Recent content by carbon

Agree it's very difficult knowing which to choose. I started out with a Bee Basics jacket with round veil, which seemed to do the job...for a while. As the fabric loosened up over time little gaps began to appear, which some of my less patient charges have scampered through. Seeing bees buzzing...

It wasn't today, but this is the first chance I've had to post amid making insurance claims for broken windows, missing roof tiles and a written off car! Thursday's event was easily the worst hail storm I've ever experienced and when it did finally ease off enough to venture outside I wandered...

Sounds like they're ready for the off.

Where I grew up... happy days. It's blowing a gale and tipping it down here (Leics) :eek:

Fed the bees, as is becoming quite a normal, year-round thing to do. Then went inside to shelter from the rain. As is becoming quite a normal, year-round thing to do.

A drama queen!!! :smilielol5: Bees don't have lungs, so squeezing them doesn't "suffocate" them. However, the somewhat traumatic experience of having one's colony ripped open, then being immobilized, picked up and painted is probably enough to trigger a last-ditch anti-predator response, such...

A pregnant peacock???:rolleyes:

:hurray:Successfully collected my first swarm of the year (after four callouts this was the first one I'd made it to in time).:hurray: :hurray:United an angry queenless colony with a nice homegrown nuc with the newspaper method:hurray: :hurray:Didn't get stung once:hurray: All in all a good day.

I have a colony, a very angry colony, that I know has a queen cell in it. What happens if it hatches when the bees are unable to fly (i.e. likely this week)? There will be the existing queen and a newly emerged unmated one. Can anyone tell me what will happen? Will the old queen kill the new...

Thanks pbh4 -- so do you think that because the bees are known to work Wisteria that it shouldn't cause them any ill effects? I read elsewhere that the blooms are toxic to some other animals.

Speaking as someone who had an incident :eek: whilst transporting bees in a car just make absolutely sure the box is bee tight!

I have a beautiful white Wisteria in bloom and I noticed the bees have discovered it. A quick online search suggests, albeit inconclusively, that it might be poisonous to the bees. Does anyone know if this is the case? If it is, why are the bees foraging on it?

Topped up the feeders as usual. :(

I think it's OK to talk about something being locally extinct if the "local" can be identified as a discrete area, such as an island. Conservationists frequently talk of species being "extinct in the wild" meaning the only surviving individuals are held in captivity.

Wish I'd waited for today, but the forecast was bad so took my chances yesterday. It went OKish for the first three hives, laying queens but small colonies and precious little stores, but I got totally kamikaze'd on the fourth. Bees down my wellies, in my suit, nightmare. Fortunately only got...