Search results

I have two 'insurance' colonies in 14x12 poly nucs which I will be overwintering as such. If I don't need them to replace lost queens in the spring then I'll sell them to someone less fortunate. My experience is that poly nucs keep small colonies nice and warm over winter and they are more...

Good for you Redwood. A jar of honey as a gift generates a lot of goodwill. My neighbours get a jar or two to compensate for the bee poo on their cars and windows. The staff at the shop where I sell some get a jar each for their trouble and my family are kept supplied, as they have to listen to...

A week ago I put three frames of drawn foundation into a colony where the queen had stopped laying either because of a MAQS treatment or because the bees had filled all the cells with 2:1 feed. I checked today and she had started laying straight away- not in the frames I provided, but in two...

Yes, I put all three in the middle. I'll give it a week and check for laying

Patience is a virtue they say. I was about to unite a nuc that I'd set up to produce an emergency queen as a spare back in July. They raised three emergency QCs and the victor should have emerged on 5th August. No eggs by last week and no queen seen, hence the decision to unite. When I checked...

Windy today. Made the mistake of inspecting. Were they upset? I closed up half way through and will try again tomorrow- or perhaps the day after. Ex hurricane Bertha has a lot to answer for.

I'd go for successive sowings of Borage. Honey bees go mad for it and it overwinters well. As has been said Phacelia is more popular with Bumbles.

In a former life I used to deal with similar neighbour disputes. For someone to have had bee poo analysed indicates obsessive behaviour bordering on a mental illness. My advice would be to cultivate your other neighbours and get them on your (the bees) side. This will isolate Mr Grumpy. The...

My 'bibles' are Hooper's and de Bruyn's books. I agree re NBB- it has a great catalogue.

Don't leave the queen and drones above a QE with no entrance/exit.

Went on a Healthy Bee course courtesy of Durham BKA with the RBI and four SBIs. Excellent and informative. Got to see frames with EFB and AFB which I hope I never see again. If you get a chance to go to one of these I can recommend it. One of the benefits of belonging to an Association.

Had a visit from the seasonal bee inspector (I.W.) What a helpful guy. No disease fortunately and we moved a frame with QC to a nuc, moved a frame with a QC to a Q- hive, and found and marked a queen. I later hived a swarm with a laying queen which was bursting out of its nuc and united it...

Poor old Rob B and Bunbury. If there's a subject best avoided on this forum it's killing your bees. You will always look callous no matter how much panic they are causing you and your neighbours. And some of those who condemn you have a rather evangelical approach to beekeeping and drown out the...

:yeahthat: I have demareed four hives this year for the first time. I used a modified Snelgrove board as recommended be Ken Basterfield (two entrances, one top one bottom, on opposite sides). I got the top box filled with honey (14x12 and very heavy), and the bottom box partly starved of bees...

Thank you everyone. A couple of good suppliers and helpful information too.

I'm thinking of putting some honey into our local shows for the first time. Can anyone recommend a supplier of 1lb jars that are high enough quality to exhibit honey in? Every one in a gross I ordered from one supplier have mottling and marks from the glass moulds. Thanks in anticipation.

And if the council comes and collects a cast that local beeks are not interested in what happens then? Do they hive it at public expense? Do they kill it at public expense? Perhaps you could direct me to the council apiary where lost swarms are lovingly cared for? Let's get real here. All this...

Got an email from my SBI who's coming for an inspection in a couple of weeks. Time to do a varroa count and look more closely for disease on my next inspection.

Tried the caustic soda treatment today. I now have a very pink and very clean copper smoker.

Harvested 120lbs of honey from my three productive hives this week. Very pleased as last year's total was 160lbs and I'm nearly there already. This spring has been the best I can remember for blossom. If the Limes are as productive as the Hawthorn has been then this will be a bumper year. :party: