Thank you for visiting the blog of Imperial College’s Environmental Society. We plan to upload details of our wildlife garden, committee, events and campaigns here soon!
Join on the Union website here for £4.
Welcome to all those new and returning people interested in the environment at Imperial. This being Welcome Week we have some events to welcome you all to the society.
Wednesday 1pm: Introduction to the garden with bee inspection in the Secret Garden
Weekend (time tbc): introduction and gardening session. We’ll be making some raised beds and planting some new things as well as doing some tiding.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Weekly inspections of the hive had been going well, the population was expanding, more and more brood frames were being used and even the supers are being drawn out. There is significant amounts of honey being stored and lots of brood. However, on one week we noticed about 12 bees on the floor with withered wings being devoured by wasps. It appears the hive has an infection: most likely Deformed Wing Virus. While disease presence in a hive is not unusual nor disastrous, it does imply that the colony is infested with Varroa mites. This week, on inspection we saw a worker with a mite on its back, confirming our suspicions.
Varroa mites are parasites, and while Asian varieties of honey bee are able to glean themselves of the mites, the Western variety is unable to do so. Varroa both feeds on the bees and acts as a vector for various diseases and has been implied to be the cause of the drastic loss of feral colonies within the UK.
So treatments: the society would prefer not to use too much pharmaceuticals in the hive, partly because it means we can’t harvest the honey, and partly because why not?
The reason why varroa is such a problem in the Western honey bee is because it doesn’t clean itself in the same way as its Asian cousin and therefore the mite remains, one way of encouraging the bees to clean each other is to shake icing sugar onto the bees and then they come and remove the mites off each other. We’ll be trying this next week.
Ever thought how much stuff college throws out? Even with the reducing and recycling initiatives, it is a terribly large amount. Westminster Council estimate that about 8% of IC’s waste is food waste, and so we introduce Big Hanna. The composter being used to reduce the amount being sent to landfills by composting food waste on site. Which also helps Imperial meet Waste Implementation Programme Targets (UK legislation of the EU Landfill Directive), to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste being taken to landfill.
Nic Dent gave a short tour of the project which has been running since February. Food waste from the main outlets on campus (sadly, not yet the Union) are transported to the portacabin looking building behind central library. Here the waste is poured onto a table to remove any obvious contaminants, before being shovelled into a desiccator and moved into press to remove the liquid elements which is transferred to the sewers (about 60% of the initial mass), the dry fracture is then weighed for monitoring purposes.
Then tipped into Big Hanna, and is ground with some wood chips (for added carbon) and pushed into the composter.
Now the bacteria get busy, digestion occurs and temperature increases to 50C and 60C by the end. We put our hands in because we were that way inclined and allowed to do so, it was warm like a sauna.
Surprisingly, the smell outside the building and next to the composter was much better than expected. An earthy farm yard smell, but not the pungent stench of decomposing food waste you’d expect.
The end compost product, however, was steaming and emitted a strong odour of ammonia, and is then moved to outdoors wooden containers before being mixed with soil to improve the appearance of the compost. So far, Esoc has used it on the plum tree and the clematis’s which would make the sign look beautiful were it not for those meddling kids.
As well as massively reducing the amount of waste going to the landfill, college is also saving much more money by not requiring rodent-proof waste containers and other expenses in waste management to an order of £95k a year, which is incredible and should be applauded. It should be noted that the operation conforms with the Animal By-Products Regulations, so that surplus compost could be sold in the future bringing further revenue to the college.
While not all College outlets taking part, and already college needing to upgrade the composter to a larger one, Imperial is doing well in terms of adding to its green credentials and saving money through the scheme. This latter aspect is not one I often focus on, but it is such a good illustration of how environmentalism can have benefits outside the ideology itself. Now, if only the Mirror and Mail could see such things. Also, its great to see college doing something so visible which makes a great difference!
Another week, another inspection! Which, theoretically, we are now slightly better at doing after a weekend course of theory and practical sessions. Having seen marked queens and therefore a better grounding for knowing what to look for, 4 intrepid apiarists went on the search for Albert.
While they at first seemed more agitated than usual they swiftly quietened down and we were pleased to see that fresh frames were being drawn out with wax (comb was being built by the bees). Brood frames (where the bees are born and bred) showed signs of queen activity as eggs were present. As eggs only last 3 days before turning to larvae, we knew Albert had been around in the past few days.
Can you see it? 3 cells down from the bee in the middle burying its head in the comb? Fancy a zoom and a crop to make it easier?
In 3 days that small white egg (which looks a lot like a size 12 font comma) will start to form a spiral of larvae before later pupating.
We continued through the frames looking for Albert, and when we found her she was unexpectedly unmarked.
She being the elongated bee in the middle with a trail of workers following her. It turns out that bees aren’t as busy as they are made out, and while industrious tend to spend wandering about the hive on breaks, and also finding the queen, licking her with their proboscises, because that’s what bees like to do.
We also saw her laying eggs.
As the nucleus of bees we received contained various stages of brood at the moment the population of the colony is relatively stable with new bees hatching as older foragers inevitably die, but in 2 weeks we should see a rapid increase in numbers as the eggs being laid from last week begin to hatch. I am curious to see what these bees look like, as these will be the first bees of our queen. Within a colony, there is great variation in the appearance of the bees due to super-sister subgroups, with some being greyer looking and others vibrant yellow, and I look forward to the emergence of Albert’s super-sister daughters.
Super-sisters share 75% of genetic material, opposed to 50% seen in most animal siblings due to the nature of the bee’s reproductive methods. These subgroups can be visibly different, but also this genetic variation goes some way to explain why some bees spend longer proportion of their existence performing a specific task relative to their half siblings.
Even in the most active months, an apiarist should only have to check on their hive once a week. The reason we have been checking twice that is to make sure Albert, our queen, gets out and starts laying eggs. It seems in the last few days finally Albert has been released from the her cell and can get onto the serious business of laying eggs.
Sadly we weren’t able to locate Albert, despite inspecting all brood frames. We were astonished at the progress being made by the colony, which has already begun to work on the frames they weren’t transported on.
As you can see in the above picture, nectar is already being collected and some cells capped as well as others being filled up. Now that the queen has left, future inspections will include looking to find any cells with eggs or larvae in, and we hope to be able to show you them as we find them (As well as Albert when we eventually find her).
As we put the frames back into their original position, sets of bees formed mini bridged between the frames holding onto the frame and each other. It looked weird.
Poor guys… We have a bee keeping course this weekend and have some books which will form the beginning of our apiarist library so its time for some studying to go along with our curiosity!
While Albert remains in place, but getting closer to escaping her plastic cell, we thought we would share some information about our honey bees.
Typically, carniolan bees have a range of 3 miles from their hive, and don’t go further than 5 miles. Some people have asked us with shock at what is there available for the bees to collect and feed on, despite our small garden on their doorstep, they will have no shortage of food when you consider this is where they are likely to venture:
Suddenly London looks small when a single hive considers this area fair game for gathering stores from.
The excited new bee-keepers have been popping by the secret garden to eat lunch and have a look at the bees in their spare time. Sadly, it took all of a day before litter was found within the bee hive area. It is genuinely surprising considering how few people have access to the area that so much junk gets discarded especially in Princes Gates Gardens and the Esoc garden itself.
I hope for the sake of any litter droppers that they do not throw the rubbish at the hive too much, I hear bees do not take kindly to being disturbed in such manner.
Nonetheless, the colony did not care about its ongoing presence and bees could be seen to be returning with pollen:
We are going to get a pollen chart to try and work out what plants our workers have been visiting.
Albert is still in her candy coated cell shown above, although Stef commented that the amount of candy has reduced.
While it is shorts and sandals weather, best to bring suitable trousers or else its the full suit for inspecting, which is warm and makes you feel like you’re handling something hazardous rather than natural.
Esoc is now the proud owner of hive and bees!
This weekend saw an intense garden tidying effort and formation of a new communal area in the garden, which hopefully will be soon made all the more lovelier with an injection of plant life in the coming weeks.
On Tuesday, after Facilities laid more mulch in the bee hive area, Stef and Reuben fixed some netting to the fence to force the bees upwards instead of straight into the flailing arms of the primary school children who use Princes Gates Gardens. As they did so, Bill Davidson and Anthony Mason of the Gavin Jone’s team arrived with the new equipment and buzzing box of bees.
Bill began to explain the details of the hive (British National, with Hoffman frames, since you ask), as College paparazzi and various interested parties from College and the Union observed from over the fence; Stef, Reuben and Daniella (from Facilities) donned the bee suits and gauntlets, lit the smoker (apparently the best fuel being dried leaves, which thankfully the garden is in no short supply of). Bill talked through how to approach and calm the bees and opened the (what looked like a puny) container of Carniolan bees.
Inspections of the frames were made, and our queen (named Albert, in honour of everything in the area being related to Victoria, her spouse and alphabetical naming conventions) was still in her candy-ended cell, but rest assured she is eating her way out while her workers eat towards her. Bill informed us that it was unlikely that the swarm were Albert’s, and as such while entrapped in her cell, her pheromones would be permeating the hive to make the workers her own. Hopefully she will be out by the end of the week and laying eggs shortly after, and so our 2000 strong swarm will swell to closer to 6000 bees.
After inspection the hive was put back together and we stood admiring the bees as they settled down into their new home.
For more information on the Carniolan bee, check the wiki article, apparently mild mannered and hardy in the cold they should be good for our urban hive.
Later, Stef and Reuben returned at around 5 and already the bees were coming back with pollen laden legs.
We would like to give a massive thanks to Facilities for approaching the society to be involved and so hands on with this project, and we look forward to sitting under the numbered tree, toasting bread and sampling sampling the honey with each other. Further thanks to Bill and the Gavin Jones team for giving us some initial guidance.
More photos on Flickr and much more to come.
A wonderful Spring Sunday spent in the garden! A plum tree was planted, duckweed battled with, leaves conquered (or at least partly) and a horrific discovery that some small mammal had made its home in the seed shoebox, complete with nest and faeces.
Whatever it was had a good munch so we’re going to have to buy some new seeds, and some sort of container for them…
Back in there during the week, so look out for e-mails and facebook updates. See our flickr pool for some hot fork action and a photo of Ben hammering stakes in the ground to protect the newly planted tree…