Omlet Beehaus User manual

UK
Guide to Keeping Bees
and Assembly Instructions

Page 2 www.omlet.co.uk
Thank you for buying a Beehaus
This guide is copyright Omlet Limited 2010. It is licensed under the Creative
Commons License: Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 2.0
UK: England & Wales.
This means that you are free to copy, distribute,
display, and perform the work under the
following conditions:
•Attribution.Youmustgivetheoriginalauthor(i.eOmlet)credit.
•Non-Commercial.Youmaynotusethisworkforcommercialpurposes
 (I.eyoucanprovideitfreeofchargebutnotsellit).
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 licencetermsofthiswork.Fulldetailsofthelicensearelocatedhere:
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If you have any comments or suggestion please email us at
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© Copyright Omlet 2010. Omlet and Beehaus are registered trademarks.
This guide could not have been made without the help and advice from
many experienced bee keepers. In particular we would like to thank the
following:RobinDartington,JohnChappell,ChrisDeaves,FERA,Maurice
Vaughan, Paul Peacock and Sally Wadsworth.
ContributorsLicense & Copyright
Congratulations on becoming a Beehaus owner! We hope that you will
have many years of pleasure from your Beehaus and that your bees will
soon fill the supers with lots of delicious, fresh honey.
This is a very exciting time but you may still have some questions especially
if you are new to keeping bees. We want to help you every step of the
way so that your experience is straightforward and fun. In this fantastic
guide to keeping honey bees you will learn about the bees, the role of the
beekeeper, how the Beehaus works and much more.
Yourbeeswillfascinateyou,providehoursofenjoymentandwonderas
you watch and learn about their way of life. They will also occasionally
surpriseyou. Forthis reasonthis guidealone cannotcover everysingle
aspect of beekeeping and there are times when the bees, being complex
and free spirited, may act in a way which has not been described here.
Thisispartofthejoyofbeekeeping.Evenpeoplewhohavebeenkeeping
bees for 30 years or more will readily admit that they are still learning.
The important thing is to give it a go and once you have your bees you will
soon find that the basics of recognising eggs, larvae, nectar and pollen as
well as spotting the queen become second nature.
If you haven’t yet been on a course it’s a good idea to go along, even for
justoneortwosessions.Thepracticalexperiencewillcomeinusefuland
you will also get to know other beekeepers in your area who you can call
on for advice and help when needed.
The first part of the guide will explain how to assemble your Beehaus
and what all the different parts are called and how to use them.
The second part of the guide deals with practical beekeeping skills.
There are also really useful films on the Omlet website with beginners
and experts sharing their tips, tricks and advice – well worth watching.
Visit www.omlet.co.uk/tv for more information.
And remember, we are always happy to help, so if you have any questions
noworinthefuturepleasecalluson08454502056.Youcanalsondlots
of information on our website, www.omlet.co.uk or you can email our
bee expert [email protected].
We always like to hear from you - especially if you would like our expert
opiniononyourhoney-justsendajartoOmletHoneyEvaluationServices,
Tuthill Park, Wardington, OX17 1RR - we’ll be happy to taste it!
James, Johannes, Simon and William.
www.omlet.co.uk
[email protected]
0845 450 20 56

www.omlet.co.uk Page 3
Beehaus Instruction Manual
Legs x 2
Brood box x 1
Entrance Adapter x 2
Clearer Boards x 2 Queen Excluder x 4
Dummy Board x 1
Lid x 1
Bungee x 2
Inspection tray x 1
Divider Board x 1
Cover boards x 4
Supers x 4
What you have received:
SuperFramesx10
WaxFoundationx10
BroodFramesx10
WaxFoundationx10

Page 4 www.omlet.co.uk
If your Beehaus arrived by courier, please remember to retain all the packaging it arrived in. In the case that you wish to return your
Beehaus or any part of the Beehaus, please call us within 30 days of the delivery. It must be sent back in the original packaging
and have no more than normal wear and tear to receive the full product refund.
What to do with your packaging
If you have ordered a Beehaus starter kit you will also have received the following items.
What you have received continued...
Optional starter kit
Beekeeping Guide
and Record Book
Honey jars x 4
Lid stickers x 4
Tack nails for frames 8 Bolts
Bee suit x1 Hive tool x1 Liquid smoker x 1 Gloves x 1 pair
Other things you might need
Around 30 minutes to assemble your
Beehaus & 10 minutes per frame.
Tack hammer and Phillips
Screwdriver
Frame Assembly Instructions
You will need to assemble your frames.
Instructions to do this can be found on Page 10.

www.omlet.co.uk Page 5
Assembly of your Beehaus
Step 1 - Attaching the legs
Bolt the legs into place using the bolts provided.
Repeat on both sides then turn the Beehaus upright.
Turn the empty Beehaus brood box upside down so the mesh faces
upward. Then line up the legs with the bolt holes.
Step 2 - Inserting the inspection tray
Slide the inspection tray on the ledge underneath the Beehaus. You
normally just leave this in for a week to monitor mite drop.
Step 4 - Inserting the brood frames
The assembled brood frames fit in the Beehaus like this.
Step 5 - Inserting the dummy board
The dummy board fits at the end of the brood frames. You use it
when you have more or less than a full set of frames.
Step 6 - Adding the cover boards
The cover boards sit on top of the brood box.
Step 7 - Adding the lid
Secure the lid by pulling the bungee cord down onto the knob.
Repeat at the opposite end.
Step 3 - Inserting the divider board
The divider fits in the middle of the Beehaus. The tabs fit over the
central rib on the side of the Beehaus.

Page 6 www.omlet.co.uk
Assembling the Supers
Your Beehaus supers come in component form. Although you might not need the supers immediately, it is a good idea to
assemble them so that they are to hand when you do need them.
To assemble a Super, you will need 2 ends, 2 sides, 2 long bolt rods and 4 bolt ends per super. Assemble on a flat surface such as a
kitchen work top.
vaTht
Screw the bolt end on to the bolt
rod. Repeat on other end.
Secure the other side panel and
tighten fixings.
Assembling supers
The parts for 1 super. Line up a side panel and insert
bolt rod. Repeat on other end.
Fitting queen excluders
Place the queen excluders on top of the frames. Its normal for 2 queen excluders
to overlap.
Adding Queen Excluders
Your Beehaus has 4 queen excluders which stop the queen walking up and laying eggs in the supers, which are for honey storage
only. You should add queen excluders if you have supers on your Beehaus.
Adding a super to your Beehaus
Over the course of the beekeeping season you will need to adapt your Beehaus to suit your colonies requirements. You must
provide space for your bees to store honey by adding supers to your Beehaus.
Step 1 - Adding the supers
Insert the small super frames into the supers. Each super can hold a
total of 5 Manley spaced frames or 6 Hoffman spaced frames.
Place the supers directly on top of the queen excluder.

www.omlet.co.uk Page 7
Step 2 - Putting cover boards onto supers
If you are not using the second set of supers simply place them on
top of the cover boards.
Add the cover board on top of the supers.
Step 3 - Adjusting the bungee cord
After adding a layer of supers you will need to loosen the lid bungee.
Pass one of the toggles through the hole in the centre of the lid.
Pull the bungee cord tight, then repeat at the other end. Now place
the lid gently on top of the supers and pull the cord over the knob.
Note: Adjusting the bungee cord for a second layer of supers
Pull the bungee cord tight, then repeat at the other end. Now place
the lid gently on top of the supers and pull the cord over the knob.
With a second layer of supers you can extend the bungee by feeding
the second toggle through the hole in the centre of the lid.
Using the clearer boards
Preparing the clearer boards
You should have a bee escape and clearer board base.
Align the bee escape up with the clearer board.
Slot the bee escape over the screw heads.
Then click the bee escape into place by pushing it forwards.
The clearer boards are designed to ‘clear’ bees from the supers to make it easier to collect the honey from them.
By removing the ‘diamond’ shaped bee escape, they can also be used to feed your bees in the spring and winter.

Page 8 www.omlet.co.uk
Using the clearer boards
Lift the supers that you want to clear and place the clearer board on
the hive. Make sure the bee escape is on the bottom.
Put the supers on top of the clearer boards. Note: When you re-
attach the lid it will be on a slight angle which is okay.
Wasp guard
Slide the adapter in so that the word ‘wasp’ is shown.
Once it is pushed in, it will hold in place.
Completely closing the entrance
Slide the adapter in so that the word ‘closed’ is shown.
Two sprung clips hold the adapter in place.
Using the entrance adapter
You can use the entrance adapter to completely close the entrance to the Beehaus. For example, if you are transporting your bees.
If you turn the entrance adapter around it becomes an entrance restrictor, which makes it easier for the bees to defend the hive
against wasps. You can also use it like this over winter to protect against mice or to reduce the entrance when initially hiving a
swarm of bees.
Step 2 - Inserting the mini queen excluder
With the blanking plate removed you can fit the queen excluder
Step 1 - Removing the blanking plate
The blanking plate can be removed by pulling up.
Divider board - See page 42 in the Bee Guide for details

www.omlet.co.uk Page 9
Using your hive tool
The hive tool is the Swiss Army knife of the bee world. You can use it to open your hive, remove frames, clean off propolis or even
remove a bee sting. The two most common uses for a hive tool are opening the hive, which the bees seal from the inside with
propolis and freeing a frame for inspection. The Beehaus has a specially designed space between all of the parts that the hive tool
fits into.
Using the curved end to lift a
frame can damage the frame.
Separate the frames by levering
apart with the tool.
Step 5 - Removing a frameHow to open your Beehaus
Slide the flat end of the tool between the cover board and the brood
box. Slowly push down on the tool to lever the cover board up.
How to mix the liquid smoke
Using your liquid smoker
Bees react to the smell of smoke by filling up on honey in preparation for evacuating the hive. A useful side effect is that because
they are so full they become quite docile and calm. You normally give a couple of short sprays at the entrance and through the
mesh floor a couple of minutes before opening the Beehaus to give them a chance to eat some honey.
The liquid smoke arrives in concentrate form and needs to be diluted. The dilution ratio is 1 part smoke 20 parts water. For
example you can mix 30ml of concentrate with 600ml of water.
Pour 30ml of concentrated liquid smoke into the spraying bottle. Fill up to the 600ml mark with cold tap water.
How to setup a feeder
Remove the bee escape from the clearer board. Put the clearer
board on top of the brood box in place of a cover board.
Put an empty super on top of the clearer board.
Place the feeder inside the empty super.
A colony of bees needs 20-30Kg of stored honey to see them through the winter. Some years, the weather might be bad and
they won’t have collected enough stores. Alternatively, you might have taken more honey and have to make up the difference
by feeding them. You can do this by giving your bees the missing amount either in sugar syrup or fondant. The clearer board
can be used to provide an opening for the bees to access the food.
Feeding your bees

Page 10 www.omlet.co.uk
What you have received:
What you need:
Note:
Top bar x 1
Top bar removable part x 1
Wax foundation x 1
Sides x2
(Long ones for Brood
short ones for Supers)
Bottom bars x2
• Tack hammer
• Tack nails x 200
Its better to store wax
foundation flat in a plastic bag
in a cool place. Only assemble
frames when you need them.
Step 1: Remove part of the top bar
Remove the loose bar by levering away, it will snap cleanly off.
Keep to one side, it’s used at the end to secure the wax.
Push the side bars into place, making sure that the groove is
facing inwards.
Step 2: Attach sides to top bar
Tack a nail into each end of a bottom bar. Place this bar in the
slots in the side bars.
Gently hammer the nail all the way so that it attaches the
bottom bar to the side bars.
Step 3: Preparing wax foundation
Lay a sheet of wax foundation on the table. You’ll notice one
end has three wire tabs. Bend these up at 90 degrees.
Starting from the bottom with the bent wires at the top, slide
the sheet of wax foundation until it’s all the way in.
Guide to Assembling Your Frames

www.omlet.co.uk Page 11
Step 4: Tacking second bottom bar and preparing separate top bar piece
Tack the second bottom bar in place. Take the piece that was snapped off earlier and mark the
positions of the wires with a pen. Tap 3 nails in.
Using your Beehaus
Don’ts
Don’t climb or sit on your Beehaus.
Don’t use your Beehaus to keep any other insects or animals
other than bees.
Don’t keep your Beehaus on uneven ground.
Don’t flame your Beehaus with a blowtorch to kill foulbrood
spores. Report the issue to your local bee inspector and follow
Fera guidelines for the treatment of plastic hives. You should
visit https://secure.csl.gov.uk/beebase/ for more information.
Don’t rest a hot traditional bee smoker on or near your
Beehaus - it will melt the plastic.
Don’t tell a bear where your Beehaus is. He will steal all
your honey.
Don’t be afraid of asking for help. You can call us on
0845 450 2056 for support, advice or even just a chat.
Do wear protective bee clothing when inspecting your bees.
Do regularly inspect your bees to check their health, food
levels and signs of swarming.
Do supervise children near your Beehaus and bees.
Do tell us if you are planning to give up keeping bees. You
can sell your Beehaus and bees. However, an abandoned hive
or colony can spread disease and damage your local natural
bee population.
Do be aware that bees sting and by keeping bees you are
increasing your risk of being stung. There is a possible risk of
serious allergic reaction to bee stings which in a small number
of people can be fatal. See Page 22
Do use the online Omlet Club to get advice and help. Visit
www.omlet.co.uk/club to join up. It is a hive of activity.
Do’s
Do enjoy your bees and the honey that they produce.
Do plant bee friendly plants in your garden to help support
your bees.
Do join your local Beekeepers Association for help, advice and
bee insurance. Visit http://www.britishbee.org.uk/ for more
information.
Do attend a beekeeping course to learn good beekeeping
skills. Visit www.omlet.co.uk/courses/ for more information.
Do register your Beehaus with the National Bee Unit, so that
they can warn you if there is a bee disease in your local area.
Visit https://secure.csl.gov.uk/beebase/ or call 01904 462510
for more information.
Do take care to locate your Beehaus so that it is not near a
footpath or highly active area of the garden. See Page 21
Step 5: Tacking top bar and sides pieces in place
Place the bar against the wax and the bottom edge and nail
carefully into place through the wires.
Finally pin the side bars to the top bar. Congratulations you
have just made a brood frame your bees will be proud of!

Page 12 www.omlet.co.uk
The history of honey bees and beekeeping 13
The requirements for a modern beekeeper 13
Honey bee breeds 14
The role of the beekeeper 14
Why are honey bees so important? 15
Turning nectar into honey 15
How do honey bees make wax? 15
About honey bees 16
Honey bee anatomy 16
Queens, worker and drones 16
How does the queen lay eggs? 17
Cell types 18
Honey bee population 18
Temperature control 18
How do bees find food? 19
Plants that provide food for bees 19
Water sources for your bees 20
Pets 20
Locating your Beehaus 21
Bee stings 21
Bee stings and how to avoid them 22
What to do if a bee gets in your suit? 22
Smoking your gloves 22
How to stop a bee chasing you 22
Transferring bees to your Beehaus 23
Transferring bees from short to deep frames 23
The nucleus colony in the first year 24
How to inspect your honey bees 24
Preparing your equipment 25
Smoking your bees 25
How to use a smoker 25
Opening your Beehaus 25
What am I looking for? 26
Lifting out a frame 26
Turning and holding a frame 27
Moving bees to reveal the comb 27
Cross section of the colony 28
Example frames 28
A cross section of ten frames showing
how the colony arranges it’s home 28
Identifying parts of the comb 29
Queen cells 29
Adding frames and moving divider board 29
When should I add honey supers? 30
Queen excluder 30
Clearer boards 31
Using dummy boards 31
Inspecting health 31
Closing up 31
The beekeeping year 32
January 32
February 32
March 32
April 32
May 33
June 33
July 34
August 34
September 34
October 34
November 35
December 35
Feeding your bees 36
What to feed your bees? 36
When to feed? 36
What time of day is best to feed? 37
Feeder types 37
Adding a bag of syrup 37
How to use fondant 38
Making your own sugar syrup 38
Adding a contact feeder to
your Beehaus 38
Advanced beekeeping 39
How to mark a queen 39
Making a nucleus colony 40
Looking after a nucleus colony 40
Introducing a new queen to the colony 41
How to unite two colonies 41
Swarm control 42
Swarm control method 1 - Super easy 42
Swarm control method 2 - Easy but better 43
Swarm control method 3 - Harder but best 43
Wild swarms 44
How to catch a swarm 45
Transporting a swarm 45
How to transfer a swarm to
your Beehaus 45
Moving your Beehaus 45
Bee health 46
Best health practices 46
Pests 46
Varroa 46
Using your inspection tray 47
Monitoring varroa with
the inspection tray 47
Varroa treatment 48
Tracheal mites 50
Nosema 50
Wax moth 50
Sacbrood 51
Chalkbrood 51
Drone Brood in worker cells 51
Foulbrood 51
American Foul Brood (AFB) 52
European Foul Brood (EFB) 52
Cleaning and sterilising your Beehaus 52
Honey 53
Harvesting your honey 53
Extracting your honey 53
Using the wax 54
Trouble shooting 56
British Beekeepers’ Association 56
Bee glossary 57
Table of Contents

www.omlet.co.uk Page 13
The requirements for a modern beekeeper
A location for your bees - Honey bees can be kept anywhere from
country orchards to urban gardens to city roof tops. It is a common
misconception that you need a large garden or the countryside on your
doorstep. Although lots of space can make siting your bees easier, urban
gardens are arguably better. Nectar and pollen can be gathered from
a wide variety of plants that will give your honey a wonderful flavour.
This means that there is often a constant source of food throughout the
summer and a lack of harmful pesticides. Wherever you live, you can be
sure that a colony of bees will enhance you and your surroundings.
Time - Keeping honey bees requires small amounts of regular time with
the bees. During the summer (March - September) you typically have
to spend around one hour per week with a hive. You can do this at the
weekend or, if the weather is still good, when you return from work. Most
beekeepers would like to spend more time with their bees rather than
less, as beekeeping is highly addictive. Unlike keeping other animals, the
bees mostly look after themselves and will not notice if you go on holiday.
From October through to February you don’t need to inspect your bees
at all as they over-winter in the hive. In all, you might spend 20-30 hours
over the course of a year with the bees.
Support and learning more - Beekeeping is an interesting hobby with
lots to learn and it is often helpful to have someone friendly to support
you. You can find someone to help by attending an Omlet Course and
meeting follow beekeepers (see www.omlet.co.uk/courses for more
information).
You can also become part of the beekeeping community on the Omlet
Club Forum (see www.omlet.co.uk/club). It’s also a good idea to join
your local Beekeeping Association (see www.britishbee.org.uk for more
information).
Before we get started, it’s good to know just a little of how the honeybee
came to be, as well as how humans developed a way of keeping them for
our own benefit.
The honeybee is a highly sophisticated insect that has evolved over millions
of years. The earliest recorded bee was found in Myanmar, Burma. It was
perfectly preserved, encased in amber, and has been dated as 100 million
years old. In those early days, bees were more like wasps, with a diet that
consisted mainly of other insects. Although this worked quite well, it did
mean that bees were restricted to regions that were warm all year round
and an unappealing diet of flies. In order to prosper bees needed a new
source of food.
As luck would have it, flowers were in need of a new way of pollinating.
In order to reproduce most plants must mate but this is a bit tricky when
you’re rooted in the ground and your partner is on the other side of the
field. In the early days they did this by sending out lots of pollen on the
wind in the hope some would land on another plant. This wasn’t efficient
and required a huge effort to produce lots of pollen. A much more accurate
system for delivering the pollen would mean less effort for the plant and a
higher chance of successful mating.
Although nature didn’t have a Fed Ex account, it did have a daughter called
innovation and she put bees and flowers together in the most brilliant way.
Flowers evolved with bright colours and markings to attract bees who were
much more likely to transport the pollen to the next plant to pollinate it.
The bees were happy to perform this
courier service because in return they
received nectar and pollen to eat. This
relationship between bees and plants
has proved an extremely fruitful one.
In fact, scientists believe that bees are
responsible for most of the rich flower
diversity we enjoy today.
By reducing the water content in the
nectar and storing it in a sealed wax
cell, bees could prevent it fermenting
and provide themselves with a
nutritious food for the winter. This
innovation allowed the honeybee to
spread throughout the world as they
could now survive the cold winters
found in more northern climates. It
also meant that bees had a unique
attraction for man.
This evaporated nectar is known more
commonly as honey. Discovering honey
must have been almost as exciting
as when the first sticks were rubbed
together to produce fire and until the
invention of the beesuit it probably
produced a similar sensation when you
got too close. For thousands of years
honey provided the only sweetness
in human’s diet and beeswax, turned
into candles, the only means of light.
Bees were accordingly highly valued
by all the great ancient civilisations
but it wasn’t until the Eygyptians
that people stopped robbing wild
bees nests and started keeping bees
at home. The Egyptian hive design
was a simple upturned straw basket
called a skep. These are still used
today although mainly for temporarily
housing a colony of bees that has
recently swarmed.
Early beehives, such as the skep, were
not designed for long term use. The honey couldn’t be extracted without
destroying the hive and therefore the colony. The system only worked if the
colony produced enough bees to create a swarm, which would be caught
and go on to provide the honey in the following year. Otherwise, each year
a new swarm of bees had to be caught.
Egyptian hives were straw baskets.
These are still used today and are
called skeps.
Spanish cave painting dated around
6000 BC.
The history of honey bees and beekeeping There was a desperate need for a way
ofkeepingthesamecolonyofbeesyear
after year so that more honey could be
produced and the apiary expanded. In
the 1851, a breakthrough discovery
in beekeeping was made by a man
called Lorenzo Langstroth. He
discovered that bees would keep
a ‘bee sized’ pathway clear within
a hive if it was between 6 and
8mm wide.
He named the discovery ‘spazio di
ape’ (or ‘bee space’ in English). This
discovery was important because
it led to the development of hives
with moveable frames of comb. This
allowed the beekeeper to remove
comb and honey without destroying
the hive. It also enabled the beekeeper to start manipulating the colony;
helping it develop and grow. This discovery is often cited as the start of
modern beekeeping.
‘Spazio di ape’ was Lorenzo
Langstroth’s famous discovery.

Page 14 www.omlet.co.uk
The role of the beekeeperHoneybee breeds
Nowadays, there are not nearly enough wild colonies of honeybees to
pollinate all our crops and the shops would soon run out of honey if this
was the only source. The world needs more beekeepers! Even if you
have just one colony, your bees will visit every vegetable plot, orchard and
flower bed in a three mile radius boosting the harvest of beans, apples
and roses no end whilst you will enjoy the most delicious fresh honey
from their collective wandering.
However, unlike conventional domesticated animals such as cats and
dogs, a colony of honey bees is essentially wild and can decide to leave at
any moment. This is what is known as a swarm and is an entirely natural
instinct that all bees have. It is actually a sign that your bees are doing
very well, because it occurs when a colony has grown large enough to be
able to reproduce itself by splitting in two. A swarm of bees consists of
the old queen and a large number of bees. On a warm, sunny day they
leave the hive and a new queen takes over the existing nest. Meanwhile,
the swarm looks for a suitable place to make a new nest.
From a beekeepers point of view, this behaviour is undesirable for two
reasons. Firstly a great many bees are lost and therefore the hive will not
produce much honey that year. Secondly non-beekeepers, tend to find a
large number of bees hanging in a tree or on a lampost while they look
for a new place to live, a bit scary.
With this in mind, the role of the beekeeper is to guide the honeybee
colony to achieve it’s full potential, whilst at the same time managing and
reducing the bees urge to swarm. This can be done, and in fact one of the
great benefits of the Beehaus is that it is designed to make this easy.
Amateur Beekeepers
An amateur beekeeper might have anywhere between 1-40 hives. Over
this number and you have to start spending all your time with the bees.
Commercial Beekeepers
Commercial beekeepers typically have over 40 hives and spend most of their
time tending to them. They may be keeping bees to produce honey or can
earn money by hiring the bees out to farmers for crop pollination. Hiring
colonies is a huge business , especially in America and China where some bee
farmers have literally thousands of hives which they move to wherever they
are needed.
Honeybees are not all the same and vary from country to country in
their size, colour and temperament. The Latin name for all honey bees
is Apis Mellifera. Apis is Latin for “bee”, mellifera comes from the Greek
melli- meaning “honey” and ferre “bear”. The name was possibly given
because the Greeks liked to compare the appearance of bees to bears
who, as made famous by Pooh bear, also love honey.
Within the bee species there are several subspecies which have particular
qualities. Many common honeybees today are mixed breeds created by
beekeepers for desirable qualities such as honey collection, ability to
survive cold winters, good egg laying and calm temperaments, making
them easy to work with.
The Buckfast bee
One of the most famous bee
breeders was a monk called Brother
Adam who made it his life’s work to
create the ultimate honey bee. He
travelled all over the world collecting
queens from wild colonies in remote
locations, which he brought back to
a monastry in Buckfast. His approach
was rigorous and scientific and the
Buckfast bee was subsequently
exported all over the world.
The three main sub species of honey bees available for the beekeeper are
as follows.
The British black bee (Apis
mellifera mellifera)
The British black bee is a relatively
small, dark coloured bee that was
almost wiped out by Isle of Wight
disease. A few beekeepers still
have almost pure strains in the
more remote parts of Britain. It’s
considered to be a hardy bee, able
to cope with the short summers and
long wet winters typical in the UK.
The Carniolan bee (Apis mellifera
carnica pollman)
The Carniolan honey bee is the
native bee of Slovenia, a great
beekeeping nation. It is a dusky
brown colour with lighter brown
stripes. The Carniolan (also known
as Carnica) is a very popular bee
throughout Europe because it has
several desirable qualities. It is a very
gentle bee that is calm and can be
easily worked, making it ideal for
bee keepers who live in urban areas.
It is good at resisting disease and defends the hive strongly against pests
such as wasps. Carniolans are also good at quickly adjusting the size of
the colony according to the available nectar supply. This, combined with
an unusually long tongue for reaching nectar other bees can’t get, results
in colonies of carniolans storing large quantities of honey and pollen.
Italian bee
(Apis mellifera ligustica)
The Italian honey bee has distinctive
yellow striping and is quite a small
bee. Italian queens are very prolific
egg layers and build up big colonies
able to collect a lot of nectar. This
is one of the reasons they are so
popular. They have adapted well to
most climates apart from northern
countries where the cold winters and
wet springs don’t seem to suit them.
They have very relaxed, easy going characters and are good to work with.
Some beekeepers think they have less tendency to swarm making them
good for urban areas. Perhaps most interestingly though is that Italian
drones are considered to be among the most successful at romancing
Queens on mating flights.
Bee Inspector
A bee inspector is a specially trained beekeeper with a large amount of
experience. If you keep bees, then at some point you may have your bees
inspected. Every area has a local bee inspector and it’s a good idea to find
out who your local inspector is. You are required by law to report some
bee diseases to the inspector. You don’t get told off if your bees do have
disease, in fact it’s quite the opposite. By reporting disease you will be
helping reduce the risk of your bees transferring it to other colonies. The
inspectors are managed centrally by the National Bee Unit, visit http://
beebase.csl.gov.uk/ for more information.
An Amateur Beekeeper. A Commercial Beekeeper.
The Carniolan bee is very popular.
Image: Richard Bartz.
The Buckfast bee can be found all over
the world.
Italian bees have a distinctive
yellow colour.
The British black bee is quite a rare
sight. Image: Rachel Graham.

www.omlet.co.uk Page 15
Why are honey bees so important?
The most important reason for bees is, funnily enough, not honey, but the
pollination service that they provide. Pollination is the process by which
many plants reproduce. It involves the movement of pollen between
plants - i.e. the male gametes (or sperm) are transferred to the female
gametes. Although other insects such as butterflies pollinate flowers,
honeybees are the most important pollen transporters for the plants.
They are responsible for the pollination of a wide variety of crops, fruits
and flowers.
How does pollination work?
The plants and bees have a symbiotic
relationship. The plant provides food
for the bees in the form of nectar
(a sugary water produced as a by-
product to photosynthesis). As the
bee collects the nectar it brushes
against the anthers of the plant
and pollen grains stick to the bee’s
hairy body. When the bee then visits
another plant some of the pollen on
its body will rub off on the stigma
of the plant. By this process bees
pollinate about a third of our food.
Pollen is also an important source of
food for the bees themselves - this is
covered in the next section.
Pollination Services
Unfortunately, the number of wild
bee colonies has decreased over many
years, as their natural habitat has
been cleared to make way for farm
land. Now, many farms often have
to hire bees to help pollinate their
crops. This is especially important
in America where about 50% of
all beehives are transported to California each year to help pollinate
the almond orchards. The beehives are loaded onto pallets and then
transported 1000’s of miles across the country on trucks. This is obviously
stressful for the bees and many believe that this is one of the factors in
Colony Collapse Disorder (often abbreviated to CCD).
Bees pollinate about a third of
our food.
Truck loaded with beehives.
Although our main supply of sweetness now comes from sugar produced
from sugar cane and sugar beet, honey is still consumed in massive
quantities and if you love honey there’s nothing better than harvesting
some from your own beehive.
Bees make honey from nectar, which consists of the sugars fructose and
glucose as well as other elements such as aromas, antibacterial enzymes
and of course water. During the spring and summer, the colony sends
out thousands of foraging bees who collect the vast amounts of nectar
produced by flowering plants as a bi-product of photosynthesis. A single
cherry tree can produce 2kg of nectar per day and honeybees have
evolved a long straw-like tongue for collecting it. Beekeepers talk about
a “good flow” of nectar. This means that there are plenty of flowering
plants nearby producing lots of nectar that the bees are bringing back to
the hive.
The best nectar collectors
Honeybees are simply the best collectors of nectar around, they are so
good that they have very little competition from other insects. However,
because there are not enough bees to collect it all, thousands of tonnes
of nectar (and therefore honey) go to waste every year.
The foraging bees transfer the nectar at the entrance of the hive to other
bees, who have the job of packing it into the storage cells. Firstly, they will
make sure there is enough instant access honey around the brood but,
when a surplus occurs, they will store the nectar in the super frames that
you place above the hive. This can then be harvested by the beekeeper.
The amount of nectar that the bees can collect is influenced greatly by
the weather. In very wet summers, the nectar produced by plants and
trees is much diluted and therefore of poor quality. In very hot weather
the plants stop producing nectar entirely. How much honey you will be
able to collect will vary from year to year depending on the colony and
the weather, but in a good year you could be looking at a harvest of 50kg
or more!
Turning nectar into honey
How do honey bees make wax?
Everyone is familiar with the hexagonal pattern of honeycomb and
most people probably know that it is made of wax, but have you ever
wondered where the wax comes from in the first place? Well, the bees
make it themselves from a special gland in their abdomen. If this seems
amazing, it is, but for the bees of course it’s quite normal.
The production of wax is stimulated by temperature and a good flow
of nectar. Discs of wax are secreted from between the third and fourth
segments of the abdomen. The bees who are on wax building duty form
chains and pass wax between each other. When a wild colony builds a
nest you can actually see great necklace like chains of bees hanging from
the comb. In the Beehaus you will sometimes see a chain of bees, who
have been making wax, forming a bridge between two new frames as you
move them apart.
The bees chew the wax before forming it into honeycomb. The latest
research suggests that bees don’t actually build the cells as hexagons.
Instead they build the comb as round cylinders which become hexagonal
when the bees warm the wax until its almost fluid. The points where
the cylinders are touching pull tight under surface tension creating the
hexagonal shape. To imagine this, picture what happens when two soap
bubbles touch - the surface created between them is completely flat –
have a look next time you are doing the washing up!
Foundation
In a managed beehive, the bees are given sheets of beeswax with the
exact cell size pressed in. This sheet is called foundation. The foundation
encourages the bees to build uniform honeycomb within the frames
meaning that they can be lifted out without damaging comb. You might
hear a beekeeper say their bees are “drawing out lots of new wax”. This
means that the bees are building comb onto new frames of foundation.
If a beekeeper says a frame is “fully drawn” it means that the bees have
completely finished building the comb on the frame.
When wax is very new it is pure white in colour. With use, it becomes
darker and very old comb is almost black.
Propolis
Bees make the honeycomb tough by coating it in propolis. Propolis is
made from resin that the bees collect from flower buds and trees. It has
antibacterial properties which the bees use to keep the comb sterile.
Propolis is also referred to as ‘bee glue’ as the bees use it to seal any
little holes in their hive. You will also see it where parts meet for example
where the frames rest on the brood box.
A new sheet of foundation ready to
go in the hive. The wires in the wax
strengthen it.
In the foreground you can see the wax
foundation; towards the top the bees
have started adding new, white wax.
The wax on a frame that is over a year
old looks much darker.
A frame of comb that has been in the
hive for a few months is light brown.

Page 16 www.omlet.co.uk
A colony of honey bees is made up of 1 queen bee several hundred male
bees called drones and thousands of female worker bees.
The Queen - 1 per colony.
Lives up to 4 years.
The queen bee is head of the entire
colony. Her character determines
the behaviour and mood of all
the bees in the hive. She achieves
this remarkable level of control by
producing pheromones which, to
the worker bees, must be like the
Lynx effect and Chanel No. 5 rolled
into one. They pass these complex
scents around the hive by touch.
Within 30 minutes all the bees in
the hive are aware of any change in
the queen.
As the queen grows old she produces less pheromones and this is the
trigger for the bees to produce a new queen. They will also do this if she
is accidentally lost or killed by the beekeeper.
Brood
As well as managing her subjects, the queen is also responsible for giving
birth to them. A queen honeybee only needs to mate once in her life
and she does this a few days after she hatches. On a warm sunny day she
leaves the hive escorted by some of her workers to minimise the chance
of her getting lost or eaten by a bird. The queen flies high and fast so that
only the very fittest drones have the chance of mating with her. She may
be mated by one or several drones and then returns to the hive where
she is greeted back by the colony. The fully mature queen is now capable
of laying up to 2000 eggs per day, which would take a chicken 6 years to
produce.
However for all her skills, she is a terrible mother, having completely lost
any instinct to care for her young and the queen therefore relies on the
female worker bees to raise her young. Beekeepers refer to the eggs and
larvae collectively as brood.
The queen is physically quite different from the other bees in the hive.
She is long and slender, with a much smoother, less hairy body. Her
abdomen is quite pointy and her head is proportionally small. Despite this
she can be difficult to spot in amongst 50,000 other fast moving bees and
so it’s normal to mark her with a small bright dot of paint. This technique
is described later in the guide. The queen does have a sting but she only
ever uses it against a rival queen.
A marked queen surrounded by workers.
Queens, worker and drones
The next part of this guide will give you a good understanding of the
biology of honeybees, their organisation within the hive and in particular
the life cycle of the colony so that, with a little well-timed help, you can
ensure it not only survives, but prospers.
About honey bees
Honey bee anatomy
The head - The head contains the eyes, mouth and antennae, which
are used for communicating. Bees have very highly developed senses.
They have a sophisticated tongue to taste the quality of nectar and will
automatically choose the nectar with the highest sugar content. They can
see colour and have excellent ‘noses’ for smelling.
Their compound eyes only see detail up close but they can also see in slow
motion. Unlike humans their eyes are tuned into the ultraviolet end of
the spectrum, so they see many more shades of blue than we do whereas
reds look black to bees. Perhaps not surprisingly, scientists have found
that flowers of all colours that attract bees have petals which strongly
reflect ultraviolet light. For example a flower that just looks yellow to us,
appears to have a very distinctive pattern to a bee. In a field with many
colourful flowers, the ultraviolet patterns help a fast flying bee pick out
those that will provide pollen and nectar. In this way the bee is more
efficient when foraging.
Flowers also have particular odours, which even the crude human nose is
able to appreciate. Bees of course have a much more sophisticated sense
of smell. Instead of a nose, they have many thousand sensor cells in their
antennae. It has been shown that bees will actually use this sense of smell
to lead them to flowers. They also use smell to recognise the queen and
the other bees in their hive, who all have the same odour. The antennae
are used to assess temperature and to communicate messages by touch.
Bees who damage their antennae are severely handicapped, and can
perform far fewer duties inside and outside the hive.
The Thorax - The thorax consists of 3 segments each bearing a pair of
legs. The second and third segments also have a pair of wings. The wings
move at an amazing 11,000 beats per minute and give the bee a top
speed of 12 miles per hour (which explains why it’s not easy to outrun a
bee). The thorax is covered in hairs which are long and feathered in the
worker for collecting pollen. The drones have shorter hairs and the Queen
very few.
The Abdomen - The abdomen contains the bee’s digestive system, honey
sac and, in the females, the reproductive organs and sting. The honey sac
can hold approximately 0.25ml - so it takes a lot of flights (approximately
20,000) to create a single jar of honey.
All bees are made up of three distinct parts, the head, thorax and
abdomen. Like most insects, the bee has a strong exoskeleton (a skeleton
on the outside of its body). Here are the main parts of a bee.
The workers – 10,000-60,000 per colony
Live for 36 days in the summer
Live for 5- 6 months over winter
Although the queen may be the
single most important bee in the
colony, it is the collective force
of the worker bees which make
it such a successful species. Every
single worker bee born in the hive
follows a strictly laid path from
the moment it hatches to the day
when it makes its final flight for
honey. Worker bees are all female
and those born in the spring and
summer will live for only 36 days.
They begin their working lives
inside the hive providing food for
larvae, drones and the Queen. Next they build the wax honeycomb that
forms the hives integral structure. As they get older they clean, heat,
ventilate, defend and repair the hive. Finally with just 7-10 days of life
left they graduate to become flying bees. After taking a few short
orienteering flights to establish the exact position of the hive they leave
to search up to 3 miles away for nectar and pollen. A single bee can make
up to 3000 flights a day and most will die away from the hive, on the
wing, with one last belly full of honey.
Female worker bees.
ThoraxHead Abdomen
Compound Eye
Antenna
Foreleg
Middle Leg
Hind Leg
Forewing
Hindwing
Pollen Press
Spiracle
Tongue

www.omlet.co.uk Page 17
The drones – up to 1000 per colony
Live for 22 days in the Summer
None are left in the hive over winter
A drone is a male bee, he is about
the same length as the queen
but, to put it politely, much more
squarely built. Less politely, he
looks quite dumpy with a large,
round abdomen and two big eyes
which meet at the top of his head.
The drones are quite often to be
found hanging around the honey
where they lazily feed themselves
or let themselves be fed by the
workers. As they have no sting,
they cannot defend the hive, they
never offer to help keep the place
clean and surprisingly (given their
taste for it,) have never learnt how
to make honey. In fact, the drones only purpose in life is to mate with
new queens, which they do on sunny days on mating flights - what a life!
The one sting in the tail for this happy existence is that, having mated,
they promptly die.
The colony always keeps a few hundred to a thousand drones in case a
new queen needs to be mated throughout the spring and summer. But
once autumn arrives, the workers literally drag any remaining drones out
of the hive and leave them outside to die. Suddenly being a drone doesn’t
seem quite seem so appealing.
Interestingly, in some countries, drones are considered a delicacy and are
said to be a potent aphrodisiac; if you’re in the mood for love you could
test this - please let us know if it works.
How does the queen lay eggs?
Bee eggs are parthenogenetic, which means they will hatch even if not
fertilised. Fertilisation is the deciding factor as to whether the egg that
hatchesis amale or female bee. Unfertilised eggs will producemales, known
as drones. Fertilised eggs will produce females, which will be either workers
or queens. There is no difference between queen eggs or worker eggs,
they are exactly the same; the difference occurs in how they are fed when
they hatch. An egg that is selected to be a new queen will be fed only
royal jelly - an extremely protein rich food produced by the bees. Because
the queen is larger the bees construct a special cell for a new queen which
is larger and quite easy to spot.
It is believed that the queen measures
the cell size with her front legs. A
large cell is for a male drone bee and
a smaller cell is for a female worker
bee. To produce a worker bee the
queen adds sperm to fertilise the egg
in her vagina. If it’s a male drone cell
then she simply lays an unfertilised
egg. When the egg hatches
into a larva, it looks like a little
maggot and the nurse bees start to
feed it.
The nurse bees feed the larvae with
bee milk. This is masticated pollen
and is an extremely nutritious protein
rich food. The cell is regularly topped
up for the first three days, thereafter
it is fed less frequently until the cell
is capped. Drones are thought to be
fed a similar ration to the workers.
Days after
egg is laid
QUEEN DRONE WORKER
Hatching of egg 3 3 3
Cell sealed 8 10 8-9
Spinning of cocoon 9 12 10
Moult of pupa to adult 15 22 20
Emerges from cell 16 24 21
Ready to mate 20 37 N/A
In the diagram above you can see how the egg changes daily in the cell until it
finally emerges as a fully formed bee.
Fresh eggs! But a bit small for frying.
Larvae at different stages. Note the wire
running through the foundation.
The queen, drones and worker bees take different amounts of time to
complete the stages of development. This is useful to know when you
come to inspect your hive as you can tell how long ago the queen has laid
a particular type of egg.
Is it possible for a worker bee to lay eggs?
Worker bees do occasionally lay eggs. This only happens if you have a
failing queen or a queenless hive and the bees have been unable to
requeen, perhaps because it’s the wrong time of year for a new queen
to be able to mate. Worker bees can only lay drone brood because they
haven’t mated and are not carrying any sperm. You can spot eggs laid
by worker bees because they will often be on the side of the cell rather
than on the bottom and there may be more than one egg per cell. If this
happens you will need to either unite the colony with one that has a queen
or introduce a new queen.
The drone bee is larger than the workers
and has bigger eyes.
Worker Bee Development in Days
Some worker bees are assigned to the duty of ensuring the hive is not
penetrated by unwanted guests, these can range from wasps, mice and
occasionally the beekeeper! The guard bees can be seen at the entrance
to the Beehaus, checking in the arriving bees. The smoke will placate
them too but if you stay too long these are the bees that you will first
notice buzzing around your veil urging you to close up the hive and come
back another day.
The queen cell is fed bee milk with a higher sugar content than worker
larvae. This super bee milk is called “Royal Jelly” and the queen larva is
fed as much of this as possible until the cell is capped. This difference
produces a strong queen with properly developed ovaries. Incidentally,
the cell caps are a mixture of pollen and wax which is porous, unlike the
airtight wax caps for honey. This is a great bit of trivia to use to impress
a school teacher.

Page 18 www.omlet.co.uk
1. Worker Cells - Small hexagonal
with a flat cap. These are the most
common cells in the hive and are
used for breeding worker bees.
Cell types
Inside the hive you will see different cells within the combs that the bees
construct. These cells vary according to their purpose as follows:
3. Queen Cells - Large, thimble
shape and hang vertically. These
can appear at any time of year if
the bees are producing a queen,
although most common is spring
and early summer.
5. Pollen cells - Pollen is stored by
the bees directly around the brood.
It comes in all sorts of different
colours depending on the plant it
was collected from.
2. Drone Cells - Large hexagonal
with a domed cap. Only found in
the spring and early summer. More
often than not, drone cells are found
towards the bottom of a frame.
4. Nectar and honey cells - These
are the same size as the cells used by
the bees for raising brood. Bees store
nectar in cells around the brood.
They will use this nectar as fuel while
they are working. They also convert
some of the nectar into honey which
they cap ( as in the cells in the top
left,) and for making bee milk.
Temperature control
The temperature of the brood is
critical. The eggs must be incubated
within 32-36oC, otherwise the bees
will not develop and hatch properly.
The worker bees control the
temperature by either fanning
their wings to cool the hive or by
metabolizing honey to heat it. The
brood also produces heat as the
larvae and pupae grow. If the colony
is too hot, the workers douse their
bodies in water and bring it into the
hive. They then fan the air with their
wings, thus bringing the temperature
down by evaporation. In cooler times, they huddle together around the
brood of eggs to keep it warm.
Bees fanning their wings.
Honey bee population
The population of the colony expands in the spring and
contracts in the autumn. Understanding this is the very essence
of beekeeping.
A typical colony will build up it’s population using the nectar of the
early spring flowers. Then, with a large workforce, it can harvest
the higher quality nectar in the summer. The colony reduces it’s
numbers in preparation for winter when around 10,000 bees will
cluster around the queen using the stored honey to keep warm until
the following spring when the cycle begins again.
This is the simple pattern that you will see in your own colony. The rise
in spring can be quite dramatic. Don’t forget a good queen will lay up to
2000 eggs a day so in a couple of weeks the population of the colony can
easily increase by 10,000 bees, even taking into account the older bees
dying. You should be careful not to be caught out by this and ensure that
the colony has plenty of space to expand into with new brood frames and
supers added as soon as the temperature increases enough to allow you
to open the Beehaus. There is more on managing the colony throughout
the seasons later in the guide.
Population Growth
You can see how the bee colony changes in size in the diagram below:
The queen will start laying in January but she really gets going from
March onwards. At this time, the colony is dedicated to the development
of the brood and the queen increases her egg laying accordingly. The
brood numbers peak around May/June. The ratios of adult bees to brood
at this time is around 2 to 1. The amount of food that is required by the
colony will, at this point, remain static and the bees can start intensively
storing nectar.
The overall bee population peaks around July / August and reaches it’s
lowest point around February / March as the over-wintering bees die.
60,000
Bee colony size
Adult bees Swarming season
Brood
50,000
10,000
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun July Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
20,000
30,000
40,000

www.omlet.co.uk Page 19
As you can see, bees have to be experts in air conditioning and are able
to maintain the required temperature in the hive even when the outside
air temperature is significantly different. However, by providing a well
insulated hive (such as the Beehaus,) you are giving them a helping hand.
They do not need to expend as much energy, either cooling in summer or
heating in winter, which means that you are likely to be able to harvest
more honey.
TEMPERATURE
OUTSIDE OC
ACTIVITY
20 Queen cannot fly
16 Minimum temperature for opening hive
15 Drones do not fly
14 All bees will cluster inside the Beehaus to
keep warm
10 Queen will stop laying
TEMPERATURE
INSIDE OC
ACTIVITY
38+ Colony need water to cool the hive
33-36 Bees able to create wax
32-36 Nest temperature for hatching eggs and
raising brood
15-20 Winter cluster temperature
6 Bees will be inactive as muscles too cold
4 A single bee will die without colony
The chart below shows the key temperatures and relationship between
temperatures and the bees.
Honeybees are fantastic foragers and fly up to 3 miles away from their
hive to find food if they have to, although they will of course choose
closer supplies when possible. A typical worker bee will make 3000 visits
to flowers in a day and will keep visiting the same area until all the nectar
is finished.
The waggle dance
In a colony, over half the bees will spend their time foraging. Within
these foragers, there are a small number of elite ‘scout bees’. The
scouts spend their time looking for good sources of food. Once they
have found a source of quality nectar, they return to the hive and tell
the other bees where to find it. They do this by performing the famous
waggle dance.
The scout bee dances on the honey comb. As it’s quite dark in the beehive,
the other bees have to feel the dance with their antennae. The scout also
shares some of the nectar, to let the other bees know the quality that they
have found.
How do bees find food?
The bee dances on the surface of the comb at an angle to the vertical that
denotes the angle the bee should fly at when it leaves the hive relative to
the sun. The length of the dance on the comb denotes the distance.
The amount of water in the nectar is a measure of its quality and your
bees will actively source the flowers producing nectar with the lowest
percentage of water and the highest percentage of sugar. In a good
season the bees will actually become quite discerning about this and
foraging bees who return with watery nectar will have their load rejected
by the hive bees and sent out into the field to do better.
Plants that provide food for bees
You can help your bees and other wildlife by planting bee friendly plants
in your garden. Even window boxes and hanging baskets can be planted
to be useful food sources for your bees as well as you. For example a herb
garden with basil, thyme and rosemary will please the bees (and make
your cooking more interesting). A flower bed full of lavender will give
honey a delightful flavour and the dried flowers can be used to make
your drawers beautifully scented.
There are lots of plants that are fantastic for bees. As a general rule, you
should try to plant as wide a variety as possible so that the bees have
sources of food throughout the entire season (March-September). You
should aim to plant them in clumps to make it easier for the bees to find
and if possible choose local plants rather than exotic ones.
The bees waggle at an angle to
vertical. The longer the waggle the
further the nectar.
This is the same angle as the flowers
are to the sun.
Angle
Distance
Corn flower.
Honesty. Allium.
Marigold.
Thyme. Love-in-the-mist.
Annual poppy. Fox glove.

Page 20 www.omlet.co.uk
A pond surrounded by pebbles is an ideal place for bees to drink from.
Water is essential for bees. They use it to regulate the temperature of the
hive and to dilute honey for eating.
Nuisance bees
If the closest water source to your bees is the neighbours swimming pool
or pond then this can cause a problem as a large number of bees will visit
the pool everyday for water. Other sources of water that might be near
by are: dripping taps, bird baths, horse troughs, ponds or washing hung
out to dry.
Providing water close to the hive
You can stop the bees from causing a nuisance by providing a closer source
of water. However, you should place the water over 3 meters away from
the hive. The bees will not drink from water placed directly next to the
hive because they might have defecated in it. Suitable water sources you
can provide are:
Bees can be kept in a garden with other pets such as chickens, rabbits
and dogs. Dogs should be prevented from being able to get close to the
hive as the bees may well treat the dog as a potential danger and sting
it. If you have a dog, it would be a good idea to fence off the area of the
garden that the bees are in so that the dog can’t investigate.
A bucket or tray with pebbles in the
bottom to stop the bees drowning.
A drinker for a chicken can be used
for bees.
Water sources for your bees
Pets
Salvia. Purple toadflax.
Nectar and pollen sources throughout the year
PLANTS MARCH
MAY
JUNE
JULY
AUGUST
SEPTEMBER
POLLEN
COLOUR
Poppy
Christmas Rose
Winter Aconite
Dandelion
Oil seed rape
Heather
Knapweed
Blackberry
Borage
Allium
Raspberry
White Clover
Ivy
Trees
Sycamore
Apple
Cherry
Plum
Willow
Horse Chestnut
Hawthorn
Bees and chickens can live happily together in the same garden