Recent content by Chilterns Bee

That's interesting thanks. There are two frames almost completely filled with pollen. But it might be that wasn't enough honey (maybe I took too much) and so with feeding them this might kick start her. I'll let you know. In the meantime I hope she enjoys her staycation!

Thanks! Great advice thank you all. I’ll hang in there and see what happens.

My new queen this season (one made by the colony because it swarmed). Has been laying well. Nectar flow has been good locally (Chilterns), although the last week has been raining. About three weeks ago I removed honey. At that time I saw the queen, but I must admit that I didn't check the...

Thanks. Somewhat disappointing that they have swarmed again (I thought the numbers were low). All this is great practical advice and useful experience so thank you. The theory in books doesn't seem to match what actually happens.

Thanks everyone for your help. I got another super and found some frames. There is plenty of space. When I inspected the hive today two of the queen cells were open and a 3rd was still capped. I couldn't find the queen anywhere (I'm not that great at spotting them unmarked). Do I assume...

New Super Early tomorrow, I'll be putting a new super on. I'll need to move some frames around so that a new queen can lay, but as someone said, she won't be laying for a two weeks at least. I was surprised just how quickly the bees drew comb and then completely filled the super with honey. I...

Brood and a Half Yes, it is a brood and a half.

Should I wait for the honey to be capped or are there insufficient bees at the moment to tend all the honey, which is why it is uncapped? In which case I'm happy to extract the honey and use it for myself - I don't intend to sell any honey.

Thanks, and appreciate your help!

Hi, hoping for some speedy advice because I have about 8 capped queen cells and can't find the queen who is marked and normally easy to spot. I saw her about 9 days ago when I last opened the hive. The hive has a brood box and super below the queen excluder. Most frames are full of a mix of...