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Do you transcribe your notes so that you have 'by the hive' records - or simply work with your 'by the day' notes?

There's a lot of advice on grafting here: https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/queen-rearing-first-go-grafting.55680/ I'm a relative novice at this but it soon became quick and easy with good light, good vision, and being able to SEE the Chinese tool move under the back of the larva and scoop...

In London for a show yesterday, I saw this display at the entrance to Waterstones. I've heard that the title of Tom Seeley's latest book was created to draw in a wider readership. It seems to be working. Or it could simply be that books ostensibly about bees sell. Just a few paces away was...

Plum, oak and hawksbeard cosying up together. Mostly the plants are left alone here (apart from grass cutting a couple of times) so you get some interesting juxtapositions.

The hawksbeard is starting and the beetles (swollen-thigh beetles?) are on the flowers as soon as they open. This bee seemed to have drunk herself into a stupor but eventually made a rather groggy exit.

The yellow rattle will soon be over and replaced by hawksbeard. Because of its small flowers and large sepals (that might not be right), I never get the feeling that yellow rattle has blossomed fully. The owner here cuts the grass a couple of times per season but some areas are almost completely...

Here too. I'm told that bramble is now possibly the main forage, replacing what clover once was. Also, I heard that there are so many varieties that it has a long flowering period across the land. However, I'm not sure if the bees in any one locality would benefit from this. Is it possible that...

That's what my wife said.

Except when they carry and replicate CBPV. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18243390/

In the apiary?

I read these four posts when they appeared. Then I read them again more recently. Then I made notes summarising the main points of each. In addition to the main thrust of the articles, there's also a lot of general info about queen rearing which was a useful refresher. But when Esther (my wife)...

It does make a difference. You don't get (ie I don't get) brace comb between the cells with a DN1. I find that you do with any larger space. The cells are still okay - just a bit more awkward to handle, not least because you might need to remove the excess comb.

Is this bad luck, or a learning experience? Or both? I bought two queens and set them up in nucs 18 days ago. One was probably out of its cage in a couple of days and the other had to be released after 7 days. The first has now swarmed. Admittedly my checks last week were a bit skimpy in the...

My hives are full of bees but what honey there was is fast being consumed. Most of the supers are now lighter than a week ago. No OSR near me.

Something felt wrong at the first hive I checked today. It was the one I finished with last week. There were few bees flying. Then the varroa board (which I check and clean every week) had no debris on it. When I took the roof off, I could hear frantic activity through the mesh in the split...

I find the end of the season here is sometimes in summer. Certainly this is not H. balsam territory, and there's much less ivy than I would like.

Has anyone tried this, which my wife suggests would be better called assisted supersedure? It involves placing a protected queen cell in a hive and hoping that it will be accepted and lead to supersedure of the existing queen. http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/inducedsupersedure.html I had no...

Thanks Emyr, very clear. (For pedants: although prime means first, I would say that for many people, the term 'prime swarm' does not include a first swarm headed by a virgin.)

Makes sense. I infer that you recommend treating any and all queen cells as swarm cells, because we can't be sure that they're not. Still, I'm not clear if you would treat EQCs differently in cases where you ARE certain that they really are that.

So do I (try to listen to my bees) but these colonies are all on double brood and have plenty room. Perhaps I should have left some on single boxes but they have expanded well - just not been able to build up a reserve of stores. Hence no supers yet. I changed from 12x14 to standard Nationals...