Search results

Two words: queen excluder.

I take offence at that. Margaret Murdin is one of the most honest, straight talking, and down-to-earth beekeepers I have had the pleasure of meeting. Remember, when the majority of BBKA trustees were supporting (or failing to oppose) lies and fraud (as later proven in court), Margaret was one...

A heads up for you - usual caveats apply regarding location, climate, etc. I've been round 5 sites today, checked ~50 colonies, and all are suffering pollen shortage to a lesser or greater degree. I saw very few of the returning foragers today bringing in pollen, where they had pollen loads...

There's confusion over frames and boxes here; Wally's quote above wasn't clear and doesn't mention how many boxes nor where a queen excluder might be placed. Boxes: start drawing in the box above the brood nest; multiple boxes of foundation added = draw in the lower box first. Bottom up...

So... 'So...' is native then? That puts a totally different complexion on it. It has the higher moral ground and so should be actively protected and encouraged. So... All non-native verbal tics are to be discouraged, particularly as they appear to be recent imports that are displacing our...

Depends if it's winter or spring planted OSR. Earliest flowering we have seen in recent years was March 11th for winter planted OSR.

It annoys me as a I listen to Radio 4 a lot. I don't know where it's come from but it really grates. The "So..." is clearly a verbal tic used by interviewees to compose themselves before speaking. It does not seem to afflict a particular type of interviewee, e.g. it's not just BBC journos...

Beware confusing the container with the management system... not aimed at you in particular, a general comment prompted by the above :) Brood and a half is pain because you have brood spread across two differently sized boxes/frames, and cannot freely rearrange as/when required. However the...

It's known as 'hive years', but it's not a reliable metric either. Many hives for one year or few hives for many years do not make for broad exsperience; it also depends on how open the beekeeper's mind and eyes are. I know of one 'senior' beekeeper hereabouts who is known for having done "one...

Try this link.

Yes, entirely. e.g. Keith Delaplane's recent work on diversity of matings leading to more robust colonies - didn't they conclude that the ideal was around 30 not-closely-related drone partners per queen? This is why I feel there is a need for a breeding framework that can be applied in this...

Is there a risk of over-sanitising (with any method of cleaning) if no known nasties are present? The other issue being - what have you lost that was beneficial to the bees? We do not really understand the other hive fauna or the roles they might play in a hive or nest cavity as a contained...

Interesting method. I'm guessing you wouldn't really want to do this on the kitchen table for any quantity of boxes (more likelihood of leaks) or any greater duration. Why this rather than acetic/ethanoic acid fumigation, particularly if you don't already have an ozone generator, or the...

We have some of that around here in the hedgerows and on verges. They wait until it is in flower, pull it and leave it where it drops. Utterly futile as a control method. I don't see the big deal in hedgerows since it is competing principally with bracken and nettles.

The penalties are for intentionally spreading it; as a landowner you are entitled by the legislation to simply ignore certain invasives if you choose to do so, HB being one of them.

Hi Brian - I think you misunderstood; I merely flagged that the words 'hybrid' and 'hybridised' were loaded terms in this debate, and asked that they be removed. Thanks for adding 'mongrel' to the melting pot, that's an even more loaded term: mongrel - saint or sinner? ;) Whether they are used...

A "national breeding programme" to produce a single pool of 'improved' bees will never take off because it will require beekeepers across the country to agree on what they want from their bees, in what environment, which compromises they are willing to accept (at least in the short term) and how...

Understood - it's about the few with an axe to grind being in a position to influence? Somebody mentioned earlier that the BBKA has a stated aim to reduce or stop imports. Worth considering that this results from a proposition voted on at an ADM: a room full of 70-ish Association...

OK, I see where you are coming from. As noted above, many organisations participated - including BIBBA. The chap from DEFRA who has pulled the survey together is not daft, but neither is he a beekeeper. He won't realise the subtleties of the words he is given (such as 'hybrid' being a very...

Pete, I hear you loud and clear! The survey came out of the Bee Health Advisory Forum, a quarterly meeting of APHA and beekeeping organisations that has been meeting over the past 9 years under the Healthy Bees Plan. The front of the survey tells you this: To be fair, when I last saw the...