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A nice cool day on the south coast so I might don my bee suit and get the mower going as its all getting a bit rough out there. Plus I see the bait hive outside the office has yet another swarm in it - don't you just love the newby beeks who keep supplying me with free bees!

Sorbus aria - Whitebeam. Could be a variety of it.

Out apiary inspection today with added grass mowing fun! One queen somehow appeared above the excluder, soon put that right and my first attempted swarm cells this season suitably dealt with. All of last years queen rearing efforts seem to be doing well which rather reinforces the need to get on...

I had a huge swarm today from elsewhere that split into 5 close together. Found one marked queen (not mine thankfully!) boxed them as one and they seem happy. If it were later in the season I would be much more cautious but hopefully swarms at the moment are mostly prime.

Walked up to the breeder colonies after lunch to be confronted with the mother of all swarms settling in one of the trees close by. Horlicks I thought. Rounded them up into a box and went to see who had gone and had the very pleasant surprise of none! Somebodys lost a biggie, it must be the...

For those that don't know this part of the world it is very developed here, housing, out of town shopping, school up the road etc. His hives are on a piece of land up a small lane that is relatively quiet and not overlooked, a small piece of countryside between the built up bits, so any...

Just found out about this from a local group - poor Doug. At least the fundraiser is going well but this will leave a bad taste.https://www.gofundme.com/f/helping-to-recover-from-vandalism-of-beehives

Making the most of my time at home as back to work next week, we have only slowed down rather than stopped but the time has been good to catch up with stuff. Prepped the queen raising kit ready for the off. Once I start you can bet the weather will go downhill rapidly!

It's getting ridiculous for the time of year. I now have 2 hives on 4 deep national boxes and it isn't even the end of April yet. This could well be a very swarmy year so better get those bait hives out!

They say running a forum is a thankless task, well there are plenty of thanks about it seems! And one more from me.

I have been using them for some years now as my only box type. They are heavier but i'm a big boy and I couldn't be bothered with the faff off rose hives.

Swapped the brood boxes around on the 3 breeder colonies. Keeps the little tykes occupied and stops them thinking about wandering off. Hopefully! My 2 original choices are both lovely to handle and going great, the third is doing well too but the temperament isn't what I want so they may get...

I can't speak for your area of the world but there seems to be a lot of interest down here in the south, albeit with a high turnover as people discover that its not quite as easy as they thought. There are also a few with, how can I put it, 'high moral/environmental ideals' who give out a false...

Feeling mighty smug that I went and put another box on my hives last week. I can't see any fields of rape around here but when the wind drops early evening the smell is unmistakable, and the yellow noses tell me that the girls have found it.

Went and had a peek at the girls today and lots of yellow noses starting to appear. Rape close by somewhere.

West Sussex also, lost one out of 16 and that was weak going into winter so no surprise. As for the Bailey comb change - I despair. I wish It was just one simple thing that enabled me to keep my bees every year through the winter but the truth is that it is a range of things. First and foremost...

Put a second box on 10 hives at the out apiary. Bees seem to be ok except one a bit slow to start so I will give it some extra brood soon. One though is the hive from hell and that will be re queened as soon as possible, I still have one spare at home.

New apiary up and running this morning, my furthest out at 30 mins away from home, but such a beautiful site.

10 hives loaded in the van ready for a trip to their new home tomorrow, about 30 minutes away. Not the ideal time to be doing this but whatever. I shall put a box under and check for stores as a few were a bit light when I put them in the van, that should hold them for a few weeks if I can't get...

I like queen clips, they are really useful for parking the q to one side while doing things in the hive, I have never harmed a q with one! I fail to see how they can be of any use for q marking etc, pick her up she won't bite you and once you master picking them up you will wonder how you...