We have bees!

Here at Norwich Community Bees, we've been on high alert for the past week as we've been waiting and hoping that we might get a swarm.  After a few false starts (warm morning followed by wind and cloud in the afternoon) I finally got the call on Friday afternoon!  Beekeeper-extraordinaire Colin had found a swarm for us!

One rapid round of mails, calls and texts later, and Tom stepped forward to meet Colin at Norwich Farmshare to install the bees in the hive.

Despite a slight technical hitch that meant there was only one suit available, Tom got some great shots of the bees heading into their new home!

The next afternoon, Dan, Bee, Suzanne and I headed over to the site to see how they were settling in and add some additional frames. It was the first time I'd suited up and got up close and personal with a hive, and I was quite nervous, but as soon as we opened the hive, you could just hear that the bees were getting on fine, and they were really calm while we checked them out and added the frames.

It was a fantastic experience, and I can't wait to go back and see how they're getting on.  As Dan said, watching them flying in and out of the hive and listening to the buzzing is so peaceful, you could quite imagine bringing a deckchair and a nice bottle of wine and making an afternoon of it!

We'll be feeding them this week, and in a week or so, Colin will come back and give them a health-check for us.  Watch this space and we'll let you know the plans.

If you're not yet a member and are interested in knowing more about Norwich Community Bees, drop us a line at norwichcommunitybees@hotmail.co.uk.  We'd love to hear from you!

Pics: Colin transferring the bees from skep to hive.  Watching the bees marching into their new home.  Jon (l) and Dan (r) adding frames to the hive.

Black Honeybees Rediscovered

Lovely piece from today's online Guardian

Black honeybees rediscovered in Britain

Native black honeybees, previously thought all but extinct in the UK, are better suited to surviving the British climate and could hold the key to reversing colony collapse

Read the full story here.

Pic from Bibba, via the Guardian Website

Sunday Meeting Postponed

At last the sun has come out!

Unfortunately, we're going to have to postpone Sunday's meetup, but I'm really keen that we get together as soon as possible. I've created a doodle (link below) for a visit to the farm to sort out the hive and get everything ready for the summer. I've put lots of dates to make it as open to as many people as possible.

http://www.doodle.com/utmzn9uz9kkaz3ci

Please do let me know if you have any trouble with the link, or have any questions at all.

Happy Easter from Norwich Community Bees

Happy Easter to you all!

The weather is starting to warm up now, and Norwich Community Bees is starting to think about hives and swarms for this summer.

Our next meeting is this Sunday, 15th April, from 11.00 up at the Norwich Farmshare site. If you'd like to come along, please let me know, or fill in the doodle here:

http://doodle.com/zgy6mvk7xa5fvw3y

We'll be sorting out the hive and getting everything ready for the summer.

If you would like to join Norwich Community Bees as a paid-up member, please let me know. Our bank account accepts electronic payments, or I'm happy to take cash or cheques on 15th if you're able to come along. I'll bring some membership certificates, and full membership gives you a share in any of the fine products that the bees might make to share with us.

2012 Planning - The Results

We had a great meeting last week at the Bicycle Shop in Norwich to plan out our activity for 2012. It was great to see everyone, and to hear so much enthusiasm for Norwich Community Bees!

First of all, we talked about visiting the hive and seeing what's happening with our bees. The view was that it's best to leave the bees alone until towards the end of March (subject to weather - if it gets warmer, we'll bring that forward).  As people's availability will vary due to work, and other, commitments, we'll need to make sure we give everyone a chance to join in on a practical level if they want to.

We currently have the one hive, but the group was very keen on building up the numbers, and to this end,we're planning on building a Top Bar Hive (or two) during February / March.  Everyone was really keen to get stuck in and help, which was great!

Food for our bees was very much on our minds, and we talked about the work the Bungay Beekeepers are doing to provide bee corridors of wild flowers.  We want to see if there's any scope to plant some wild meadow flowers in the borders of the farm.

We also talked about money and membership; to make this work, we will need to pay for various things this year - we now have a bank account and we're happy to take cash, cheques or online payments - membership for 2012 is just £20.

Next Meeting of Norwich Community Bees

Monday 23rd January 2012

at 7.30pm

Downstairs at The Bicycle Shop

17 St. Benedicts Street, Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4PE

Buzzing with Excitement!

Norwich Community Bees is officially up and running - we have our first hive of bees! Erik managed to track down a full colony and yesterday morning, Colin brought it over to the Norwich Farmshare site at Postwick.

Colin thought it might upset the bees to move the frames from his hives to ours, and since the bees
think it's late in the year, and upsetting them is best avoided, so he put his hive where ours was. We agreed that in spring we would put the bees in our hive and give Colin back his.

It was a proud moment when he and Erik moved the hive into place, and our bees were liberated form their locked quarters while in transit.

Unfortunately we were all a bit to close at that moment and Colin had to suddenly provide a rapid teaching session on how to comb bees out of exposed long hair. Poor Elena was stung under her eye, and had to go off to work with a rescue remedy splashed on liberally! But Colin did teach us to be relaxed about them - we will all get stung sooner or later.

Erik & the colony

Colin explains the setup

Elena and Bee with Colin

A bee in Bee's hair!

A glimpse of our bees

It's been a long journey from initial idea to finally getting the bees on site, but I'm so excited that we're now really a community beekeeping scheme at last! And it has really been a community effort, so a big thank you to everyone who's joined in the planning and doing, contributed their ideas, enthusiasm and skills. This is only just the beginning!

Pics: Bee and Tierney