The Birds and the Bees

Sunday, May 28th 2017

Today was the last of two days on the Introduction to Beekeeping course held at the reserve by the Richmond and District Beekeepers. Again it was a day of lectures; this time on equipment and then on more detailed subjects such as swarming.

With no thunder storms in sight, we ventured onto the heath where we were able to get close and personal with the temporary hives there.

There was plenty of chance to put theory into practice and use the basic knowledge we had gained under the watchful eyes of the beekeepers instructing us.

The large bee cell sticking over the frame is a capped Queen cell, indicating the bees may swarm.

With the practical finished we ensured all bees were carefully removed from our suits before heading back to the Field Centre.

Thank you to all that attended the course and especially the folk who arranged it.

We had a busy day at the reserve, the bird ringers had been there since 4.15am. Although a fairly quiet day we were able to do some nest boxes and one highlight was a Kingfisher. This was a male, which has a fully black lower mandible, or beak. The female has a pale lower beak!

You can tell by the feet of the Kingfisher that it was a adult by the lack of black, or dark brown on the upperpart. This was a newly ringed bird, which we hope to see again in the coming years.

Thank you to the commitment and dedication that all our early morning ringers do for both the reserve, and by collecting data for the British Trust for Ornithology.
 

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