Recent content by bjosephd

I have honey that crystallised in the buckets in storage slowly over winter. One spring harvested and the other summer/autumn harvested honey. Any suggestions for getting it jar’d up without deteriorating it’s quality by over processing/heating it We have no oilseed rape near us, although...

Goodness I give up.

All very well But if you were buying honey that was actually made from bees eating predominantly sugar syrup then I imagine your WOULD want to know? So if I was a top end cosmetics producer (for example) and I found out my wax was inferior because it was made from an inferior and artificial...

I know I know. All your suggestions make perfect sense. Was just curious as a thought experiment. On another note has anyone ever experienced a drone layer (who was previously a laying queen) coming back in to lay? ie checked a hive after winter. Found it full of drone brood. Gone back a...

Well all the drones are flying from her hive of course!

Of course. But they did try once or twice to supercede her, so there is somewhat of a drive to raise a new queen. They may be aware that she is failing. Like they were aware that she was going to. I agree that it would probably be futile. But do you see how I came to this theory? (as daft as...

Here's a thought. I have a DLQ. I think I foolishly interrupted supercedure once (or twice) last year, or even the year before! (the bees knew what was coming) Do you think if I put a frame of eggs in there now then they might go ahead and supersede her? I know it's not an ideal time at all...

Well I found the below online somewhere, but particularly interesting it says The exact composition of beeswax varies with location. which to me suggest that what the bees are consuming effects the makeup of the the wax. "Beeswax consists of at least 284 different compounds, mainly a variety...

Evening All! Honey is made from nectar processed by bees. If they have processed sugar syrup fed to them then it is not honey and it is ‘illegal’ or ‘a lie’ at the very least. Wax aparently is a more ‘expensive product’ (by weight) than honey, and is certainly expensive for the bees.. So what...

Two books I should definitely read! Are there any modern ‘honey by the ton’ type books worth looking at? ie. books on modern commercial beekeeping (ideally in the uk)?

Where in the UK are you seeing imminent OSR? I’m tempted to take mine up the road a few miles where I know there some gigantic fields of OSR each year.

(OR she’s a late unmated supercedure. Te old queen had a habit of swiftly rubbing off her marking. So is this her clean of marks? Or a daughter?! Anyone’s guess!)

4 hives into winter. 1 dead-out. 1 dlq 2 laying well. None hungry. Plenty of stores. Probably too much actually. Sad about the dlq. She was a good queen and was hoping to breed from her this year. She’s still there. Looks fine and healthy - but with a hive of drones, drone brood, and dwindling...

Lots of drones means better mated queens I’d argue. Better mated queens means less drone layers.

Good tips thanks! I had a wax moth paranoia after delaying my honey extraction for a couple of weeks last year due to being too busy (too disorganised) and having some terrible wax moth damage! Ergh it was ghastly! ‘orrible buggers!