Recent content by blodwen

I have had a couple of stings this year - of little consequence other than localised swelling and itching (albeit about 4" across each time) I was stung on the head while minding my own business in the garden on saturday and had itching soles, palms, skin flushing and generalised weakness for a...

I will quickly lower the tone one more notch - my hens used to follow my dog around when they knew he 'had to go' - they ate his poo like it was coming out of a vending machine - I don't eat eggs now!!

I have the option of moving a hive to a new site about a mile away. The owner of the site is keen to have some working bees asap for his fruit orchard (despite my reassurance that my current hives will be travelling there already). My current thoughts are to wait for signs of one of my hives...

I can only speak from my (limited) experience. I have grazed my stallion on the ground surrounding my 'hive area' for the past 4 years - fenced off so he cannot get to within 20ft of the 3 hives. Always been absolutely fine until I had a queenless hive last year. They got nasty and one humid...

I want to turn my hives round 90 / 180 degrees (and move one about 500 yards. Can I simply do this on a cold day when there is no sign of activity at this time of year? Also, what is the closest 2 hives can sit together if their entrances are facing the same way to avoid bee-location...

I have had a stroppy queenless wbc hive for some time this year and recently added a frame of eggs resulting in 4 queencells. Kept one and the bees temper has improved dramatically for the last 2 weeks. I know she will take time to mate & start laying etc, but this late in the season am I...

I collected 3 different swarms over a couple of weeks at the beginning of June. Each time I put them into a ready-hive and each time they went off (2 within 36hours and the other after 3 days. (One of them I managed to spot and put them back in with QE underneath and they still ended up...

:iagree:

On a rainy day I finally found time to dig out this pic taken one cold eve of signs of the cluster as the snow thawed. (there was newspaper under the roof, but I might go the 'Kingspan' option this year for more insulation)

Short but simple question (bit like me really :-) ) - what stops bees storing sugar syrup in the supers if I feed them at this time of year?

I have just bought a 4 frame tangential from Nat Bee supplies - they had them in stock (rather than a 3 week wait - which is what some other suppliers are quoting) and for a stainless one seemed to be about right on price (£245 ish)

Thanks Rosti, I didn't realise. That'd be why the first swarm just sat there under the hive (just 10ft away from thier original hive, - waiting to get out of the apiary! Doesn't explain the second lot tho' .... my only thought would be maybe I didn't get the queen in the bunch - would that...

I don't want to rob this thread, but I have had a bait hive set up in a similar way to the above for a month or so with no takers. A swarm issued from one of my hives and stopped in a bush, so I did the 'ramp to the entrance' bit and the swarm just crawled under the hive and stayed there for 4...