Episode 122: I'm Melting, I'm Melting!

Hi, I’m Stewart Spinks and welcome to Episode 122 of my podcast, Beekeeping Short and Sweet. Could it get any hotter? Well, actually yes it could, a sweltering week and it seems Mad Dogs and Beekeepers go out in the midday sun!Do take a look at the extra content available on my patreon page, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolkhoneyI’m grateful to Honey Paw hives for sponsoring in part our podcasts for this season. Honey Paw hives are, as I’m sure you’re aware, Poly Langstroth hives and we’re setting up an apiary full of their hives this season courtesy of Honey Paw. Check out their range of hives and other equipment on their website, I’ll leave a link to their website in the show notes as usual.Honey Paw Hives - Designed by Beekeepers, For Beekeepers.Honey Monitoring Scheme can be found HereWelcome back to a much cooler, calmer Beekeeping HQ where today I’m actually recording and publishing the podcast all in one hit on Friday. As you know, I normally publish the podcast on a Friday and I’ve had a lot of messages from beekeepers saying how they enjoy each episode and look forward to the Friday morning fix. Well, this one is a little late in the day mainly due to the incredibly hot weather we’ve been enjoying this week. I use the word “Enjoying” somewhat cautiously as I not these intense temperatures aren’t to everyone’s liking and I certainly struggled with the very high overnight temperatures. For anyone listening outside the UK we’ve had daytime temperatures of around 30 to 34 degrees centigrade that’s somewhere in the low 90’s Fahrenheit with overnight temperatures staying around the high teens and even into the low 20’s centigrade, again that’s the upper 60’s Fahrenheit..................Finally today, I’ve just sent off my sample of honey to the National Honey Monitoring Scheme. I grabbed some information from their website to explain what they’re up to.Working in partnership with UK beekeepers, the National Honey Monitoring Scheme aims to use honeybees to monitor long-term changes in the condition and health of the UK countryside. However, they do  need the help of beekeepers if the scheme is to work.They go on to state “With the help of beekeepers we would like to collect honey samples from across the UK and continue to do this for many years. These samples will analysed using advanced DNA barcoding techniques to identify the species of plant pollen present. This will tell us what bees are feeding on in different parts of the country and at different times of year. This information will help us identify possible threats to the floral resources of pollinating insects”. Now that to me seems like a really good idea and so I signed up. It’s a simple process on their website and I’ll add a link to the podcast notes online. Once the sample had been taken and sent I popped onto their website and updated the records, answering the simple questionnaire which takes a couple of minutes. Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the results.I think it’s a very worthwhile exercise and would encourage all UK based beekeepers to get involved and support this projeTime’s up for another week, I’m off to demonstrate the Honey Paw Slit Uncapper now, do look out for the video next week some time. And if you haven’t yet checked out all of this seasons videos so far do pop over to my patreon page, that’s www.patreon.com/norfolkhoney I’m Stewart SpinksAnd that was Beekeeping Short and SweetTitle of my book - Resource Rich BeekeepingSupport the show