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I've had a very good year too. I put it down to lots of rain and lots of sun, whereas last year was continuous sun.

Yes bees work on the time of year (and reducing day light I guess) so even if the weather is lovely in August and September they will start to prepare for winter. Personally if I go into my colonies now it is generally just to see what stores they have in the brood box and to check that there...

Bare in mind how much ivy is around. I find mine pack in enough ivy nectar and I don't need to feed them. They are in poly hives and to be honest are normally fairly honey bound in spring I'm rushing to put foundation in to give them some space.

It is one of the best feelings - clever bees!

I left two at an out apiary for 9 days in early July - they'll be fine I said - both had swarmed!! On the plus side I picked up a massive swarm just last week.

They are fine for me and produce plenty of honey.

My bees are fine on single brood. I think it depends. If I have tried it I've found they just fill it with honey.

Yesterday I helped a friend's neighbour who had been gifted a hive and a nuc and was planning on thinking about beekeeping. Yes you guessed it a swarm had moved into the nuc a few weeks ago. There were only 3 frames in there so when he braved up and looked inside there was lots of wild comb...

Yes sounds like supersedure. Just leave them to it.

Well just to join this polite conversation. Personally I don't treat mine and I don't monitor at all and in the last few years I have only had one colony that I would say had failed to thrive due to varroa. My queens are all fairly dark. Whether I am lucky or it's their genetics or bees have...

Firstly yes you should have a spare hive. You'll need it for occasions such as this. Do you have any experience. It sounds like this is your only/first hive but then whose hive is the adjacent one. I'm not sure of the exact timeline but perhaps they swarmed on a virgin that opened first. I...

I haven't managed to talk to her yet, although she knows I don't think it's a good idea. She's coming round on Monday for our outside book club meeting so I'll show her mine and hopefully the others will all try and persuade her. There are so many things I want to say I'm not sure where to start.

Feedback - I put three supers into a separate pile with clearer boards empty super and floor, top and bottom. It was a bit of a frenzy to be honest and a bit stressful trying to get the supers into the house without bringing in a host of bees. It was all ok in the end but I'm not sure I'd do...

Invited a friend round to have a look at my bees. She's got a small garden and has responded to someone on Facebook who wants somewhere to put a beehive. She doesn't know him and I think just wants more bees in her garden. I'm going to show her the size of a nuc and then the thousands of...

You don't need to buy more kit if the poly hive you are getting is complete. It's more of an environmental issue if you don't use the poly hive and you might be surprised. I use poly's but have a few wooden ones. I've put wooden supers on a poly hive or use wooden brood boxes on top for...

Thanks that's interesting. I might try this. Or I might just get the step ladders out. I have options.

Wouldn't that compress them too much though? I assumed I would need to replace 3 with 2. I guess I'm going to have to get the step ladders out!

I've just thought that I could take the opportunity to split them and raise a new queen. Then I could split the supers to make life easier. I can happily leave them enough honey, although we don't get much of a June gap here. Hmm more thought needed.

I have a beast of a hive with 4 supers. I expect to want to extract 3 of them probably next weekend, the OSR is still in flower here. I am tall and have a bit of a dodgy back so my stands are a bit higher than normal. I was looking at it today and wondering how the hell I am going to clear...

Yes black does upset them. Change to yellow marigolds.