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I've also recently unsubbed. My wife makes YouTube vids. So, I know it's all too easy to be sucked into the YT algorithm. I find molehill's videos increasingly clickbaity. What's annoyed me the most is the amount of contradictory information that's put out in the vids, in an absolute tone.

How can lentil knitters want to smash a beehive? That's literally animal cruelty.

Why would the keeper not want their name associated with the video they published on YouTube? He is one of the highest profile keepers in the UK. I know the video you are referring to. He says he wasn't sure if it was "a tree", weather or vandalism. The layers of lamination in the broken long...

Interesting. I was wonder how specialised the Jordanian bee is. Particularly regards night foraging. I found this paper about the Jordanian honey bee: East Mediterranean and Middle Eastern mitochondrial lineage. Nothing about nighttime foraging...

Stumbled across this short video of a BBC news article from 1965. "Miss Olive Brittan, a British woman who looked after the royal Cyrenaican bees of the King of Libya." Amongst other things, she claimed her bees forage at night. Googling, I can't see any mention of Cyrenaican bees. Might it...

Thanks. I've had bees for 9 months. All 7 of my colonies have so far survived winter. I'm planning for spring and didn't know the appropriate time to Demaree. Thanks.

I have 2 or 3 colonies covering all frames. All my colonies are on a brood-and-a-half winter config - I want to nadeer the supers. Bees are out ever day. First dandelions are in bloom. Forecast is for 13C daytime temperatures from next weekend. Due to current low daytime temperatures, I...

I don't use a special connector into the frame holding box. I just stick the hose into the box, through a loose-fitting hole. Barely any steam escapes though the entry hole. An exact fit adaptor seems like significant over engineering.

Is this technique DEFRA-approved?

It's been up to 14C here in Surrey. Temperatures are forecast to drop next week, to sub-zero at night and only 4-6C in the day.

In the front garden on the crocuses, yesterday. Big and it's the middle of winter, so wondering if she's a queen. Buff-tailed bumblebee?

In southern England crocuses and other bulbous plants are in bloom. Could it be that?

This being my 1st winter with bees, I've noticed a difference in behaviour between my feral queen colonies and Buckfast F1/F2's. My 3 Buckfast colonies seldom venture out, whereas the 4 feral colonies, particularly the 2 darkest in colour, are out until it dips to 5C, and generate regular big...

Crocuses on the go here, in Surrey.

Picked up a lot of dead looking honey bees from the floor around the hives. Switched on a reptile heating mat in an old biscuit tin and plonked the bees on it, to see what would happen. Yes, I'm itching to work with bees again. Came back 30 mins later and everyone of them was alive. Some have...

All my frames look like this until they're well used.

I have 7 colonies across two local apiary sites (garden and 500 mts away abandoned orchard). 1 garden colony has a 2023 may-swarm-caught queen that had a faint yellow mark on her back, I've since remarked her red, as I had no other pens. Looking through my records, I took a total of 4 frames...

Sorry to hear that. Today, we have temperatures of 13c. I'm checking all hives in both apiaries for stores and general condition.

As a Londoner, I often use the term "ear lugs". E.g "clean out your ear lugs". Antipods has posted a helpful slang dictionary link.

She's from a caught swarm, and is my best queen. Lays like a trooper and her workers are like little terminators - always out and about, until it gets below 5C. Feels like hive weight has increased over the winter, and I doubt she's stopped laying. Has a red marking, but originally had a faint...