Search results

I have watched and learnt much from that guy, I am a big fan of his vids https://www.youtube.com/c/aCanadianBeekeeper%E2%80%99sBlog The bees on the floor are natural deaths, bees die all year round. I have seen other Canadian bee keepers just use insulation on their hives, but they need to...

I grow loads of chilies indoors. I have grown chilies for about 15 years, and have combated just about every kind of pest, I dont like to use anything "chemical" on my plants. Despite spider mites having a feerce reputation, I have never found them to be too problematic. If left untreated the...

I suspect the production costs of Polly nuc vs full hive are not that different. Once the tooling has been done and molds are made, I suspect both have a simlar number of parts and need a simlar amount of human labor to produce. The material costs between the 2 are probably not that great...

My wife has had 2 shots, I have not had any. The low energy, endless phlegm and fatigue sounds like what we had. I suspect its simlar to what I have now, as in it started as covid then the phlegm infection joined the party. Its frustrating that I will never know 100% if it was covid or not.

The other 1/2 was not very ill. She just had a headache mostly. If me and the boys were not ill, she would never have done a test and never even have known she had it. Our 2yo had a temp for about 4 days and lots of snotty nose. Our 5yo was flat out in bed for 24h, but has been fine since. I...

Sorry I disappeared for a bit, I have been in bed with Covid. Am still feeling rough, but think I am over he worse of it now. Thanks again for the continued kind messages. I had to cancel the collection date that 2 of my hives were getting picked up on and will reschedule soon. So have not...

Thanks, I am glad you learnt something from my varroa counts too. I learnt a lot from those posts too.

Thanks for all the suggestions. My thought process is as follows, if I have to travel say 40m-1h round trip. Then its not worth it for 1 or 2 hives. So I may had well get 12 if I have to travel. But 12 is too much time gone. So its all or nothing for me. Regarding farm land, there is basically...

Thanks for all the kind words. My grandad kept budgies, he had a bird houses in the garden. My mum and aunts tell me of how he spent every spare moment caring for his budgies and had time for nothing else. I dont want my kids to remember me like that but with bees. So to make it work I needed...

I always started bee keeping in the garden with the aim of moving to an out apiary. I have been knocking doors and tried land owners. I dont plan to give up forever. I will resume my search for for a suitable place in the future. I have a ton of unused (unassailable) wood work witch I plan to...

I made a promises to the miss last summer that I would get the hives out of the garden before next season. I have been trying like crazy to find a place to keep them, but have exhausted just about every lead. There is one place I may be able to keep them but it has security concerns. It is...

We get a lot of hedgehogs in our garden, which is surprising considering its urban location. I have seen them often sniffing about below my hives, not sure what they are after. I have made sure there are access gaps to all the gardens that border mine. I know next door but one feeds them all...

Thanks everyone, I have enjoyed reading all the reply's. It seems most agree with my observations and have not seen smoke induced gorging. But as always opinions are not unanimous. The point about the queen not being able to fly without pre-swarm slimming is a great one. But in an emergency...

I have heard many times that bees think a fire is coming, so start stuffing themselves in case evacuation is necessary. But I dont think I have observed this behavior. Sometimes if a bit of brace comb breaks or I damage a frame and spill a little dash of honey, I see the bees attending to it...

Pre kung-flu a c16 timber was £2.20. I could make 2 stands from 5 bits. So £5.50 of wood per stand. Post Cantaneese cough its £7.5 per timber, so now £18.75 per stand! - 5% inflation, yeah right. I am renovating a house at the moment, so have been watching lots of DIY stuff on youtube. It...

Xi was skipped as WHO decided it might offend some people somewhere. And Mu was skipped as it was deemed to sound too much like "new" Has anyone seen the price of timber in the DIY sheds recently? I suspect it will never go back down. I will deffo be investigating any skips I see for timber scraps.

Don't let the critics get you down. They probably mean well but just want to highlight the problems that may happen if you are not properly prepared to keep bees. Some of them bang their heads on the wall as they have seen it before. So forgive their tone. We dont all have access to mentors and...

Am glad you still have some bees. If you lose your last hive my offer is still open. Good luck with the splits and re-populating. And for the record, I am merely passing on some of the kindness I have received on this forum.

Am sorry for your losses. Unfortunately I do not have the expertise for a photo autopsy, but what the others say about mites seems like a strong possibility. Do you still have some more bees for next year? Should you be short on bees and fancy a drive down south, I can give you a hive to help...

What you say makes sense.