Recent content by MonseigneurBienvenu

Fascinating! Chinese feat. Christian W. W. Pirk :gnorsi:

Sounds good so far!

Hi there! Is your question less apiary-centric (i.e. car/vehcile/super-carrying-device access in the vicinity, away from dwelling, security, etc etc) and more land-centric? Small bits of land with road access in the East Midlands on England are about £15,000-25,000 an acre (without planning...

A model bee keeper so far then, well done! See if you need anything from the sales (perhaps talk to your beeking friend), as the middle of summer can be an annoying time to find out you actually quite like something from a bee shop :-) Welcome!!

Very good point! I shall have to consider it carefully..

Lovely thread! Tom, I think you have answered this already, if not directly, but would it work to put one wired foundationless frame between a couple of existing Hoffmans (fully drawn since last year) in the middle of the brood nest? I have a couple of DN1s to exorcise from one of the hives...

That's a good question! Personally I endeavour to use the correct system, but last year one of my queens just refused to be found from the exact point in time when I ordered a marking pen on fleabay onwards. So if retirement is on the cards for her, I'll have to work the situation out on facts...

I think visiting an apiary and maybe even 'assisting' an experienced beek during an inspection is a must (doesn't really matter how - writing things down on the record sheet, if there is one, or holding the smoker, etc - anything is good to get into this stuff!) Unfortunately this does mean that...

Second that.

I believe the problem with ragwort is that whilst cattle will not eat the live plants, if it gets into a field and is cut for hay, they cannot tell the difference and will eat it with the rest of the stuff - with all the bad consequences following.

:icon_204-2: We've split the tasks - I inspect, he lights the smoker. I get stung, he offers the moral support. I do the bees, he does the honey. :-)

Thank you for the photos, they are amazing! We've had one of these critters chew up some rose leaves in the last few days. No idea where it lives, but very exciting! A

I'm sure people will have better suggestions (including whether there is actually a queen there), but I'd just say: don't waste the bees - add them to another colony if you can (if they are indeed queenless, etc).

Not drones? In which case I can offer only one more guess - are your bees naturally variable? I have some mongrels and within one hive they are like jelly baby mishapes (smaller, bigger, slightly differently striped, etc). Perhaps you are just focusing on the bigger workers (the ones that...

I thought the same as what the people above had said. If you look at their eyes - are they really big and meet on the top of the head?