Recent content by beecology

That I suppose comes down to a matter of taste

You seem determined not to, but for what its worth, stick to native plants then everyone's a winner

As the title suggests and hopefully a thread that can be added to for future seasons like the 'what did you do in the apiary' thread. So, how have you done this year in terms of main flow honey crop? Has it been as bad as many thought early on or did your bees turn things around? For what its...

sainfoin - highly benefitial to bees and livestock

defo avoid balsam - nightmare in the seed bank. If you really want to do something worthwhile, plant native plants that do well in your area - those are the plants adapted to the local conditions and support the native fauna

As per the title, could really do with emptying a few supers and sticking back on again (good flow on at present) but on inspecting today have found the bees have built comb from the top supers into the ones below (all capped and full of honey). Any suggestions? I could put a clearer board...

Its hard to prescribe the best management without assessing a site but, assuming there are no rarities present, the above suggestion is a very good starting place to increasing floristic diversity and reducing the dominance of some grasses. It always worries me when people label sites as waste...

If you don't get a honey crop to boast about, then I will share my 'getting stung success' with you, how's that sound? We can be joint best at that

all well and good having all that honey, but I prefer to measure my beekeeping in stings received - had about 45 thus far! yes I am absolutely champion when it comes to getting stung :winner1st:

That made me chuckle :rofl:

thanks for replies folks, the clover and bramble are in abundance locally, but for various reasons, its not been an overly productive year. Whatever honey crop I end up with though is a bonus.

Just a quick question or two, to gauge what people experience; When do you find the main flow ends in most years? What constitutes a good yield per hive, i.e what do you expect on average? After splits, uniting and general faffing this year, I think will be lucky to get 50lb of honey (spread...

been to check on supers today and two hives absolutely piled out, bombing and stinging. Horrible! At present the nicest hive is the one recently requeened and headed by a Hivemaker queen - at this rate, I will need another 3 or 4. Robbing is definitely the cause (watched big scrum at the...

not many supplying these - where did you get them from? I was interested when told by a mate they were £1 each but the few places they are available they cost £2 each plus delivery.

its sweltering here in derbys - no air at all, close and far too hot to be comfortable. wouldn't even want to think about getting in a bee suit today. Amazing sight during a brief storm earlier, hail stones melting in mid air as they fell