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Vaped 2 hives from the top this time through a hole drilled in an eke. Will be interesting to see what the 24 hour drop is. Both had about 4 frames of stores when we inspected and weighed last weekend so will give it a couple of weeks, weigh again and see what feeding they need to complete...

I was cycling through the North Yorkshire moors the other week and the heather looked amazing. And my cycling buddy had a matching jersey. Saw plenty in the Scottish Borders as well along with a massive amount of Rosebay Willow Herb.

Cheers Eric. Will have to wait until next year to try it now.

I’ve got the 4 frame manual tangental Lega and is great for our 3 hive garden apiary. Same as you just two nuts off and cage comes out and easy to hose down. The issue I have is that you have to drain off the honey after each couple of frames otherwise the lugs drag in it. Is this due to longer...

My wife designs them in photoshop and then I put them into a template and print them onto cheap Labels4U sheets. Bought a nice coloured laser printer last year which is just the best.

Inspected 2 hives and all good with plenty of brood and stores. Put two Apivar strips in each hive but still not convinced that two is enough for double brood. Put clearer boards on to take off the supers they are drying for us. My wife painted a nuc and cleaned some wax cappings. Couple of...

4th year of beekeeping and best by far. About 85kg from 3 hives. Flying off the shelf at my wife’s pharmacy.

Had one in the garden as well last night but couldn’t get a decent video of it.

Extracted the last 4 supers and earned myself a blister in the process. 77kg of summer honey from 3 hives so pretty chuffed with that. The honey is much paler and lighter tasting than last summer (as per photo). Enjoying a nice Montecristo cigar and cold beer with the chooks in the garden/apiary...

Never seen our bees on the HB like this year. One bee came in earlier at dusk and I thought it was a moth as it was so ghost like. Assume it’s because it‘s about the only flowers getting any water at the minute.

Mine aren’t coming back like ghosts as it’s a very defined mark just on the thorax. Does that look like HB?

The bees from one hive tonight were coming back like half of them had a painted white dot on their thorax. HB I assume but never seen evidence of them foraging on it in the past. Nearest rivers are about 1.5 miles away but a couple of small lakes closer.

Vodka is a must have for extracting. Use it to mop up any honey in the extractor or tubs. We do 🥴

Despite living in the London suburbs, about 55% was from Brassica Maurorum which I haven’t got a clue about and cannot find much about on the internet. Anyone got any ideas? The rest makes sense although I could have sworn that this honey had a zingy lime taste.

Another fabulously sunny day down here in the Queen of the Suburbs. Quick check on the two most prolific and plenty of bees and BIAS. Probably the equivalent of 3 of the 4 supers are capped and so will leave it another 2 or 3 weeks and then take the supers off. Forage seems to be scraps in...

Checked two hives for space in the supers and all good. Just checked for QC’s by looking at bottom of top brood box and no sign of anything. Hive 3 is just going downhill with queen failing. They were doing fantastic on double brood a couple of months back but now limited brood and a peppering...

Drinking cold lager in the apiary this afternoon with the lovely buzz of bees and aroma of nectar. Until one bee took exception and stung me on the arm. Disguised the attack pheromone with a splash of lager and all well again.

It seemed to work for us, sort of. Merged the nuc back in at the correct time and then they made a couple of queen cells. Knocked them down and then they made a couple more which we left and the bees subsequently tore them down. The hive has definitely taken a significant dip in foraging...

Stuck the last super on hive 1. All three hives are on 4 supers but only a couple of weeks of decent flow left if past years are to go by. Quite a bit of what looks like bald brood on a couple of frames from hive 3 (the ’playcup‘ was empty). What do people think? Other than the odd cell, I...

Just this minute listened to the lovely hum of bees fanning and drying the nectar. One hive has picked up the habit of bees hoovering the landing board. Noticed it in previous years but no idea why they do it.