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Downhilljohn, Thanks - I have tried to re-liquefy my crystallised heather honey and succeeded! My oven is too unreliable to hit 40 or so degrees, so I emptied an unused deep freeze, hung an electric light inside and left a 40lb bucket for 3 days inside. It worked a treat; the temperature...

My heather honey in jars has crystallised also, so can I return it to its former clear colour by reheating? If so, does anyone have advice on whether a honey warming cabinet would do, and what temperature and duration would be needed?

Since bees are able to take in, dry and store ivy nectar at this time it must still be ok to be feeding syrup too, even though it is "late" to be feeding according to some opinion? Mine are still taking down the syrup ok, and working the ivy should continue here in Worcestershire for another...

Someone mentioned that bees "forget" their old site 3 days after a move. I had a swarm in a bait hive on my drive last year, when I was away for a few days and they had become established there. I needed to move them away from family to mu apiary, 200 yards away. So I moved them 5 miles away to...

Picked up my 6 and friend's 5 hives from Blaenavon on 14th September - and delighted to say, most very heavy hives among them (especially my 6 commercials). Averaged 20lb extracted per hive in the super (lovely bubbly heather honey), and by hefting, lots more in the broodboxes. Am tempted to...

I heard the same tip from an old beekeeper last year - salt sprinkled on the top bars of the broodbox frames to help clear up chalkbrood. He'd learned this in Germany and thought it worked by inducing the bees to do more diligent housekeeping.

Any improvement in the heather flow in the Abergavenny area with this better weather? ILTD mentioned very rare Septembers when it was worth leaving the bees at the heather until as late as 12th - if there is still plenty of bloom on the heather I'm happy to wait another 2 weeks before collecting...

PreyingMantos, since moving my 6 hives to Blaenavon at the end of July, I haven't been back to check. It's a 90 minute drive for me, but I may get the chance later this week. The forecast from next Saturday looks to be much better so maybe a few days for the bees to fill a super? Ever the...

ITLD, The photos are fantastic; I walked through Rothiemurchus as a Venture Scout on Easter camps and recall the wide spaced naturally regenerated Scots pine forest, but I haven't seen it during the heather flowering. It does look a great place for the bees - good luck with the crop.

Moved bees to Borenge/Blaenavon area yesterday - little sign of bell heather up there but one or two (!) ling plants in full bloom, the rest with purple buds probably a week from flowering. Fingers crossed for sufficiently decent weather during August though I note Lions Den has posted above...

Thank you all for your feedback. I'm now going to move my bees tomorrow morning, and the site does have some willowherb and clover so there should be some forage to tide them over before the ling blooms. I'll do an update tomorrow to report observations "on the hill". Last year I did get 60lbs...

As there has been plenty of moisture up on the heather moors this summer, I'm planning to take my bees again to the Abergavenny area. A question for locals in that area - has the wet summer delayed heather flowering? Or are the moors just coming into flower now (a bit early?) brought on by the...