Thank you very much for the Christmas microscope. It is exactly what I wanted.
The basic functions are easy to use so I was able to start playing with it straight away. It also does quite a lot more advanced things that I have yet to study so there is definitely "scope" for further investigations.
You can look directly through the eyepieces and/or you can connect it to a computer to see the images on-screen and take photographs and videos. I had a look at some wax, honey and pollen scooped from a honeycomb.
Looking at honey, wax and pollen with incident (reflected) light
Looking at honey, wax and pollen with transmitted light
I then looked at a bee's wing, taken from a dead bee lying outside in the rain. The veining of the wing shows clearly. Surprisingly, the wing membrane seems to be hairy. Here are some photographs of it taken using the microscope camera, via the computer. I think some of the other marks are droplets of rain.
It makes a less interesting story, but the transfer of the Pond Hive to a new hive stand went smoothly today. There was no butterfingers moment involving dropping a box of 10,000 bees, no slippage of the hive layers to release a furious cloud of stings, not even a murmur from the hive residents in fact.
"In situ replacement": we lifted the hive off the old stand and placed it on the new, then took away the old stand and lifted the new stand and hive as one piece on to the original site.
Here is the Pond Hive now standing proudly by the frozen pond:
The occasional nice bright day like this is good for letting the bees get out to stretch their wings on cleansing flights. They may even be planning for spring already. Although the spring nectar and pollen are many weeks off yet, perhaps the queens are starting to lay now in order to build up worker numbers in time for the harvest.
The beekeeper had better start preparing for spring too. I want to rub the outsides of the hives with linseed oil for weatherproofing, replace Pond Hive's landing board and swap Cedar Hive on to a stand with taller legs. All of which I'd prefer to do on a cold, gloomy day when the bees are huddled inside, rather than when they are zooming curiously about. I'm sure that chance will come...we have many more weeks of winter to go. But today is a reminder that spring is on the way.
This past summer, the bees in the Copper Hive worked on a new project: sections of comb honey.
Guess what people have got for Christmas!
I put the section rack on the hive in June. It has an array of individual boxes for the bees to build honeycomb in. Take off a full section rack and voilà, a set of neatly packaged comb honey sections, each in its own wooden box.
Although you can just cut up ordinary frames of honeycomb, or indeed press out squares of it using a bespoke device, I rather like the neatness and simplicity of having the bees build the comb directly in the individual wooden boxes. The outsides of the boxes get marked with beeswax and propolis, but that is the fate of all objects placed into beehives, reflecting the fact that honeycomb is made in the natural world not a sterile factory.
Also, wooden sections require precious little handling, so producing comb honey this way is neater and cleaner than manually slicing up the comb into blocks to fit in little plastic trays.
Christmas present
Instructions...and see below!
Further reading, eating and drinking
I melt honeycomb into a hot drink with lemon, and I hadn't given much thought to how to eat it. But then I read this question:
Most humble apologies for the following dumb question:
Are you supposed to eat the wax or spit it out? Do you swallow it? I assume if it is all mixed in with corn meal mush or oat meal, then you’re not going to be bothering much with separating the wax from the food in your mouth. But I don’t presume to know that, either.
I just filtered all the wax out of my comb honey and rendered it because it seemed like the “thing to do.” Next time, I’ll set at least a little aside for “eating” or whatever you are supposed to do with it in your mouth.
The person to whom this endearing question was asked is American Master Beekeeper, Rusty Burlew, who wrote about comb honey and how to eat it. Her recommendations in brief: spread it on hot, lightly buttered toast, chew it and swallow it. The wax will soften and blend deliciously with the honey and toast. Don't just eat the honeycomb directly because you'll end up with a lump of wax like chewing gum in your mouth. You can read Rusty's reminiscences and advice yourself on her website Honey Bee Suite. I've included her serving suggestion in the information leaflet that I include with each gift comb.
I hope you enjoy your honeycomb however you eat (or drink) it!
Seeds are germinating in my supposed wildflower meadow. Wildflower seeds maybe! Or weeds...if there's a difference. Wonder if they will survive the frosts...did they intend to germinate in December or do they think it's spring?
