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Went to the out apiary for a quick check midday and boy it was hot. The grass is parched and the sheep have been moved on as nothing for them to eat or much shelter from the sun. The bees haven't got much to eat either and will be in need of feeding in the next week or so. I had a look in about...

On the Bognor Riviera we have had a very dry year so the flow has been sporadic to say the least, but having gone from 13 colonies at the beginning of the year and one apiary to 40 colonies and 3 apiaries I consider I have had a brilliant year. And around 300 pounds of honey overall was just...

20 Nucs fed and looking good, honey removed from the out apiary which considering it has been robbed for brood a lot looks set to produce a 250 - 300 pound bonus as far as I am concerned. Enough to keep me out of mischief for another year.

Off out in a minute to go feed 8 more nucs, at long last they all seem to be laying nicely. I should just make 40 colonies for this winter.

Went up to one of the apiaries, 17 hives in 70 minutes so not too bad. One or two not laying but all otherwise ok. The flow has well and truly stopped or just a trickle, it's almost like the end of August in a normal year. The honey can come off, probably a few hundred pounds which considering...

Checked the mating hives and found a few more that have decided to start laying so not as bad as first thought. Also I seem to have 2 beautiful golden queens that have appeared obviously from someone else's genetics close by - makes a change from my nearly black mongrels to have some yellow ones...

Being as my spare suit turned up today I was able at last to go and check the mating hives at the home apiary. Not what I was hoping for, only 50% mated properly, quite a few drone laying queens sadly due to the weather I guess. Cold and pretty windy we have also had night time lows down in the...

60% take on my last grafts which I was happier with as I seem to be steadily getting better. 100% might be a little way off though! I thought that was that as far as grafting was concerned but the weather for mating has been awful so I am going to have a go at 20 more next week and I will try...

The price is the difference between an amateur looking for pin money and a professional looking to make a living. Simples. It would be interesting to see just how many man hours are involved in the production of nucs - it must be difficult to come up with a figure because of all the prep work...

So desperate for frames that I had to resort to extracting four boxes in the home apiary so I have some to fill holes that I have in various hives before the bees get doing silly things. The honey was about 50% capped so I wasn't expecting marvels with the water content but it just edged below...

Inspected 17 hives at an out apiary, 7 of which will be moving soon to a new site. It is getting busy there! They are piling the honey in like crazy and I am running out of spare frames. Time for extraction I think. Put one qc in an odd hive there where a re queen failed using the cotton wool...

Thank you all for the answer - take the wife with me!

Ericbeaumont hits the nail on the head. Have there ever been any purely money driven honey/bee operations in the UK that have succeeded I wonder? The good ones that I know of have all grown up with people who have had a passion from an early age, or have grown up with it in their family. From...

Thanks for that - the top pocket and cotton wool idea sounds perfect. Must be careful with the seat belt though!

I have got a half dozen qc's to transport to an apiary 30 mins from home, how do you do this without causing damage to them? Hopefully temperature shouldn't be too much of a problem at this time of year.

Windy and horrible here on the Sussex coast so inside making omf's from cedar leftovers from the landscaping business. 14 free ones apart from the cost of the mesh.

I'm lucky that we run our own landscape business from home so I have some flexibility in my use of time but I found the best method was stick to one day a week as bee day, mostly mornings only. Three apiaries plus nuc yard and growing, 30 min trip to the furthest and work my way back home. The...

55% take on my second round of grafts, better than the first but much more practice needed. I need to sit down and play a bit first before I start for real.

Checked yesterdays grafts. 30%!! Ye gods I can do better than that! I guess I was having an off day and didn't know it!