Neils

Knew I'd forgotten something.

At the beginning of the year I spotted a request from a nature reserve just down the road from my parents who wanted bees on the land. Despite my parents having been there for nearly 20 years, none of us had any idea this reserve was just around the corner.

Back in february I went along to one of their work parties, met everyone and we found a site suitable for a few hives. Then in March we prepared the area, located away from the main path and behind some thick brambles. There's space there for a good 8-10 hives but I'm going to put a single colony there this year and see how it goes, there are a lot of badgers, woodpeckers and of course people there but no vehicle access, any would be thief will ahve to carry the hive a long way to get it out and there's no sign that the area's used by kids as a hangout so I'm not too worried about vandalism either, when word gets out theres a beehive there that might change so we'll see.

On friday I went back to place a couple of pallets down and it's the first time I've seen the site since march. It's obvious that people do, in fact, walk past the entrance to the apiary although that might be a result of having a nice big, cleared and woodchipped area behind the brambles. The hive itself isn't visible unless you enter the apiary. It's also the first time I've seen the place "in bloom". I think my bees are going to love it there. There's 6.5 hectares of wild woodland and meadow thick with red clover and blackberries, none of which has been sprayed with anything in the last 50 years.

Saturday night, having been dragged to the theatre by the Mrs, determined not to let my beekeeping ruin her social life, found me on the allotment, in the dark, suited up and blocking up the hive entrance with a sponge. I'd also taken off 2 very full supers, including bees and placed them on newspaper on top of the National Hive I was leaving behind (during the day!).

Sunday morning we strapped up the hive, unceremoniously dumped it in a wheelbarrow and carted it off the allotment and into the back of a waiting van. As we were only going 20 minutes up the road that was the limit of the travel preparations that we made.

Arriving at the reserve I took the opportunity to drive a couple of stakes a few feet into the ground and screw the pallets to the stake. The hive was then placed in the centre of the pallets and strapped into place, the sponge removed from the entrance and we left them to it once the awaiting committee from the nature reserve had taken a few photos and asked a wealth of questions about bees.