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A lot of hefting. The bees have taken advantage of the decent weather and foraged for England. 5/8 hives are good for the winter, feed is on the remaining three. Started to move woodpecker protection back towards the apiary (it spends the summer in the veg patch).

You need to aim to have two colonies (at least). Life is much easier when you have two - if you need eggs (for a test frame) you just take one from the other hive rather than frantically trying to get one from someone in the local association. You can balance the brood between the two, swap...

We have one that was given to us - not quite as bad, but similar. Probably 150 yards of following, and slightly less kamikaze. Double suiting and gloving gives a certain amount more confidence when handling them. We are letting them overwinter and nailing her maj at the first inspection of...

One highlight, one question. The highlight: the young "master bee keeper" smearing runny cow poo over the skeps. How he kept a straight face while being filmed, I have no idea. The question: the bit where the bees are separated from their honey is missed. You go from tending bees to bee...

We sell our 12oz hex jars to the local butcher for £3.50. He marks them up to £4.50 (or maybe £5 now), and they fly off the shelves. We need to take him another 50 or so this week. We're not a million miles from you (Berkshire), so this pricing is probably OK for you as well. We only...

Close them up (with syrup) for a few days first. Once they have given up, they will continue to give up, whatever you do. 3 days of peace and quiet, and the guard bees are ready at whatever defences you decide to create....

"I was getting ready to shoot rabbits when I heard the burglar trying to break in m'lud". I often shoot rabbits at night, so, that rationale is perfectly plausible. I shoot the little sods from the bedroom window as well, so that angle is covered.

We did a quick inspection yesterday, mainly to retrieve queen excluders, apigard ekes and to check everything over for the winter. It was a pretty quick inspection as the weather was a bit blowy yesterday afternoon. 6/7 hives have capped "winter bees" in large quantities (good!), and 3/7...

Second Life's intention was as a social networking platform - its rationale wasn't to be a VR world - it used VR as a way of getting people to interact in ways they had not done before. I am reasonably confident that Facebook will collapse in a heap because they always do: someone will come up...

Facebook is a fad, like every other "life changing" thing out there. In 5 years there will be something different. Analogies to "Second Life" are very relevant - I remember sitting in presentations where we were told that this was the future, that the internet would be rolled into it, if we...

Noted. Certainly looks promising. I'm waiting to find a red cedar tree, and have several tree surgeons keeping their eyes open for one that needs felling. I'm in the middle of fixing up a 1970s diesel table saw with a 26" blade, which will be good enough for making planks....

This is quite funny. If you pick up a foil tray of apigard, there are no instructions on it at all. I know because I wanted to check this year how long you're meant to leave them on for. There aren't any instructions in the cardboard box either, the only place with instructions was their web...

SN4s fit fine in an extractor. Well they fit in our extractor, and it is nothing special. The extended edges look a pain when slicing with the knife, but they really aren't. The nice thing about hoffmans is that you can pack them in 12 to a super when it is undrawn foundation, then revert to...

My other (better, she reads this place) half has wanted to keep them for ages. When we moved to the countryside, she had the chance. I quickly realised that Beekeeping was the ultimate "equipment sport", and could be used to justify all sorts of expenditure on wood working kit. Track saw...

Rats? Take off and nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. More practically, I've nailed a few with a .22, but they are very quick, and it takes a lot of patience to get more than a few.

not worthy. Thanks Guys. better get busy. The orchids used to be here and if I have my way will be again!

I'm sure there's someone out there who can help me! Chatting to a very elderly local resident, She described how a field adjacent to the meadow I keep my bees on, as being mauve in early spring as orchids flowered. Now, sadly long gone, the lovely lady is in her late 90's What are the orchids...

Our German Shepherd took 2 stings to work out that bee hives were bad news. When we inspect, she sits under a tree 100 yards away. She's bright enough to recognise a generic hive - if we have an empty one being fixed (or whatever) she won't go near it. She also knows that when we get the...

Big successful hives will have bigger and better brood cycles for varroa to hide in. We started our "best" hive before the others as we noted the odd bee with deformed wings. The varroa on the tray has been huge - certainly in the thousands, and we have extended the apigard to a third tray -...

National or 14x12? If standard national, leave them with the brood and super all winter - remove the queen excluder at the end of autumn. Give them feed if they need it so that the super and BB are full. Balance this with Ivy flow, or whatever you have - don't ram them with feed or they...