Honey-Woney

Did you know bees can't fly when they are very young (0-18 days old). I made a split today and these young bees left the hive to spend time near the hive entrance in calm weather, learning to orient themselves to the hive location. You may also see a small group pause outside briefly after foraging flights or during short lulls in activity.

A little window into the busy world at one of my bee hives 🐝✨

In this time lapse, you can see the constant rhythm of colony life, worker bees arriving home heavy with pollen, others heading out on foraging trips, and guard bees keeping watch at the doorway. Every movement has a purpose, from feeding the colony to protecting it and keeping everything running smoothly.

What looks like chaos is actually incredible teamwork and organisation, nature at its finest. 💛

I had to swap the brood box with this one, so transferred the frames to this one. Very quickly you will see, the bees at the entrance with their abdomens raised and wings buzzing away.

They’re exposing something called the Nasonov gland, which releases a lemony-smelling pheromone. Then they fan their wings to spread it through the air.

What they’re basically doing is creating a scent signal that says:

👉 “Hey guys hive’s over here, don’t get lost he's changed our house!.”

Other bees use it to:

Find their way back home
Help confused bees locate the hive
Guide a swarm to a new spot

So yeah, it's a highly organised navigation system… that just happens to involve bees pointing their butts up and wafting lemon-scented directions everywhere.

That's my first inspection done. Sadly I lost 2 colonies but I still have 4. I've a list of "to do's" and gave some of the expanding colonies some room. I may even have some honey this year! 🤞🏼

Lots of activity today 🐝🐝🐝

In between showers I've managed to check all 5 colonies, and they are all thriving. This year I'm going to concentrate on increasing the amount of colonies we have here at the farm. I will be making some splits in the next few weeks, after that has been completed I will know if we have honey to share. 🐝🍯

As always it'll be limited quantities, it will be first come first served. 👍

Thank you 😁

Happy International Womens Day!!

Did you know, Female bees, known as worker bees, make up the vast majority of a hive's population, and they do all the work to keep it functioning. Female bees are responsible for the construction, foraging, guarding the hive, nursing the baby bees and even feeding the queen! Female bees maintain the colony that calls it home. 🐝🐝🐝🐝