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From yesterday: "Early tomorrow morning I'm moving both hives" Fatal cockiness! These are WBCs. Got out there at 4.00 am. I could barely see as the sky was overcast. Started to block the first hive's entrance but it very quickly became apparent that a) the bees hadn't gone to bed - they...

Today I've looked at the supers in both hives. Loads of unsealed honey, almost no sealed. Another week? Early tomorrow morning I'm moving both hives to a field belonging to a friend about a mile and a half away, so I'll report back to madasafish and VM about how many return to my garden...

Same here. I came close to selling up last week when my Wife was stung three times in quick succession, but I've found a friendly field to put them in and they're moving house on Tuesday. I suspect it'll be a bit of a bloodbath as I'm going to have to take the lifts and supers off before I...

Sat at lunchtime and watched bees being incredibly busy - loads of foragers, orientation flights, landing board full of bees going in and out all the time. The OSR round here is just starting to go over but the girls are making hay still. And today I was able to mow round the hives without...

Get a good fire going first and build up some heat, then get it smoking with corrugated cardboard or other paper products. Worked for me in a neighbour's chimney last year. Only prob might be that an old chimney might have leaks into a roof space that the bees could exploit to nest in the roof.

I did the same this evening, except I had a glass of Hook Norton Gold (Pale Ale for the TTers.) Very pleasant too.

Swarming is the problem if you're an amateur like me who isn't really selling much honey, and not so much because you lose bees but because it can inconvenience the neighbours. I had an unexpected swarm go into a neighbour's chimney last summer, and apart from the distress at having to smoke...

As a novice myself I know exactly how you feel, and think this is a wonderfully useful thread. This is my fourth year of beeking - and it is a very odd year. The weather has made everything difficult. I've not had to open hives in such low temperatures before, but if you're going to stop...

Problem over - they reswarmed and pushed off to pastures new when I was out this lunchtime. They seemed quite happy and built a lot of comb considering they'd only been in there 3 days . . . . but now they've gorn!

It's funny what they take exception to. I regularly use a motor mower right up to and between the hives and they ignore it. I thought it would cause mayhem. I've only worn the suit to mow there once and that was the day after I did an AS when they were cross with everything. Today I've just...

It's been pretty windy here too - hence the brick on top of the upturned seed tray and the two bricks and slab of concrete on the crown board! It's also quite sheltered where it is. Fingers crossed , , ,

Thanks for the advice - I'll print it off and give it to her too (tech-phobe!) I thought I'd give you a laugh with a snap of the "temporary hive" standing among our raised beds - not many veg yet but plenty of weeds!

Took a swarm (from one of my hives) on Tuesday and rang a friend who has an empty hive and wanted a colony. She wasn't quite ready, so I knocked up a temporary home for them in a couple of supers (all I had to hand), the lower one with frames with some drawn comb, with a crown board and a...

Nice one, thanks.

Just had a swarm - must have missed a Q cell 2 weeks ago (my fault - haven't looked since then). Fortunately swarmed on an old incinerater 6 feet from the original hive. A friend wants the swarm but not yet (dammit!) so I knocked up a temporary home for them from a couple of supers, one with...

Er . . . like I said: What is this? 20 Questions?

My point exactly. Not sure why you're apparently attacking what I posted earlier. There is no accountability, and the contract sprayers don't seem to abide by safe spraying guidelines, as I understand them.

I'm grateful for the info - thanks!

some of the fields are rented by farmers whose main farm is ten or even twenty miles away. Landowner maybe abroad, rented and cultivated by who? Land "stewardship" round here is very patchy. Short of contacting Defra how would I find out?