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Hello – and thank for raising some important issues as I’d love to seize this opportunity to clear up some misconceptions. So here is the back story of BeeTradex BeeTradex was offered for sale, as you will probably know. We put in an offer as we always want to support beekeeping and would...

That’s intentionally misconstruing my comments, It is always fascinating to hear from people around the world, bees are international, my point is understanding local bees is more important than listening/reading about bees in a faraway place to those beekeepers starting out or wishing to expand...

Good point, anyone know anyone, or who to ask ?

I would prefer observations from a beekeeper on the same planet as me and preferably the same area of the world rather than someone halfway round the world breeding who knows what. These types of observations should be encouraged and discussed, it will help us all understand bees……..no mater how...

Personally, I start my drone rearing in March, I use a queen cage with drone foundation trap her until she has laid a fair amount then take out the queen cage and let the hive do the rest, ultimately the drones are reared on hoffman spaced frames, the mating usually goes well. Lots of prep and...

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately I get to spend about 30 min on the forum each day early morning normally before I start my 12 hour day running several businesses in addition to the two listed above. I would love to spend my days interacting with more posts, unfortunately my live and time...

It’s a missed opportunity to not have had a more experienced beekeeper or SBI to look at the comb and bees more thoroughly. I am not sure what the status is for sending off bees for inspection by the DEFRA lab something to consider when the deaths are fresh. Start to rule things out to end up...

I did say in an earlier post that I didn’t think it was a varroa issue, more like several issues all colliding at the same time. As for treating prophylactically it is about the only thing you can do in winter and that is better than looking at dead bees in spring, or how good a wax moth...

My first year, I was set up by a now prominent figure on the BBKA with two select national hives £1000 at the time, June came and so did the two swarms to fill them supplied by the same person at £50.00 each. I had no idea that this was the worst way to set up a new beekeeper until I took the...

Yes, indeed 8 months is a lot different than what I was led to believe in the posts, kinder words of encouragement would have been fairer, although I cannot unsay it, I would like to think somewhere in all the posts are some useful lessons.

Why put the bees through all that nonsense to achieve a number that someone has invented as being the economic threshold without any reference to the number of bees or more importantly the number of drones, do proper inspections, having run some advance beekeeping courses with a local NDB it is...

I am sorry if my observation is disturbing, the neglect is not being available to check the hive as it progresses or not. A swarm, not a cast, will do very well on its own in May, June and July may be more of a problem as the foraging in some areas like ours where the main foraging is top fruit...

It’s a strange subject, in the past few years I have favored solid floors, for no particular reason, it started when leaving the varroa floor in place allowed a healthy wax moth breading area, that stops with the solid floor. I know it’s been discussed on the forum before and in some detail. We...

Flowers boards are 😊😊 follower boards in disguise, I am sure its in one of the books ☹ I will try to explain how we use them, the dummy board is shorter than a frame and has gaps each side. It is great for reducing the area the brood has to expand into, it will force the queen to lay up fully...

There is a huge difference between dummy and flower boards, right tool for the right job

The neglect was know he was going to be home to look after them

No screened floors in trees ………….just saying

The caveat is of course that we know why the smaller one is weak.

That doesn’t explain the piles of dead bees, if varroa was the issue and bees dying daily the house bees would have ejected them, I am sure this is not just a varroa problem, having been given more information about starter strips and small swarm, in a full box even with dummy boards that...

Well I am sorry to be blunt but this is beekeeper error, why would you take the swarms on knowing you couldn’t care for them, I will probably get told off for being so blunt when we all want to be nice to each other but really…………..maybe a refresher course would help you.