Recent content by judy12

Think I'll stick to the Pagden method - ending up with a full brood box and only flying bees sounds too weird - you're right Anduril.

I was told this method for swarm control by a more experienced beekeeper: Set up a new hive with broodbox and frames some way away. Move the empty brood box aside. Move the old brood box you want to split and set on new floor. 3. Move frames with brood from old brood box to new bb, being...

Thirded - they were all over my sunflowers last summer.

Make your own. Easy.

Thanks, I'll be interested to see it.

I have heard that the local cure for athlete's foot, much suffered by our farmers, is to spoon honey into your socks and don't take them off for a couple of days.

Yes, sorry - I wasn't clear - I did the FHC online which was pretty easy, then the TS officer phoned - all he wanted to know was whether I was dealing with meat or milk - in that case he wd have had to check out the premises, but when he knew it was sugar, water and propolis, he said fine, carry on.

Required a Food Hygiene certificate, which involved a conversation with a Trading standards officer. Then sold through the Country Market shop labelled with ingredients, date, address etc etc the same way I sold my honey. This was 20 years ago - did I do wrong?

When I had a colony that proposed anything in sight, I'd scrape it off and make boiled sweets with a tablespoon of ground propolis added. They tasted excellent and were very popular - for coughs, sore throats etc. Can't remember how much I charged but it seemed worth it at the time.

My friend with top bar hives gently runs over the surface of the comb with a comb then rests it over a bowl to drip - did this used to be called virgin honey?

Would it be useful to people if the posters put the date on their emails. I'd like to know when Steve posted his first message.

The simplest way is to use a microwave on the lowest setting and keep an eye on it. I store my chunk and cut comb in the freezer to stop it from crystallising.

Yes, those are the 3 basic messages on the County Market's billet doux. They are usually pretty hot on the regs so if they make a rule you can be sure it's for a very good reason.

I'd not thought of the water, being so taken with the non-electric aspect - when we press at home, of course it's collected and sloshed over the veg beds - a bucketful each time I'd guess. When we press again I'll make sure to collect the waste water and measure it.

At the County Market, when we sell candles, tea lights etc, we put a printed note containing the relevant information into the bag with the candles when we're packing them up at the counter .