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4th June

A busy morning. I had bought some open mesh floor material so the nice dry day seemed ideal to convert the base of my WBC from solid to open floor with a plywood slide underneath to close it off as required. Despite the bait and lemongrass no bees had taken up residence and its always easier to make alteration to an empty house. Midway through the job I noticed three or four bees nosing round the inner boxes which I had stacked adjacent to the breeze blocks I use as a base. One or two flowers are opening on the dog roses which might be the reason we have visitors. Just after mid day the phone went "I saw your advert and I think I have a bees nest in my lobby ceiling". As it was only in the next village I went to look. There were mason...
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1st June

Warm, dry, with a light breeze. I have finally observed flying honeybees around home so there could be a chance of the baited hives being selected by a swarm. Drove over to BABKA Apiary for todays practical session. A larger than normal group assembled so we split into sub groups each with an experienced tutor. Our theme being swarm prevention. One of the hives we inspected had queen cells with larvae which was judged at risk of swarming so a second brood was set up and we carried out an artificial swarm. Much more understandable now I have seen it. During the inspections the supers were noted to be filling up and heavy so one of the hives had an extra super put on just above the queen excluder. I learned that one of the beeks in the...
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Welcome to Apis

Picture a beehive, its cedar wood faded to grey, perched on a parapet four storeys above an street in old Bermondsey. Now zoom in to London’s Tower Bridge, zig South a bit, zag a fraction West, and you have arrived. Welcome to Apis ! This is a blog about honeybees. Mostly. That’s why it’s called “Apis”, the Latin for “Bee”. The rest is about beekeeping. Mostly. So you are now on the landing-board. At the hive-entrance. Cross this border and you leave behind the bright, wide world which we know so well and you defect to an insect culture, humming in the darkness. Beyond this threshold and, well, it’s not just a leap of the imagination, like Alice In Wonderland’s rabbit-hole. It’s a reality: a gangplank into prehistory, into a dense...
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25th May

Thankfully a warm and sunny day. I checked my baited hive again but still no sign of any bees. Not even any bees to be seen on the apple blossom or other flowers around the farm. I drove over to the Apiary for todays session where we inspected 3 hives and found them to be busy with stores building up. One or two practiced marking drones to get a feel for handling bees. I found eggs, larvae, capped cells and adult bees plus I found the marked queen. There was good build up of stores and an extra super added to the hive with most. The empty, new foundation super was fitted between the brood and the super in use One hive had an excess of drone comb hanging so that was removed, the larvae being promised to the hive owners chickens. On...
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18th May

Another cold, wet day. I had an email to say this weeks practical session at the apiary is cancelled due to the conditions. Understandable really as opening hives in the cold and wet would not do the bees any good. I just had an external look at my baited hive but no bees to be seen. Maybe I should put a bee sized "to let" sign up?
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Still 2 colonies alive and growing

Mrs FG and I went through the two colonies at the weekend and have finally seen both queens. Both are really pretty and fairly huge, compared to the workers. No drones seen yet, but some of the cells are built up higher than the norm, so I guess that's what they are about. The dark colony we got from PolyHive are going strongly, now on about 6 frames. They swarmed last summer, into another hive we had out and that colony went to a newbie beek near Bristol; I'll try and find out what happened to them. The earlier colony we got from GWW and Widders is a bit weaker (4 frames?) but growing and foraging strongly. The nuc we populated with the mini-swarm died out (as everyone said it would) over the winter. FG
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11th May

Quite an odd day weatherwise with spells of sunshine interspaced with rain and quite cold in the wind. I was unsure whether to drive over to the Assockation Apiary for the practical session. I took a chance and even though it was raining when I pulled in, within minutes the rain stopped and other cars disgorged beekeepers. Todays session covered transferring bees purchased by members from association hives into their new homes. Very interesting and informative! On completion of that task the other hives on site were inspected. One hive had wild comb containing nectar and drone cells, some with grubs in the top space where bees had found a way through because of displacement of a plastic fondant box. Watching the removal of the bees and...
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Genesis

I suppose I should make a record of my venture into beekeeping if only as a personal history to look back on. It all began with the gift of a WBC hive containing a brood box and a queen excluder but no super, and with foundation which had become brittle and misshapen with age. The hive was well weathered but despite that had never been graced by occupation by anything but a few spiders. I started reading up on bees and found my nearest supplier was Yorkshire Beehives. A drive over led to meeting Paul the owner and I spent an hour or so learning by listening to him and seeing his apiary. I left with new foundation sheets and other materials and new information to digest. Following this visit and based on Pauls recommendation I contacted...
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Small Order No Doubt More To Come

Well i finally decided to just choose between sticking with nationals or convert to langstroths, well i chose langstroth just because the swienty poly hives look very sturdy. 50 x LS Deep Brood Frames 20 x LS Deep Foundation 2 x 6 Frame LS Deep Nucs 20 x National Brood Frames 20 x National Brood Wax 100 x Frame Spacers 1 x Roll Of Frame Wire If my attempt to make nucs from my national hive work and the nucs build up well ill make another orders of more frames/was full hive setups. May even have to order more nucs depending on how many swarms i lure this year. Going to be a fun year hopefully.
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Swarming Has Begun!

Well I checked on my buzzing bees last wednesday and found many play cups no eggs or wetness to them, anyway story short i pulled them all down and place my second super on. Today i went to check again being 1 week to find 15-20 more queen cells this time all little ones along the top bars/bottom bars/side bars, none in the middle where a mistook a supercedure cell last year for a swarm and pulled it down resulting in a bad year. Every cell has a egg in but not yet any royal jelly, due to not having my order arrive i didn't have my poly nucs ready for this moment so i had to improvise. They had 2 stores 9 brood in brood box, 4 stores 7 brood in super and a full super of stores in second super. I had a rotting brood box/roof/floor...
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Bee Bearding

Hello, I am looking for a beekeeper to preform a bee beard for a video project. I am looking for someone preferably in Florida, but any nearby states would also be fine. I would pay for the service. Please let me know if you know of any beekeepers/ bearders who are looking to break into the film industry and perform the beard. Thank you! Antonia
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Stunned !

I was informed 13/3/2013 that my hives are stood on what is now ex mod land and that i have to move my equipment or face removal / destruction of my property . My bee's are under eviction and i am tearing my hair out trying to find somewhere else for them to live . Pronto . I live in sully , near penarth ( cardiff ) if anyone can help out , temporarily , permanently ( renting ) i would be so greatful , thankyou for reading this and i hope this year will work out for you all. Jay
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overdue update

Ok. Apologies for the radio silence. For those in the know, having going through a protracted divorce for the past few years and at the same time making a success of my new job, I've hardly had the time to post here, let alone log on and read anything on the forum. After an appalling start to the year and my worst winter losses from 2011-2012 in nearly 20 years of keeping bees (lost 6 hives) I realised that the weather was against me and the bees early on last year. While I managed to get an increase of 1 colony, I also lost another in the spring and am now down to 5. I put the fact that I managed to retain 5 by doing something I have never done in 20 years. Let alone beekeeping. I left them alone, to fend for themselves, and decided...
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