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Thanks for the update and info, well noted.

Really hope the Rowan (ash) are home grown!!! and not imports, and why ho why are we importing a british native tree!

Slightly off topic, why would you hold a smoker between your legs!! When looking into the bees and you have given smoke you just need it to hand, on the ground would do, without allowing the smoke to drift over the hive anymore than needs be. As far as brood and half goes, the main problem is...

Visiting every two weeks? Hope there are plenty of holes in the trees for the swarms to go into. :) Steven

Nothing, super on or below the brood box directly. Crown board for the top only, NO queen excluder this time of year or during winter. The danger is that with a QE on the queen gets left behind if the main body of bees move up to feed and leaves the queen behind to die. Steven

If you feed during the Ivy flow you should have a mixture of both syrup and Ivy, so, the Ivy honey should be more liquid and lest inclined to go solid. Just a thought. By the way Ivy here has been in flower for the past 4 weeks at least and is still going strong, plenty of pollen going in. Steven

You need to tell whether you have a national hive. Is the hive a brood box only? I see you still have drones, they won't be around for long. If the bees are still flying they will be taking in mostly Ivy, and some HB if it's around in your area. As a guide I think you should have a super on so...

By the look of your crown broad it looks very thick, does it have a 9mm or so gap above the frames, more, and the bees won't follow the syrup up. The other thing you can try is to put the feeder on the frames themselves. I sometimes get bees between the mesh varroa floor and the varroa board, if...

What type of feeder and you using, and what's the feed should be 2parts sugar to 1part water this time of year. If you are using a rapid feeder have you tried dribbling some syrup into the centre hole to let the bees know that the syrup is there, the bees will follow the syrup up. If your bees...

Hi, I use a paint gun and it does get hot enought to burn the wood and it doesn't take that long, I take my time anyway and make sure I get in all the hard to get at bits. steven

We all worry about the condition of our bees going into winter, stores etc, I have one hive that isn't taking down enough syrup, so I will keep hefting and hope for the best and start to add candy sooner than later and treat them as an overwinting nuc. But that aside, you need to now stop...

Don't alway do this but, I agree, get use too using the thinner gloves. steven

Judging from the feed back I have from other beekeepers in the area, both Sheffield and Rotherham ain't had a good year, unless it was from the heather or OSR which seemed to have flowered for every this year. I will be looking into moving some hives to the OSR next year. Steven

Collecting swarms mostly, that no-one else would want or could deal with. Some where splits, not because I wanted too, but because I needed to. Spend the year making up hive bits and nuc boxes because I kept running out of space, gave away swarms and helped with others. The bees are fit and...

How can you say 'nothing wrong this year' when everyone else has had an awful year. I'm a bit concerned with how many people fed so much sugar and took so much 'honey'! Not good for English Honey quality if it gets out that some supply Tate and Lyle best honey!

You did well YorkshireBees, I went from over 100lb last year with 4 hives to 20lb with 10 hives. I think my forage came when the weather was bad, also I didn't take the hives to the heather or have OSR near by. So, change of plan next year. regards Steven

I have moved two hives a matter of about 500 yds midwinter, and others half a mile. No problem, best time to move them.

It's normal to build up in the spring with syrup (1-1) as it gets the queen laying and a good start up for the coming season. Not so good for the summer, have you got enough forage in your area to supply your bees? I see a report this week that someone had 80 kilos here is the link...

Interesting that you don't do swarm control, that's not beekeeping, that's suppling swarms for others to deal with. If your bees did not swarm I would be surprised and amazed. Unless of course you started with a nuc in May or June then you may not of had a swarm. But, next year you will get...

In London you had good mostly even weather, not so for the rest of the country, in South Yorkshire the swarms came out after the bees had been kept in during bad weather. I could predict when I was going to get swarm calls, yes once it stopped raining. And it had been a swarmy season for us. If...