Chapter Four

The lower Teme valley, where I live and keep my bees, is probably one of the best areas in the Country for providing bees with supplies during their nectar and pollen gathering period. Nectar is the name for the sweet substance the bees gather from plants. It becomes honey after being processed by passing through their bodies and they then deposit it in the combs. In Chapter I I have listed the fruit trees which surround our house but there are many other, possibly more prolific trees and plants from which bees extract nectar. The earliest are the willows, several varieties of which grow thickly by the river. When the pussy willows are in full blossom, creating an outstanding yellow effect among the other trees, the loud noise of humming can give the impression of a swarm having landed in the tree.

A little later sycamores and lime trees, if large enough, can keep a hive busy for two or three weeks and the bees themselves will draw attention to their work on the cotoneasters and other garden shrubs and plants.

In this district there is one plant that, given suitable weather conditions, surpasses all others in every way. It is the humble white clover. It does, of course, appear in nearly all pasture fields and to some degree in most lawns, in spite of gardener's efforts to eliminate it. It produces a flow of nectar all through the late spring early and late summer and into the autumn. It does need warm weather for the nectar flow to commence, so that unless the night has been warm the bees do not start work on it until later in the day than some other crops, but once started they abandon all other tempting offerings. They do love it and can usually find a supply near their hive. It produces first class honey with a strong taste that is characteristic of English honey.

Some farm crops produce nectar, the best known being oil-seed rape. Beekeepers view this crop with mixed feelings. It produces large crops of honey very quickly, but has the great disadvantage of setting solid very soon indeed after being stored in the combs. This means that the beekeeper must be constantly on the alert if there is rape in the neighborhood. If it is left a day too long it cannot be extracted, having set in the combs which are then useless. Even the bees seem unable to use it.

A late summer and autumn crop, typical of the Teme Valley, is Himalayan Balsam which grows thickly along the riverbanks. The flowers, which resemble those of broad beans, are large enough for bees to push inside quite easily. In doing so they become covered in pollen, looking quite white. It makes it very easy to identify where they are working. One bee-keeper I knew who was unable to get to the river to see his bees at work, thought they were suffering from some strange disease that was attacking every bee with a white mould! I was very pleased to reassure him that every bee was returning with a full load of nectar.

Although bees go on working until very late autumn, weather permitting, the best time for taking their surplus honey is May June and July. This leaves time for them to build up their stores for the winter. It does of course depend on the weather in each year. Bee-keepers traditionally kept the honey on the hives until the bees had almost finished working but the arrival of oil-seed rape has altered that. There is usually some of it about and whatever the bees have apparently been working on it is best to take no chances. When the bees decide that the honey in the cells has lost sufficient of its water content to mature without fermenting they start to cover each cell with a cap. They leave a small air space between the honey and the cap which is very useful during the uncapping process that will be explained later.

The frames that hold the combs are called supers. A super will hold thirty pounds of honey, but the usual quantity is about twenty pounds because they often leave areas unfilled. The reasons for this are varied and sometimes not at all apparent. The combs may be badly constructed, or have become wobbly because of the beekeeper neglect. I must now explain how the supers, when filled, are taken from the hive, which I shall do in the next chapter.

Chapter Five