The working life of Museum of London

Here you will find the first thoughts from our Visitor Host, Lynne Connell, who has begun training to look after the beehive installed in the Museum of London’s Garden Terrace initially as part of the City of London Festival.

Lynne intends to post diary entries on a regular basis so check back here (and on Facebook and twitter) for more updates soon.

Wednesday 14 July
Today I met with Brian and saw inside the hive for the first time. The first thing I noticed when the lid was removed, was the distinctive smell, a combination of resin and honey (very pleasant). Brian removed some of the frames. The two on the outside had some of their cells filled with honey, which had been capped with yellow wax. These are for feeding the bees. The five inner frames  had a mixture of cells containing honey, cells containing pollen and cells containing the brood. The outside frames contained mainly eggs (which looked like grains of rice) and larvae (which looked like prawns). The most mature were in the centre and least mature were in the periphery. The most central frames contained the most mature brood, capped with brown wax and including pupae. I was able to see the queen (she is larger than the workers with a long slim abdomen and long yellow legs) who is labelled with a blue spot. There were also a few drones, these are longer and chunkier than workers, with large eyes, like a pair of large tinted goggles. Brian was pleased with the way the brood had progressed since he last visited 2 weeks ago. The colony is not a strong one because the original queen had to be replaced. The new queen is doing well, and the workers were busy collecting pollen (protein for the brood) but the late start will mean that it is unlikely that there will be honey to harvest this summer.
Wednesday 21 July
Bee activity at the front of the hive was a little quieter than last week. Inside the hive there was some progress. However, the frames that Brian had turned around (in the hope that they would be filled with honey) remain untouched. Nevertheless, there was evidence of brood production. The queen was moving over one frame, with her abdomen poised as if to lay. She was being attended by a group of workers who were licking her! Brian is concerned that our urban bees may never find enough food in the city. He has suggested that we feed them to give them a bit of a boost. My homework is to make some bee food. Basically, I need to dissolve 4kg of cane sugar in a roughly equal volume of water. Sounds like fun!
Wednesday 28 July
Last night I made bee food in my kitchen. The work surfaces are now a little sticky!  This morning I sat on the 8.05 to Cannon street armed with 4 mineral water bottles full of sugar solution. Next job of the morning was to produce some signage for the garden terrace (which is now open). “The garden terrace is temporarily closed because of increased honey bee activity”. Brian and I looked inside the hive. Again, there had been some progress, but not as much as hoped for. We transferred the bee food into a feeding box. This is a 4 litre plastic container with a grid in the lid. The box is inverted over  a hole in the lid that covers the occupied frames. The bees are then able to food through the grid. Torla came down to take some photographs (see me in action below)  from the safety ( we thought) of the garden. Unfortunately, she was not far enough away to escape being stung. Not once, but twice! My next task was to ask security to lock the doors to the garden terrace to prevent the public from wandering out !