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In the USA, selling online requires FDA approval. I can't find anything like that for the UK. Large-scale (150+ hives) honey producers do require Environmental health approval, in general, but small scale producers do not.

Hi. I started last year and now have 15 colonies. I strongly recommend attending a BKA 6-month course. Without it, you'll be lost. If you were given a herd of cattle, having a book about keeping cows wouldn't be enough. You need practical experience; you're local BKA will provide this, plus the...

@Wilco @enrico @drdrday Thanks for that great advice. I may go down the path of the smashproof single mug boxes and the larger boxes with the packing material for orders of 2 or more jars.

I'm selling my honey online . How do others pack their jars of honey for safe postage? Thorne sells polystyrene jar safe boxes, but they are £2.50 a pop. Thanks.

Perhaps they do it at night.

According to Wikipedia "Females lay their eggs in wasp and hornet nests. The larvae live as commensals in nests of bees, hornets and of social wasps of the genus Vespula.The pupae overwinter in the soil and hatch in following spring." Sauce: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volucella_zonaria

Just read that. My goodness! I can almost feel the rage of our regional bee inspector who is currently trying to locate the origin of a local EFB outbreak.

One keeps hovering outside a hive in my back garden, but I think the UFE keeps it out.

It's warmest at the top of the stack. Do they have much stores? As @drex asks, how big is the population? If there are sufficient numbers, there should be plenty of stores, which they have to place above the brood. There are things you can do, but a lot depends upon how big the colony is. If...

I kind of faffed it into existence. I do like UFEs. They're neat and tidy and allow the bees to take full control of the entrance area. It's really their domain. Predators like wasps and hornets hover in front of them and have no idea what to do, time and time again. And there's no chance a...

This one is a converted standard national floor. Instead of putting a porch on it, I've placed it on a couple of decking boards, to provide the porch effect.

We're in a dearth in Surrey, but still a trickle of foragers coming back with Balsam tramp stamps and yellow and orange pollen. Bored bees at the UFE. It's not even that warm. I think it's that I reduced the hive to 2 deeps for mite treatment.

Platimnum Jubilee year I think. 2022.

Previously, I had a few hives in my back garden. These colonies produced a honey that tasted of flowers. I'm not a huge honey fan, but it even tasted amazing to me, and many people commented on it. It being my first beekeeping season, I assumed this was the norm. End of last year, I migrated...

European hornets are eating the few wasps I'm seeing.

Very few wasps in the outapiary this year, but plenty of European hornets. They're amazing looking animals and butcher a bee on a heart beat.

The Honey wagon, and begging the occasional favour from friends and family.

I appreciate this subject is one of the more historically popular in this forum. Selfishly, I'd like to grab the opportunity to ask the more experienced beekeepers here, and have my own particular questions answered. After 14 months of beekeeping, I've experimented with no QE and double brood...

Agree with @ericbeaumont . Just don't put a lit smoker on it.

I tried precariously putting deep frames in the cage tangentially but the wax begun bursting out. I need the support the rack will give.