We are delighted to welcome our newest beekeepers to Denbies

It has been a beautiful Spring. We moved a few of our hives to Denbies just in time for the bees to stir after the winter.   Beekeepers need to make sure the bees are given clean hives in the Spring, that they are healthy and ready for the new season.  From April, the bees are checked weekly to make sure they are well and have sufficient food in the hive.

An overwintering hive will have a queen and around 5 to10,000 female worker bees.  The male Drones are not needed in the winter as they have just one task – reproduction.  In the Spring the queen will lay between 1,000 and 2,000 eggs a day.  A hive during the summer will have a queen and around 40 to 60,000 workers and drones.

We are lucky that Denbies has plenty of Spring forage with its wide range of trees including cherry and hazel.  As Denbies is close to Ranmore and the North Downs, the bees also forage on the birch, willow and blackthorn there.   Dandelions and bluebells are now major nectar sources.

Plants cannot move so they rely on pollinators to help reproduce.  They create nectar to attract pollinators. Honeybees turn the nectar into honey for their winter stores. Honeybees and Bumblebees collect pollen in pollen baskets on their legs and nectar in a special, second, honey stomach.  Travelling from plant to plant, they spread the pollen allowing plant pollination and receive the nectar as a reward.  The remaining pollen on the bees is used as food in the hive.  Some plants (such as vines) are wind or self- pollinated.  However, most plants produce a better crop if pollinated:  80% of flowering plants and 75% of crops need to be pollinated.

Bees can visit between 1,000 and 2,000 flowers a day.  One bee will make up to ½ teaspoon of honey in her entire life. Only female worker bees collect honey and pollen.  The Drones (male bees) only have one job – reproduction. It takes around 1,000 bees to make 1 kg of honey.

Different flowers and trees produce different colour tasting honey and pollen.  For instance, the dandelion pollen is orange, bluebells have creamy green pollen and the horse chestnut pollen is dark red.

The almost constant sunshine has meant the Spring build up in the hives has, for the first time in quite a few years, been excellent.