Dockyard Apiary: Buzzing with Progress
Dockyard Apiary: Buzzing with Progress
The Dockyard Apiary is an urban beekeeping initiative that was originally established with the Medway Beekeepers Association in 2020. Aware of the general decline of species of bees in Kent due to pesticides, diseases and habitat loss, we wanted to commit to a long-term project to support the local ecosystem and improve biodiversity on Dockyard estate.
Nestled in a secluded corner by the Main Gate, the Dockyard Apiary is protected by a historic corrugated roof structure. It was once the bike shed for rope makers working in the adjacent Ropery. The bees gently hum and buzz their way through the surrounding wildflower meadow that has been planted to provide them with vital nectar and pollen.
Progress So Far
The year began very well, with all overwintered colonies coming through strongly.
In March, the Apiary had four strong colonies, and all was looking good.
Spring
The sunny spring bodes well for a good year ahead. However, as with all thing’s bees, life is never simple!
By April, the warm weather meant that the colonies had expanded so well that all four of the hives decided that they wanted to swarm. So, in order to avoid this happening, we had to remove queens (with a small number of bees) and put them into Nuc boxes. These are small five-frame hives.
The original colonies were left to rear new queens. Unfortunately, this means there is a need to draw out a substantial number of foundation frames with wax. It takes 8 lb/ 3.8 kg of honey to produce 1 lb/ 0.45 kg of wax. The result is that we were unable to harvest any honey in the early part of the year.
By mid-May, we had four new successful colonies, all with new queens. This is in addition to the existing Nuc colonies, which required two of the smaller populations to be combined. However, when you think all is going to be ok, one of the old queens failed. This resulted in combining two more, bringing the total to six full colonies. We supered up and started to collect some honey.
Summer
Then along came June, the hottest month on record!
Heat often brings a lull in nectar flow as the nectaries start to dry out. Swarming is also sometimes induced.
Luckily, Dockyard Beekeeper Volunteer, Paul, was on site when a swarm suddenly turned up and settled on the perimeter wall outside of the Church. So, he managed to pick it up and put it in another Nuc box. That evening, he returned and moved it into the Apiary, and we were now back to seven colonies.
The bees were not finished because the following week, Paul was tidying up the weeds around the hives, and Hive No.1 swarmed again! He picked the swarm up and later transferred it back into the Apiary.
Unfortunately, the queen didn’t survive, and two weeks later we combined it with another colony. Sadly, another hive contracted the black bee virus and failed as a result. We do not know where it came from but luckily all the other colonies were unaffected.
July
So here we are now in July, and we have five very strong colonies.
The Beekeepers use a rotating colour system: white, yellow, red, green, blue to track the age of the queen bee.
The swarm has expanded nicely. After locating the queen, we marked her with a white spot, white because we are unsure of her age. Three of the other colonies now have new queens marked with a blue spot, for the colour of 2025. The final colony is currently re-queening, and we are waiting for her to start laying eggs before we can mark her as well.
All hives have supers on them, and we are at last collecting honey!
We removed some honey on 2 July, before removing more at a later date. We hope that the final collection will be at the end of August. The next job will be getting the bees ready for the winter.
Beekeeping at The Dockyard
As you can appreciate, beekeeping is a never-ending round of opportunities to problem solve. It is a complex activity and requires a wide range of skills.
Beekeeping involves not only suiting up and working closely with the bees, but also honey extraction, jarring and labelling the honey, cleaning equipment, building equipment such as brood and super frames, helping to keep the Dockyard Apiary tidy and cutting back the vegetation.
Paul has been a beekeeper for the past 15 years, and says, “It is a fascinating thing to do, and I am still learning about how these amazing little creatures do the things that they do. How they organise their living space and how they work together to produce the most amazing environments, and of course, products.”
Working in Partnership
We are delighted to be partnering with Brightly Software for meaningful impact within our local environment and community.
