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Hi I wrote this a few years back for such questions, http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14770 its a little out of date and you should probably ignore any pricing, but the essence is true. You can get several hives on an acre if required, of more importance is what is growing...

That looks really interesting thanks, and dismisses even more of my sketchy understanding of bee behaviour! If I catch the drift of the intro right, bees do not re-learn the sun's movements at a new site, whether post swarm or not, but they rely on the local landscape. The sun movement learnt...

Thanks all, a lot of really interesting posts there and I will feel more relaxed about rehousing a swarm back near their roots. e.g. I never knew that, in fact if asked I would have guessed the other way At the risk of driving my own thread :offtopic:, is it easy to identify old/young bees...

which leads to my next question ... I've always shied away from reintroducing the swarm immediately back to its parent hive with its stay at home occupants. Have I been daft all this time, and does a clear out of QCs and virgin queens render it acceptable to all?

And with two colonies you will need at least three. Yes, better to have two colonies, gives you much more flexibility for such matters as swapping frames, or if one has a major problem - lose 1 colony over winter and you go back to being beeless. That said, if you are just starting out you may...

A question for you clever chaps and ladies ...... Presumably, if a swarm takes up camp a few hundred years from its mother hive, the bees know to relearn their position. So.... does that mean that once a swarm occurs, all of its occupants forget their old internal maps, and if that is true, is...

On the occasions its needed, my extractor has cages which allow it to handle tangental 14x12 frames without a problem. Wouldn't recommend them for normal honey storage though - its fairly backbreaking lifting a full 14x12 box!

Dropped in some Neopoll into a couple of hives to help them get in the swing of things in time for the OSR.

Vaped a couple of colonies and left them some fondant to be nibbling on afterwards

Unpacked the new varrox and had a trial run. Was persuaded it is too cold to do the real thing. Made up some takeaways of fondant.

Got myself all geared up to enter the exciting world of vaping, and had a last minute re-read of instructions (saved my bacon on many occasions that). See that it says not to vape below 4 degrees. I've no accurate thermometer to hand, but the BBC weather says we should be in the 2-3 degree...

I'm sure its not as good as Finman's pattys, but given the lack of irradiated pollen, I've used Neopol for the past 5 years which always seems to help the brood build up, no real proof though, and as has been said previously they do like it

Bit rich for a three hive owner at £165 + wallpaperstripper, but has anyone tried the Honey Paw slit uncapper as on the Modern Beekeeping site and here https://youtu.be/lgRU1nEuWGY

One thing though - the program states that the queen is the only bee able to sting more than once - is this the case? I'd always assumed that (for AMM to least) workers could sting more than once, unless their target had nasty tight skin that kept hold of the stinger - e.g. stinging other...

Repeated yesterday afternoon, so available in iplayer here http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01f875l/natural-world-20112012-12-queen-of-the-savannah Very good photography and interesting to see the differences between them and our little darlings

Just to echo the thoughts of others, I'm no wasp lover but have found your (karol) postings very informative and interesting. And absolute garbage to suggest either you or HM abuse this forum for commercial means, in fact quite the opposite.

Remove surplus shallow from top of one hive, that's it for the season barring flipping one entrance from "reduced" to "mouse proof"

Never heard of the term - shows how far behind the times I am! Hopefully it will still be in vogue by the time I next bottle in June

Put insulation on top of my wooden hives. Checked if a nadired shallow box that had been full of crystallised and unripe honey had been cleared out - it largely had with no existing brood so I've moved to the top with a clearer board to get it off tomorrow. Just slapped my head realising that...