BEEKEEPING AND BIKING, Wales

26 May 2012: Today we worked at The Elms and were met there by Stuart's father, Allister, who is a beekeeper. Stuart and Sheila went on his "rounds" with him. In the evening we went on an 8-mile bike ride to Talacre Lighthouse.

The Elms, Gronant, Flintshire, Wales

This is what the inside of a new hive looks like. This new hive will be left by an existing hive to attract enough bees to form a new swarm. Two queen eggs will be allowed to develop here, and the dominant queen will kill the other.

Allister, Stuart and Sheila suit up to check on the active hives. There are six, but we'll go to two.

Allister has used a little smoke, and the lid is removed to reveal the top section, or Super Box. Bees make food (honey) here, thinking the queen will be laying eggs in the cells. But there is a barrier that keeps the queen out of the Super Box. Honey for human consumption will be collected from the Super Box.

Each frame is checked for honey production. This one is doing well.

The bees have been very active during the last week of warm sunny weather. The cells are filled with honey, and once the bees have finished sealing the cells, the hive is ready to be harvested.

The Super Box is lifted off to go down to the Brood Box. The Brood Box is where the queen lives and can lay a thousand eggs a day.

An excluder is lifted away to look inside the Brood Box. The excluder is a mesh that is fine enough to keep the queen in the Brood Box, but which allows the other smaller bees free access to the Super Box.

These frames are handled more carefully. If the queen drops from a frame, she must drop inside the box, not outside the hive. Frames are always held directly over the box.

The bees are sealing cells where eggs have been laid. Once hatched, they are full grown and get to work as soon as they are dry.

The bees also seal food (honey) storage cells. This will be the bees food through the winter.

Plenty of bees. A healthy and strong hive.

Note the bee highest in the box. The pollen sacks on his legs are full; it looks like he has yellow pads on his legs.

Time to close up the hive. This is the front, where the bees enter the hive. Don't ever stand in front of a hive!

Sheila's survived the hive of a swarm of British bees; they did not even tap on the face mesh like they sometimes do to warn people they are not welcome. But now we are going to a hive of more aggresive bees from Greece.

Right away the bees are buzzing round us. Note the red frame spacers that keep the frames just the right distance apart from each other for the bees to work.

Bees can sting through gloves and suits if they want to!

The left corner cell is a queen cell. Since this hive already has an active queen, it must be destroyed.

The top is safely put back on, and we have checked two hives with only one sting to Allister when a finger tip of his gloves tore when he was putting back a frame. Since he has worked with bees for 17 years, the sting will only effect him for about five minutes.

 The flowers in the garden and the recent sunny weather ensures that honey will be harvested soon from these hives, but we have had to put out extra water for the bees to drink. They like to go to a sunny spot to drink, but since it cannot be deep water it soon evaporates. You may help your local bees by planting flowers that they like to collect pollen from, and by supplying them with shallow water (especially during dry times). Bees cannot swim and so a container of water can have a few rocks added onto which the bees can land, and we found that clippings of wide grass acted as great platforms for them from which to drink. Be sure to put it in a quiet, sunny spot in the garden.

Prestatyn, and towns and villages to its east and west, has the Irish Sea to the north, and quickly starts uphill to the south. Our bike ride took us, for the most part, on a sea level ride to the east to Talacre, four miles away. Although a very warm evening, we had a strong wind against us on our way out.

Thom, Sheila, Janet, Daniel, and Stuart arrive at Talacre Beach.

Here are the three cyclists who will be peddling from San Diego, California, to Key West, Florida, in October/November 2012. They are allowing 70 days, but hope to complete the coast to coast ride in 60 days. They are Thom Winkelspecht, whom most of you already know, and his brother-in-law Stuart (pictured right), who is also an Air Traffic Controller and a retired military ATC like Thom.

Thom served in the USAF; Stuart served in the Royal Air Force, being based in Cornwall, Gibraltar, Wiltshire, Germany and Scotland. Stuart is married to Sheila's sister, Janet; Stu and Jan have a daughter and son. Their daughter Sandra, a former RAF navigator on a Nimrod (a maritime patrol aircraft), is presently living with her family in San Diego. Her husband, RAF Squadron Leader and pilot John Butcher, is on an exchange tour with the US Marines at Miramar.

Their son, 26-year-old Daniel, is the third cyclist! Dan graduated from London University, Imperial College, and is a financial adviser for an international company. He recently cycled from London to Paris in four days.

The cyclists will be raising money for Help for Heroes/Wounded Warriors during their bike ride.

On the way back home from Talacre we passed the cemetery where Sheila's parents are buried. It is such a beautiful spot on the east edge of Prestatyn, called Coed Bell.

Coed Bell Cemetery, middle right, overlooking the sea.