Recent content by MeatheadSnowman

I put up a few facts about honeybees. Like they fly faster then Usain Bolt runs and the only natural predator they have is a bear which they sting on the nose and eyes to get rid of. That stopped many a nosey allotment keeper!

I am just heading into year 2! I think my main lessons have been; There is no such thing as a "quick check!" When you open a hive you enter some strange time warp thing where hours fly by! Always have a lit smoker When you get your first colony that is not "alot of bees." When said colony fills...

Same here! I soaked mine in water then dried them out and gave them back!

I am in my 2nd year,... Like you are about to do i read, re read every book, blog, article i could find. Luckily enough i was blessed with finding a keeper from my local association who was incredibly nice. Before starting this wonderful hobby you need to make contact with your local...

I was the same. I used to sit tapping my fingers waiting to go and inspect. What i have learnt is to adopt the mantras "think like a bee" and "what would they do in nature?" Remember, an inspection can be quite stressful for the bees. So try to use as little smoke as possible and maybe even...

I am only in my 2nd year but my 2nd hive were the same. They were like the stereotype Spanish builders! Throughput the whole summer they only drew barely 3 frames in the brood box and 5/6 frames in the super (i use national brood and a half). Just chill out. Give the bees the opportunity to...

Very kind words, thank you. I am in my 2nd year. It has kept me awake many a night so far this year. Combine this with the mild winter and 3 square miles of OSR less then 20 metres from the hives and i have been very busy! On the plus side i have learnt a lot about swarm control and collecting...

I keep my bee's on my allotment, always have. Everyone there loves them. In fact, before my bee's even arrived people were approaching me saying they were planting this and that in anticipation of them getting there. I have put them inside an 'enclosure.' This is a wooden frame 5x5m and about...

Glad it's not just me! My 2 hives have become 5 pretty strong colonies! I don't have room for anymore!!! Is this mother nature kicking back after a few bleak years i wonder?!?

Phew. Thank you sooo much. I have been in bits all evening worrying that i have completely messed things up and possibly affected those Apiary's around me.

That's what i was thinking. The only thing i can think of, is the bee's weren't too good in getting past the Queen excluder so i took advice and was told to put a couple of frames from the brood box (i use brood and a half on nationals.) into the super. Could the brood in these frames have died...

Hopefully this works. The picture is upside down. So the brown section is bottom of the frame. Please say it isn't EFB / AFB. This is only our 2nd year.

Fair point. Will go get one. At first i thought the worst and suspected AFB / EFB but having looked at hundreds of pics over the last couple of hours they definitely don't seem to match. Maybe i should explain circumstances too. Once honey was extracted, supers were soaked in water to try and...

Hi, This weekend we have removed 3 of our supers that are filled mainly with OSR honey. In one of the supers (which has been above a Queen excluder) there is a strange brown liquid. It smells different to the honey, almost like cabbage. The weird thing is, it is in a laying pattern similar to...