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Welcome to the forum! If you can make it, the Callington Honey Fair (Callington Town Hall, 3 October) might be a good opportunity to meet other - fairly near - beeks and possible acquire some useful stuff.

No sign of my bees working it - or anything else - at present. But maybe that will change when (if) it ever stops raining and warms up a little!

I assume the honey is capped. In which case, if bees can store it over the winter without problem, surely it ought not to be a problem for you to store it for a fairly brief time. Your problem will be to make store it in a way that won't leave it vulnerable to robbing.

I wear a full suit and wellies. I shrink at the thought of doing an inspection of my hives wearing nothing! The current Lady DD has views about scaring the horses!

Dark hives?

The current Lady DD joins me in wishing you a most successful - but above all, a most enjoyable - olympics. May every arrow fly true!

Not likely to be a problem for me this year. Nothing extracted so far. :cuss: Just checked the hives - barely enough stores to keep them going - so even if the promised fine weather materialises, it looks as though there will be no hunny for tea this year! :banghead::banghead:

I'll let you know...

I have had the same problem recently. The current Lady DD (heartless as she is) puts it down either to advancing age, or the rate of consumption of Armagnac.

In view of this summer's weather, might one suggest a few swimming lessons (for the bees, that is) before you set off?

I am a little concerned. The advice so far has been unanimous - and I cannot remember any other occasion when that has been so! But sadly, I cannot disagree. Use your association's extractor for a while (wish ours had had one!), then buy the best you can afford.

Just been up to my apiary, but did not go into the hives, because it was a little cool - and threatening to rain. My biggest and busiest hive (which was fine when I checked it two days ago - with no sign of Queen cells etc), was once again very busy. Looking at the entrance, however, I was...

Got a call earlier from a nice lady who told me a swarm of bees had just arrived in a tree in her garden. Off I go with a heavy-ish heart (most of the trees around here seem to be 60 feet tall!). Sure enough, swarm in tree. But tree only 4' tall! Swarm shaken into skep, left a while for...

What's the point of a Virgin Queen? or Don't drone on so or There's no Queen like an Old Queen

I suppose that 'beekeepers keep their tools in hand at all times' might be out of the question?

Did you check for a Queen cell when you first noticed the hive unusually quiet? Is it possible that they have swarmed? If so, then perhaps you need to leave things for another couple of weeks, and then check for eggs or unsealed brood (and, of course a Queen - though with my eyesight I never...

You may think that - but I couldn't possibly ...! :coolgleamA:

:hurray::hurray:

Am I alone in finding these enquiries about jars and labels depressing? :eek: I would like to be sure that I am going to have anything to put in jars this year - and that seems by no means certain at present :cuss::cuss::cuss:

Encourage her to be a little more like the current Lady DD. She would leave it for the domestic staff to deal with.