for the baby sitter but he did tell us about bee keepers who keep their bees on top of shed roofs – not a good idea in his view.

The best bit though was an insight into why you must not open your hive in cold weather. This was useful as hubby and I were planning to do just that this weekend. Bees huddle in the cold and make a cluster. Think penguins at the south pole – lots of cold and cuddling penguins keeping the warmth in and staying alive. Well, it is much the same principle for bees. They cluster and keep themselves at 30 degrees, no matter what it is outside.

Now, if you were to open the hive and pull out a frame, lets say the one they had clustered around, perhaps because you had forgotten to take out the varroa mite treatment you put in late in Sept, you would break the cluster.  The Bee Inspector tells us that breaking the cluster is certain death as the bees cool down and die. It happens very quickly, a bit like slow motion, with them beginning to move and then slowing down until they are still. And dead.

We spent the dessert course googling what might happen if you leave an Apistan strip in the hive all winter, since opening the hive now as planned is clearly not an option…..