Recent content by Beeconcerned

It's raining hard and all the foragers are inside hives. Do they just literally hang about, or do they do something useful?

Thanks for the prompt reply. Ahh yes. I'm getting old and forgetful. I was forgetting about the new winter bees venturing out now.

During a sunny spell between heavy showers this afternoon one of my hives was very active with a cloud of bees in front which is not that unusual. This time there were half a dozen bees around the entrance with their backsides high obviously scenting, (no, they were not just fanning). It all...

I was helping with a hive inspection yesterday. Double brood and a super, and bursting with bees. Drones were flying, and there were plenty inside. There were half built queen cells at positions from 1/3 way down to the bottom on some frames, none of them capped yet. I didn't see eggs in the...

Blimey. It might be just right for some fetishist, but not for me. I wonder what the tweezers (part of the deal) are for?

Thanks for your replies. The temperature was around 7 degrees. The 'cluster' was around a hole through the comb at the end of a frame. They were firmly anchored on the comb, and needed to be wiped off with a paint brush. On the table top they were all motionless, with no legs or antennae...

No. I didn't go ahead with that experiment. You have a good memory. Sorry, inspect was a bad choice of word. By inspect I mean just that in dictionary terms, visiting and having a good look. I don't mean I opened up and went through the frames. I only cracked this hive open when I saw no...

I inspected my hives this afternoon. Although heavy, One was unexpectedly dead and empty of bees, so I brought it in to protect the honey from predators. At the end of a super frame (no excluder) I found about a dozen static and seemingly dead bees. I brushed these off, and found the queen was...

Yes that's me. I don't need one. I'm not saying that folks like you in genuine rural locations or with genuine reasons don't need 4x4's. I used to have an old Landy myself for the lanes and fields of Shropshire when I lived up there. But it is also easy to find reasons to buy a nice big Boy's...

Wow. Petrolheads and a strong smell of Testosterone. :) I almost convinced myself that I needed a 4x4 a few years ago for my smallholding. When I stood back and weighed the few hours a year I actually drove off road, and the even fewer hours of those I really couldn't avoid driving through...

I was asking about eye wiping rather than antenna cleaning, although both are sometimes combined in a single swipe. This video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-91iFabsHrQ&feature=youtu.be Is what I mean. Even if there is no opportunity for this cleaning on the comb, the bee has walked down...

Some bees stop briefly to wipe their eyes at the hive entrance. Is it just a reflex response of 'blimey, it's bright out there' or has it got some deeper significance? And why only some?

I have been offered a free 12.5 Kg box of marzipan, and some other large chunks too. The ingredients are Glucose syrup, Invert sugar syrup, Water, and 25% almonds. I am wondering whether to use it as winter 'fondant'. I seem to remember reading that bees dislike the smell of almonds, but mine...

I would guess that you didn't enjoy the maggot? Neither would a Veggie or a Vegan, but accidents do happen to them too. My understanding is that Vegans mainly object to the concept of animals as commodities, and in particular to the capture or the breeding of animals for the harvesting of their...

I've been vegetarian for some years now following serious bouts of salmonella and E. coli from dodgy meat. The things I've seen while working at local farms have helped keep me away from it too. I don't know if I could ever go Vegan, but I can see the logic in the arguments...