The Ugly House Stud Farm for Bees

Ten virgin queens in hair curlers

Dare I say there’s a buzz at Tŷ Hyll? I love this photo of a proud beekeeper with ten virgin queens in ‘hair curlers’ which protect the queens from attack by a rival; the first new queen to hatch in any colony will kill potential competitors as soon as they emerge.

All ten of these virgin queens have now been placed in the Ugly House woodland in separate apideas (mini hives) along with a cupful of fondant and some young worker bees. After a couple of days the virgin queen in each apidea will have been accepted by the workers and can be released from the hair curler.

The virgin queens will be sniffing out the pheromones of the resident, roving drones at Tŷ Hyll and all being well, mating will take place in the next week or so. Each mated queen can go on to produce over a million bees during her life without the need to mate again – amazing!

If you’ve not yet been to the Ugly House (Tŷ Hyll) it is two miles out of Betws y Coed on the way to Capel Curig with an olde worlde tearoom, beautiful wildlife garden with five acres of idyllic woodland and enthusiastic beekeepers. More details at www.theuglyhouse.co.uk

Brood! We have brood!

Towards the end of August two mini hives, each containing a virgin queen, a cupful of worker bees and some fondant (food), were installed in a secluded area of the woodlands at Tŷ Hyll. The idea being that the virgin queens would mate with drones from nearby hives and go on to produce a pure breed of native ‘northern European dark’ bees as opposed to more exotic species less suited to our climate.

This was our first go at mating and there was much anticipation two weeks later when we opened the mini hives to see what had happened. Pete Barrar, from the National Beekeeping Centre for Wales, eased off the roof and lifted out the empty queen cell. It was good that it was empty but where was the queen? Had she been accepted or had she been killed by the other bees? Had she mated and started laying eggs?

Lots of bees were buzzing away as we gazed on through the mesh of our bee suits and then Pete exclaimed ‘Brood! We have capped brood!’ It was a bit like Houston saying ‘we have lift off’. Bees crawled all over the frame and as we watched the queen, with her body longer than the others, she reversed into a cell to deposit an egg, but at that moment a worker walked on her head and put her off her stride.

Brood! We have brood!
Peter Barrar, National Beekeeping Centre for Wales

Frames were delicately reinserted into the expanded polystyrene hive, not very aesthetic but they are strong and with good insulating properties. A slab of fondant, which looked like sticky icing sugar, was cut out of a pack and placed at the end of the hive. Then a plastic sheet was laid over the tops of the frames to encourage the bees downwards so that the roof could be replaced without squashing anyone.

We moved to mini hive number two, perched on a pedestal with a stone on top to weigh it down. There were lots of bees inside but no brood to be seen. This queen was a couple of days younger than the other and maybe she needed a bit more time? Or maybe the process hadn’t worked? Either way we were all elated that we had proved the point that we could rear queen bees.

Pete explained that the queen would have mated maybe fifteen times (i.e. with fifteen drones), over the course of one to three nuptial flights, until her spermatheca was full. This holds something like six million sperm which the queen selectively releases during her productive life. Unlike species from warmer climates such as the Mediterranean, which lay eggs at full speed throughout the year, native queens reduce the number of eggs to reflect the climate and the amount of available forage. In the summer our queen could be producing up to 2,000 eggs per day.

Our mated queen will be used to requeen a colony that needs a new queen, to keep that colony going through the winter months. September is too late in the season for a queen to create a new colony to be strong enough to get through the winter so next year we will start the mating much earlier.  ‘A swarm in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon; but a swarm in July is not worth a fly’ .... for it is then too late to store up honey before the flowers begin to fade.

Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this wonderful act of creation possible and establish a process which will significantly help local beekeepers, native bees and the knock-on benefits of pollination.

Natur Cymru 47 - a marine theme

Puffin by Sharon Whitley 

Marine nature conservation in Wales: gloom or hope? - Blaise Bullimore. The struggle to establish protected areas at sea.

Adfer gorgors yn Rhyd-ddu - Gethin Davies.

Sea stars and the Sea Empress – Robin Crump. A tale of two cushion stars in south-west Wales.

The one that got away - Pippa Moore. What influences recreational crabbing success?

‘I carry your heart with me …’ Eloise Williams. Natur Cymru writing competition runner-up.

Harvest time again  -  Matt Sutton and Vicky Swann. Seed collection and meadow restoration in Pembrokeshire.

Observing a Grey Heron – Linda Auld. Herons and egrets at large.

What is happening to our honeybees? -  Pete Barrar. Responding to the threats: a new National Beekeeping Centre in Wales.

A walk in the fields - Julie Bromilow. People in the landscape and the Zero Carbon Britain vision.

A meadow too small: the strange case of Crug-y-Byddar – Julian Jones. A valuable habitat at risk because of a protection loophole.

Discoveries in science – Tim Rich. Waiting for a Sorbus – three new whitebeam discoveries.

Green Bookshelf – Dafydd Roberts, David Saunders, James Robertson.

Woods and Forests – Kylie Jones Mattock. Restoring the Celtic rainforest: the challenge of a lifetime.

Mynd i’r Eisteddfod? / Going to the Eisteddfod?

Nature at large – Colin Miles. Surveys at the National Botanic Garden.

Marine Matters – Ivor Rees. Dilemmas in the rush for renewable energy.

Cystadleuaeth Gelf Natur Cymru Art Competition.

The summer 2013 edition of Natur Cymru is now available. To ensure a renewable source of Natur Cymru please subscribe here! 

Bees at Tŷ Hyll – a queen’s love nest

The Ugly House is no longer an office but don’t call it a café! After much thought it was called ‘Ugly House Tearoom’ with its Welsh name ‘Pot Mêl Tŷ Hyll’ conveying its beekeeping credentials. Upstairs above the cake-filled tearoom is an interpretation centre explaining as much as you would want to know about bees in a way likely to hold the attention of both young and old.  

Margaret Thomas and Pete Barrar with hive on hive carrier

Outside there has been a lot of volunteer effort to make the gardens and woodland friendly not only to people but to wildlife and bees in particular.

During my visit the first hive was delivered by Pete Barrar, from the National Beekeeping Centre, to the top of the woodland. The intention at Tŷ Hyll is to specialise on creating a reliable source of native queens.  

Currently it is difficult to source native queens which can lead to beekeepers buying queens (delivered by post!) from countries such as Slovenia, Mexico or South Africa. These bees have not had 30 million years to adapt to our local conditions and are more prone to disease thereby threatening the well-being of beekeeping in Wales.

So virgin queens will be created down the road at Furnace Farm (Bodnant Welsh Food) and brought here to mix and mate with thoroughbred drones safely tucked away in a valley unlikely to be visited by any foreign bees. A secluded love nest for the queens.