Recent content by BB King

End of last week when temp in Norfolk was 21degrees I merged a queenless hive with a Q+ hive using paper. The temperature by the start of this week 3 days later dropped to 10degrees and last night a slight frost. I was passing the apiary and called in to retrieve a hive tool and found two small...

Half of my colonies have made swarm preparations over the last 2 weeks requiring action I had a bait nuc in an apple tree at the bottom of the garden containing old comb and a few drops of lemongrass oil, scouts had been nosing around for a couple of weeks. On Sunday on returning home I found a...

Very sad news. Was my favourite supplier. Hope there aren’t more suppliers to go the same way.

Due to the severe drought and heat in Norfolk and the subsequent fire risk I have refrained from using the smoker for several weeks, we have had several field fires locally sadly in some cases houses being destroyed. The bees have behaved as normal and apart from moving bees when reassembling...

Taking off the last supers today. Wasp numbers increased dramatically over last 7 days after the heatwave and earlier than I’ve ever seen them. I had closed the hive entrances last week but shut some now to one bee space. Bees a bit grumpy probably from the attention of the wasps, I took a few...

A/S on Saturday checked today Monday for any missed QCs. Hinged lid still in place on queen cell in new hive and new queen emerged and marked. Probably would have swarmed if I had been a day later with the A/S?

Perspex off cuts

Inspected on the only decent day in the last 2 weeks. Only one hive with QCs so AS done, just in time as may have have swarmed today or tomorrow. The rest building up slowly with an extra frame of brood each week with only a little nectar coming in. Had 2 ins rain last week after 2 month...

Carried out first full inspection at the 3 apiaries today with a 15C max. The Norfolk spring has been cold and bone dry after the autumn/winter deluge with very cold nights and only 4 decent foraging days so far, frustratingly the forecast looks back to cold for at least another week. One site...

Wasps were giving the hives at my orchard apiary a lot of attention. I closed the entrances down and as the colonies were strong they could look after themselves, however the wasps were very persistent and in such numbers. At the weekend I put a sheet of clear perspex across the front of each...

Between Watton and Dereham

No flood insurance not traditionally a high risk in the dry East but may have to reconsider site locations as these events are looking to becoming more frequent.

They look to be ok. 3 of the five were on 14 x 12 brood frames so not all of the brood was submerged. The adult bees look to have survived, all colonies are on OMF so the water would have gone as soon as the water level subsided. I was concerned about asphyxiation if they had been submerged for...

Our village suffered flooding from thunderstorms on Sunday and Monday, precipitation amounted to well over 4 ins in a few hours. One of my sites had been under water for about 12hrs and I have just been through all five hives which have all had water into the brood box and by the hide tide mark...

Checked two of the out apiaries. All good the two A/S colonies building well the parent hives waiting for sign of eggs, established hives no sign of swarming. Honey production has slowed as the drought has been followed by wet and cold from Thursday until today. At the second site I found the...