Photos

The Bees

Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens wildflower meadow (3)

Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens flower border

Worker foraging in Oxford Botanic Gardens wildflower meadow (2)

Note her proboscis (long tongue) as the worker bee sips nectar, later to be converted to honey

Worker bee seeking nectar from runner bean flowers on Botley Meadow Allotments

Cotoneaster is important for honey bees and other pollinators in late spring, while its berries feed birds in winter.

Dandelions are an important food source, left for bees rather than mown or pulled up.

Bee sipping nectar from chives on Botley Meadow Allotment

Worker bee forages for rose pollen

Worker bee amid wildflowers in Botley Meadow Allotments

Resilient worker bee clings to sodden cow parsley (the May of 2021 was one of the wettest on record)

A warm spring day encourages the bees to forage for pollen and nectar

A worker takes time out of the hive on a warm day

Workers create a queen cell to raise a new queen.

Checking that the queen is laying well, the brood is healthy and has enough food stores

Brood frame showing variously coloured pollen stored to raise the next generations

Our 'Denton' swarm: the queen and most of the bees are now inside the new hive, as remaining stragglers make their way in

Splitting a hive emulates bees' natural reproductive instincts to leave their old home and establish a new colony
The Apiary and around

Apiary location amid gardens and meadows

Botley Meadow in June, with cow parsley, buttercups, blackberry and other wildflowers

Warre hives waiting to be populated by a swarm

Cow parsley, nettle and other wildflowers support the Apiary the local ecosystem

Top bar hive added to the apiary in March 2021, and populated in May

An obliging swarm in the garden of the The Coach and Horses Inn, Chiselhampton (near Dorchester-on-Thames), July 2022

Home apiary hives descended from the Eden swarm

Bees orient themselves on moving in to a new home (top bar hive in May 2021)

Transferring frames of brood and food for a new hive

Botley Meadow Bees logo: bee foraging in a meadow
Honey and beeswax

Pouring the season's first honey into jars

Nothing beats honey fresh from the hive!

The first honey of the season in front of a Warre hive

The first honey of the season in the morning sun

Flavour, colour and texture can change during the season, according to the available sources of nectar

Our early harvest of West Oxford Honey was a sell-out!

Mini-pots can make wonderful, cute gifts !

Using the sun's rays to render beeswax

Rendered wax, cleaned and ready for candle-making

Close-up of a pure beeswax melt or cake

Pure bees wax melts

Pure beeswax hand-poured mini-melts (stars)

Pure beeswax hand-poured mini-melts (hearts)

Pure beeswax is a by-product of the honey harvest

Skep and honeycomb pillar candles, hand-poured using pure beeswax from our hives

Skep and honeycomb pillar candles, hand-poured using pure beeswax from our hives

Beeswax candles burn long, with the chromatic range of the sun
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Preparing to Divide a Hive

Progress with the new Hive
