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There is the possibility that the queen was superseded late in the season and didn't get mated or didn't get mated properly and you have a drone layer in there. Another alternative explanation is that the colony was and still is queenless late in the season and queenless colonies often don't...

You simply need to make sure it's less than 20% water content. Not quite right. 20% is still legal 2015 Honey regs Moisture content— (a) all honey except for honey specified in paragraph (b), (c) or (d) not more than 20% (b) honey from heather (Calluna) not more than 23% (c) baker’s honey...

Do we as hobby beekeepers filter our honey or strain it? I suggest straining is the actual process carried out as we only remove solid objects visible to the naked eye like wax fragments that have got into the honey during its extraction. Filtering is a process where much smaller particles are...

When lifting started to become a problem several elderly (ie = older than me at 74 yrs!) beekeepers I know not only cut down the number of colonies they run but replaced their brood boxs with two shallows . This creates a larger potential brood area than a single National BC and allows you to...

Usually lots of second hand equipment around for sale every year (with usual warning about buying secondhand in terms of disease). Lots of beginners losing their bees over winter often give up and sell up in spring. Many beekeepers don't start beekeeping until after retirement and some get too...

Whenever I overwinter nuclei in polyMaisies I leave the Miller type feeders on with the two empty "syrup" spaces filled with insulation

Get someone local who knows what he/she is doing to give you a hand. More confidence comes with time spent.

Wax moth derived and genetic bald brood usually continues to grow and develop in the unsealed cell. In my attached photo you can see two workers in their unsealed cells almost at the point of emergence. In one form of genetic bald brood those larvae that lack the right gene don't release or...

In my experience the majority of bald brood relates to the activities of the greater wax moth larvae. These tend to be in lines and the house bees have removed the silk generated by the WM larvae although you can also find the silk tunnels and the black faeces of the WM larva to confirm. Have...

Yellow plastic excluders bought from T------ a few years ago are now brittle and breaking up . Interestingly green ones from M........ bought at the same time are still fine. Perhaps a different form of plastic?

Since Ling heather honey contains more protein (up to 2% in pure ling) than other UK honies you should not heat it to too high a temp as the colloidal protein in it coagulates. Also since heather honey can't be strained as finely as other honies it tends to have more wax fragments/debris in it...

There will be "healthy" bees with no symptoms that are actually infected and infectious to others (bit like Covid). Only real long term answer is to requeen from nonsusceptible strain.

I agree with enrico Looks very like Evening primrose at this stage of the year. I have dozens of self seeded ones in my garden. Will have a closer look at them tomorrow and if they look the same will photo and upload pic.

I spy a "lego" storage box in your photo.

Some colonies simply dump their dead on the floor near the hive while others fly away with them and dump them elsewhere and you are unaware of it.

If you are migrating hives to and just for the crop then 90 acres of OSR will support quite a few (maybe 20 or more hives) for the three weeks it is yielding. However if you are thinking longer term eg permanent out apiary then need to think about the other forage for spring build up and the...

A few years ago I had a few colonies with sac brood and a few with CBPV ( all these colonies were derived from swarms collected from the Doncaster area). These were all re-queened from queens derived from my own colonies that did not manifest the signs of either of these virus conditions. Each...

I already had 25 hives with ekes on top of crown boards filled with 50mm Celotex (bought from Wickes) but I needed to insulate another 6 hives as I am wintering 31 colonies this year. I was considering a visit to Wickes to get some more Celotex when a skip appeared yesterday outside an...

Mowing the lawn in front of the garden hives this morning and what appeared to be a european hornet landed on the top of the mower. On closer inspection it turned out to be a "hornet moth". Raced indoors grabbed a camera but although this only took seconds it had gone by the time I got back...

I think I have posted these photos before