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I decided to go brood and a half this year because last year the bees took off like crazy in early April and swarmed even though I kept tearing down swarm cells. I have been told by an experienced bee farmer that if you go brood and a half any swarm cells will be on the bottom of the top box. So...

Would you not leave it on top of the old brood box if you wanted to go brood and a half?

Take super away?

I rescued one of these from the back of a garden centre about eight years ago where it was quietly dying. Took it home and planted it out somewhere inconspicuous for it to make up its mind whether it wanted to carry on living or not. I thought it was dead then a year later saw a new strong shoot...

Hi all. I need to have approx 2 kg of runny summer honey delivered to an Ellesmere Port address early next week. Unpasteurised and water content no more than 18%. Cleaned out plastic 4 pint milk container would be good enough. Any offers gratefully received.

I experimented with making comb honey in frames with no foundation this year. Worked out well provided that you alternate with a frame of drawn comb. I sell my honey in local markets in 8, 12, and 16 ounce jars for £3.50, 5, 6 respectively. I put about a 100 g chunk in a 12 ounce jar and top up...

Does that mean there is surplus wax left on the comb after spinning? Are the bees able to clear this off the drawn comb when recycled back into the hive?

First time for me, but I guess not for other members. Extracted about 20 pounds of runny honey yesterday, but there's still another 7 or 8 pounds of crystallised honey left in the frames. I'm trying to melt it out but so far I've just produced a sludge of soft collapsed wax mixed up with melted...

I sell blocks of wax between 100 and 250 g in the markets. Bench mark price is £25 per kilo.

And the relevance to building frames? Explanation please?

Christopher Wren (he who built St Paul's Cathedral in London) designed a vertical hive with inspection doors at each level so you could see how far up the bees were drawing comb. As far as I know they were never used. Good idea though.

I do all our extracting and bottling in the kitchen. The inspector seemed to think this was ok because he gave us a five. (We have a second sink in the utility room next door). Lucky old you, Erichalfbee, we have no garage, no store room and no shed!

I'm using waspinators this year. None of my hives are bothered by wasps so they must be working. I cant see the point of setting out wasp traps with syrop because they attract wasps. I would prefer they kept away in the first place.

Just noticed ivy round here coming into bud. Seems a bit early but I've never really checked in previous years when this starts. Is this normal, or does it mark the end of summer, an early autumn and long cold winter?

Strange year here in South Suffolk. Started off well but swarming difficult/impossible to control. Lots of call outs too in early May so not just me. Another call out yesterday, but thankfully 20 feet up an apple tree so had a good excuse to decline! The spring flow was poor, but all colonies...

Supers filling up very slowly here in South Suffolk. Stores ok but what's happened to the summer flow?

Hi GuyNir. Full size National BB. Should be OK?

Just popped down to check on a largish swarm I hived three days ago. They had already drawn down the syrup I left with them and working on comb. However, there was a fair sized bee cluster on the front of the stand and stand leg, also round the side of the BB. I cant think they were there...

I have three hives together in one apiary. No 1 is with an over wintered queen. 4 supers of partly filled comb, and a brood box busting with bees with plenty of capped brood waiting to emerge, although not much growth over the past few weeks. No 2 is a swarm I picked up 6 weeks ago. The brood...

I have four hives at the edge of a small wood. No problem with overhanging branches except for the filthy mess on the hive roofs from pigeons.