Recent content by Ellem

Thanks all, I think her rescue was more due to luck than any quick thinking but it is so nice to have something possibly going right for a change. It has very much been a baptism of fire this year, but has me interested for what's to come ;)

Just went into the hive to add feed and it looks like my requeening was a success after all :D We thought the bees had killed her because we were inspecting the hive as she came out and the other bees started balling her, so we had a frantic few minutes recatching her, re-sealing the cage and...

Fed swarm and old hive. Looks like requeening was successful on the old hive because the queen is alive and there are eggs and lovely capped worker brood :D

Only trouble I can think of is that if they are going to just have a covert apiary, they may be able to do so regardless (unless all apiary sites have to have a huge neon sign above them as well - so if there is no sign but there are bees going back & forth there may be an illegal hive there...

I can appreciate why he'd want easy access with his (probably massively) increased workload, but should my local inspector ask for this I would have to respectfully decline as that would involve leaving areas available for the local ratbags to get into, where they may not be seen doing...

I'd give it a go if I was guaranteed to get a swarm that size ;)

:iagree: or one of the long-nozzled lighters (so you can get to the bottom of the smoker can if it's just that it's gone out)

Just rechecked diary and is over weekend of 6th & 7th not 2nd

How wonderful :D I don't travel far for work, so wouldn't be much help :( But another option is rather than someone necessarily taking it the full distance we could work out a chain system if we need to. I'll be at Ragley Hall (Alcester in the Midlands) on 2nd August, so could get from there...

Only just seen these but they are wonderful Painterman :drool5: You're very talented (not that I'm envious at all......OK, maybe a little bit :D)

Yet another beautiful object made by The Apprentices :drool5:

That's the one. It was ruled that if it goes hard when stale it's a cake (so VAT free, though it always confused me as to why there is VAT on biscuits but not cakes).

Did he give you a receipt stating VAT value paid on it? If so, I'm not sure but trading standards and HMRC might be interested in knowing about it if he hasn't passed it on (I might be wrong but think they'd class it as fraud and that may slow his 'business' operations in future if so:reddevil:)

One hive still makes an apiary :D (from Latin apiarium "beehouse, beehive," neut. of apiarius "of bees," from apis "bee," a mystery word unrelated to any similar words in other I.E. languages. Got curious enough to check the etymology)