Yes to Nucs at Ragmans!

It’s a very exciting week here on the farm – we have taken delivery of 3 top bar hives and top bar nucs! (Nuc stands for a nucleus and is the term for a small colony of bees with a queen, brood, and honey supplies.)

The bees are here as the start of a Teaching Apiary to be managed by Bees for Development  (BfD).

 

Thankfully the weather was OK for the arrival ceremony  – it wasn’t raining and it was warm. The bees had travelled from Abergavenny, about 40 miles, with Tony and Helen Davies who had raised the nucs and who had made the top bar hives. Tony had started these nucs in June; they looked healthy and happy and the bees were very quiet even after their journey. The top bars from the nucs were very gently added to each top bar hive. We didn’t see any queens in the transfer process but there were lots of brood in the comb.

The hives have been situated in a quiet corner of the farm. Over time the apiary site will be planted with bee friendly plants and kept quite wild to provide a very natural habitat for the bees. The farm is organic so that’s good for the bees – no harmful pesticides; and there are already lots of bee-friendly plants e.g. willow, bramble, clover, lime trees, fruit trees, comfrey, ivy, providing pollen and nectar year-round.

BfD promote sustainable methods of beekeeping and have been working for over 20 years with a strong international presence. In the last few years they have been promoting sustainable bee keeping in the UK and have held courses at Ragmans for the past 3 years. The next course here is on 13-14th October 2012.

Recognising the role of honeybees and all pollinating insects is so important. Here at Ragmans we want to promote all aspects of sustainable living, which of course includes creating an environment that nurtures bio-diversity. Maintaining an environment that supports bee populations and promoting sustainable bee keeping is crucial and we are really excited and proud to have this partnership with Bees for Development and all they do to encourage and support people around the world to do just this!

The Teaching Apiary will be a core feature of BfDs course programme at Ragmans and will enable course participants to see how top bar hives work, how to site them and use them to look after bees. Other types of hive e.g. a Warre and a National will be introduced for comparison purposes. Our new top bar hives were supplied by Tony Davies – thank you Tony!