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Can anyone please offer some advice, I've started making some soaps using honey and/or beeswax. My most recent attempt was to make a lemongrass and poppy seed soap, but having got the mix to trace, as soon as I add the lemongrass essential oil it sets hard (within seconds and before I can get...

What frequency and number of doses do you use for summer/ autumn treatment?

I believe, from speaking to my local council food safety team, that the 5 days in 5 weeks is obsolete now

I unite once the new queen is laying, usually a week. It's a much safer way of introducing a new queen to an aggressive colony and getting her accepted

From a practical point of view I limit the number of supers I add to 3 as far as possible. Although it's also challenging to find the time to extract periodically, I find it easier than trying to lift heavy supers above my head to check whether their full. Horses for courses but I can't...

Finally got around to evicting my marauding thugs from the garden. Having put up with their poor temperament for too long I removed the queen last week with a plan to introduce a frame of eggs and larvae from my beautiful hive next door. Yesterday evening I removed all the emergency QCs and...

I agree if there were small amounts in a linear pattern, but this was peppered across the comb. The only time I have seen that before it was a varroa problem and hygienic bees uncapping the brood?

I've been following a post in a facebook group for women beekeepers, is this the same poster? The photo on Facebook showed evidence of lots of bald brood but minimal sac brood, suggesting a varroa problem rather than a Q problem. Either way the SBI advice seems questionable?

My spring harvest was epic this year, my best hive produced 138+ lbs 🥰

I lost my Baldock cage once and rediscovered it several months later when my OH said "what's that on the bottom of your welly?" 😂😂

No fight, just for my own interest 😁. My EHO switched off at the mention of beekeeping with a hasty " beekeepers don't need to register". No further questions asked 😊

I'd be interested in any info the EHO shares, if there is updated guidance I haven't been able to find it so if they can signpost you if like to see it (please) 😊

Of course, although this is EU guidance I have checked that it has not been superceded by uk legislation. Section 3.1 sets out the definition(s) of primary production...

Thank you. I'm interested because I recently waded through the legal minefield of honey regulations, food hygiene regulations and the exemptions relating to honey production and didn't find anything about the existence of out apiaries meaning you aren't classed as a primary producer, in fact...

Ah, I've ve seen reference to the recent changes but not been able to find the details, are you able to provide a link or signpost me please?

I'm glad it's not just me 😂 I'm now in trouble with my hubby after promising I wouldn't collect any more swarms, then bringing a box of bees home when I only popped out to tesco (who can resist when they get that call?). Having completely run out of floors, roofs and stands I'm now "double...

I've been overwhelmed with calls about swarms this year, waaaaay more than any previous year, although the swarm rate in my own colonies is lower than usual 🤷‍♀️

Me too, it's so rewarding to watch them grow 🥰

Yes, I've seen beginners proudly posting on social media that their hive "keeps swarming" and how hilarious they find it. Not sure their neighbours are quite so impressed, in an urban area 🤷‍♀️

Another option, if you get to the point where you feel euthanasia is the only option, is to put out an appeal to your local branch, one of our members regularly "rescues" condemned colonies, takes them away to a remote location where they aren't a threat to anyone (other than him!) and...