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Purely for the fun of it. Plus i'm mad.

It isn't beekeeping by any named method as I have not read Tim Rowe's book, it's just common sense in giving the bees what they need when they need it. Boxes under early in the year so the brood is kept higher where it is warmer, later on when the temps go up I can put them on top or split the...

My second year with one size boxes - national brood size - and I am very happy with it. You don't want to go beyond 6 boxes high unless you have a forklift though!

Removed two feeders left on from a month ago - bees seem happy, fed two more with fondant as I ran out of time earlier. Just three more feeders to remove on a mild day and another two to possibly put fondant on. I don't know how but I seem to have twelve hives - damn things seem to come from...

Put fondant on the nucs in the rain today - so many things going on in life that I have to do my beekeeping when I can! As the leaves have fallen off the brambles I discovered another 2 hives in the jungle that yielded 2 hives earlier this year. One was dead, the other turned out to be an old...

Definitely Phytolacca americana. Tim - not a botanist but a horticulturalist.

We all make mistakes and probably learn more from them than anything else. On a side note my bee kit was banned from the kitchen years ago! I still use our bread knife for uncapping but I do get 'that' look when I take it!

Finally getting around to feeding today, everyone else seems in such a rush to shut up shop early! Bees are bringing in a fair bit of Ivy pollen today in the sunshine - makes up for yesterday stuck in the hive I suppose.

Assessing what I thought was only one disused hive on land my family own to have the very pleasant surprise of two nice colonies, albeit in rotten boxes. Took me nearly an hour to cut my way through the brambles to them but worth it! Now to get them home.......

I started to remove the supers today but the rain caught me out and the girls were not happy - 3 stings through the suit. I have one hive which is persistently trying to swarm. I knocked the cells down a week ago and today there were more cells in spite of me giving her 5 drawn combs last week...

I use a Stihl blower without any problems. Much quicker than the other methods and I am a landscaper by trade so had one in the shed anyway!

Checked on 3 nucs with new queens - Hivemakers finest of course, and all doing beautifully. Always nice to get the nucs well populated at this time before the wasps get to be a problem.

Spent a very sweaty hour or so rearranging frames to get them all capped for removal next month. Nice thing was the bees were absolute pussycats - hardly used any smoke. Early next week I will be prepping some nucs for the imminent arrival of some of hivemakers finest. Looking forward to their...

Swarm issued from one of my hives this morning - thankfully my wife was home and saw them. I may need a trip to specsavers as I only inspected them on Saturday! They settled 3 feet up the trunk of a tree, so a nice easy job to get them all marching into a hive. Easiest swarm I have ever caught!

Removed about 100 pounds of rape from the hives. Loads more in there but I will hang on another week to hopefully see a bit more of it capped.

Any particular brand Enrico? I worry that in this digital age my source of newspaper will dry up!

One sheet for me - never a problem.

Ours always tastes very nice down here - but it is never pure rape, always a blend with a lot of hawthorn, amongst other things, in it. Tends to be a lot less grainy as a result too.

About another week to go here then I will let you know! It is looking good though, estimate at least 50 pounds per hive due to one very good week of weather.

Just got a load more foundation from Pa##es today. I know that the girls are in the hive plotting my future! The devil (rain) makes work for idle hands(whatever you choose to substitute!).