Exciting news from Andysworld! All of the Meltonby Honey from the 2023 season has officially sold out. But no need to worry—we’ve just stocked up on our fresh Summer Honey from 2024! Head over to our online store now to grab your jar: meltonbyhoney.com.
Once it’s gone it’s gone ! There will be no more for 2024 ! (it’s a wonder of nature we have any!)
After clearing out the fish house and removing the empty tanks, I’ve repurposed the shelves to store winter feed for the bees. This year, I’ve decided to switch from using commercial Ambrosia syrup, which comes in 18-liter (12kg) containers. Although effective, the syrup is heavy, messy, and liquid, and the bees tend to consume it too quickly. This rapid consumption can overcrowd the brood box, reducing the space available for the queen to lay eggs.
To address this, I’ve decided to switch to commercial bakers fondant for winter feeding. Since it’s solid, the bees will consume it more slowly, allowing them to store it over time. It’s essentially the same fondant used in Fondant Fancies, making it a practical and less messy alternative.
It’s time for the late summer harvest, and what a challenging year it has been. Poor weather has led to subpar forage and very low honey stores throughout the season. However, in this last warm stretch of August, things have turned around, and the bees have been busier than ever. As you can see in the photo, the hives are getting smaller now. This happens as we remove the honey-filled boxes, known as supers or shallows. During the peak months of June and July, the hives expand to accommodate up to 150,000 bees. Since that many bees can’t fit into just the brood box—the box at the bottom where the queen lays her eggs and the nurse bees care for the larvae—we add extra space. Now, it’s time to remove those heavy honey-laden boxes and take them to the honey room to begin the long, sticky, and messy process of extracting honey. With any luck, this year’s harvest will exceed our expectations, and we may even have some summer honey for 2024.
So what did you do with your Sunday! I started to label this years (2024) Summer Honey.
The majority of this year’s summer honey which was extracted weeks ago was delivered to pre-paid Wedding Orders as Honey favours.
The next batch which was extracted was not ripe – the water content tested at above 20% – which according to the Honey Legislation Act 2015 is technically not honey so it cannot be sold , and there is a risk it can ferment in the jars – so it was all fed back to the bees for them to deal with it correctly and this will be removed and extracted at the end of August!
This is just one of many issues we’ve had this year, see my monthly notes!
January/February 2024 – Feeding fondant – winter far too warm bees too active and ate through their winter stores too quick.
March 2024 – All hives and nucleus colonies went through the winter well – still feeding fondant
April 2024 – Bees expanding very quickly forage available – good hawthorn, blossom on fruit trees although this year no canola in the area! had to start Demeree and putting honey boxes into hives as the bees were expanding very quickly!
May 2024 – Disaster weather turns cold – large colonies need feeding eating 2.5kg a fondant a week! Many reports across the UK of starvation, queens stop laying, failing , colonies that showed signs of swarming have stopped!Majority of reared queens have failed!
June/July 2024 – Weather continued to be poor and a wash out! A few late swarms around
August 2024 – Weather getting warmer – a few honey flows – there could be some summer honey! Extracted honey not ripe! Fed back to bees!
September 2024 – Remove all surplus honey, and feeding and treating for winter, and bringing hives home for winter.
It’s time to reboot Andysworld! Blog. I think some of you may have missed tales from Andysworld! Oh if your fedup of this email in you inbox, let me know and I’ll remove you from the list!
I just don’t get much time anymore to keep the Andysworld! blog updated, with all the other social channels, Experts Exchange, VMware vExpert programs and BEEKEEPING which takes up a lot of my time now, over 12 months ago I have up my allotment to spend more time with the bees!
So lets have some bee photographs from this afternoons check, this is a colony of bees, split last year, taken over winter in a small nucleus (6 frames) the nucleus was called N1, so this is H11 (hive 11) which has 11 frames of honey bees, the honey bees are pure Buckfast bees, if you look carefully you will see they are mostly yellow, compared to the native black bees, which has hybridize today with most local strains which are darker. (Hint if you look at the queen in the first photo marked green (for 2024!), you will notice she is yellow/orange/ginger in colour rather than a dark black/brown, this indicates the yellowish colour that the Buckfast strain has, kept because they are easy to work, and non-aggressive H11 is a lovely colony to work compare to those in H3 ! Double gloves for H3 !
on Wednesday 24th May , I received my delivery of Bumble Bees from Dragonfli, my neighbours reported a swarm of honey bees landed in their back garden, and then later flew over the wall, and settled on my blue recycle bin!
So whilst I hived my bumble bees, and waited 30 minutes to release them, I quickly got my Beek gear together to quickly put the swarm in a swarm box!
Delivery box of bumble bees
box of bumble bees opened
box of bumble bees opened paperwork removed
bumble bees hived
The honey bee swarm was captured by me, and hived – they are currently doing well, but I’ve left them to do their thing, before I inspect.
swarm of honey bees on recycle bin
Traditionally according to the rhyme a load of hay, but it looks like a prime swarm, by the number of bees, which could have a laying queen, and also later by the weight in the box, I’ll let you know, how they turn out?
Last week of May and first week of June – “Swarming Season”
The beekeeping rhyme goes…
A swarm in May is worth a load of hay,
A swarm in June is worth a silver spoon,
A swarm in July ain’t worth a fly.
This weekend is reported to be the hottest weekend of the year, and if memory serves me correct, it’s at this time of year when the swarms arrive.
So I’ve put out five bait hives, these are just used bee hives, with old comb, which to bees stinks of bees and is heaven, in hope to catch a swarm of bees.
Some interest being shown already, shot on an iPhone 7 in slow motion!
fingers crossed.
and it’s not honey….it takes 7kg of honey to produce 1kg of bees wax! Bees wax burns clean with no soot, so that’s why it was favored in Churches and Monasteries, because it does not stain the ceilings! and many say that’s why Monks kept bees! Wax candles are usually made from paraffin!
You can see Sheldon’s support of beeswax candles here:-
As the season, winds down, I’ve started to tidy up and render this years bees wax down for wax exchange. This is from bees wax, I’ve been collecting all year, after inspections, e.g. removed from hives, queen excluders, and other bits of brace comb. Later in the year, I’ll take this wax and exchange it for foundation at Thorne. Foundation is the starter strips we use for bees to use as a template to draw out their comb. Thorne just add this and blend this with their other sources to create the foundation, so no waste, and completely recycled!
Here are some fantastic pictures of the process at Thorne, when I was lucky enough to visit, and have a tour around the factory by Gill Smith (Director and Owner of Thorne), in their Centenary year (2013).
Don’t forget Thorne Rand Open and Sale Day – Saturday 17th October, 10am.
Despite the slow start to spring, and the cold high winds we have experienced this spring, and lack of bees flying, I was surprised by the number of honey boxes or ‘honey supers’, I collected at the weekend for extraction. I’ve still go to go back to remove 4 honey supers, that the bees are not wanting to give up easily!!!
here’s a 1 minute video, of the extracted filtered honey, flowing into rectangular honey buckets to settle, before processing (creaming!) or jarring. None of the pollen is removed from my honey, only the wax bits, and bee parts. The water content of the honey in the comb and extracted was 16.5%, tested with my calibrated refractometer.
Selling Honey in the UK, is subject to the The Honey (England) Regulations 2003, an easier version is here The British Beekeepers Association Selling Honey Complying with the Law. Yes there is a Honey Law, and monitored by the Honey Police!
and it states “The water content of the honey must be not more than 20%.The higher the water content the more likely the honey is to ferment.”
So that’s what work goes into a jar of local honey from a British Beekeeper, spare a thought for that the next time, you pick-up a jar of “honey-syrup” from a supermarket! If you have never tasted honey from a local British Beekeeper, I’m afraid you have never tasted real honey.
The analogy I like to use is the difference, between a 21 years old single Scottish malt whiskey and a blended whiskey! The malt whiskey is the local honey, and the blended whiskey is the honey syrup from the supermarket, in this comparison.
So support British Beekeepers, and purchase a jar from your local Beek today!
6 'honey-supers' on my bee barrow!
Andy's Hives
Andy's Hives
Now that I have my new Catering Certificate, see this blog post, I’m scaling up the Honey Selling activities…first I purchased a ‘A Pavement board”, to replace my smaller Local Honey sign, and Lindsey kindly did the artwork. The artwork is Copyright (c) Andysworld! (well Lindseyworld!) 2015. So be warned anyone that downloads it, and uses it!
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Meltonby Honey Sold Here
Online Ordering coming soon….to a website near you!
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