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. . . on hold for a couple of weeks Sorry, beginners, this will have to wait for a couple of weeks. Some colonies in my region have been found to have American Foul Brood, which is a nasty and contagious colony disease. They were taken to a beekeeping auction and equipment sale, so now other...

If you're willing to come and get them, in Gloucestershire, with your own Langstroth hive, I have a full colony you can have for nothing. Read my blog on here to understand where we're at. We now have three strong colonies and we only want two. This is the first colony we had (although the...

We've now got three colonies. The darker bees swarmed last summer, while I was away in another country. Fortunately, Mrs FG rose to the challenge. She saw them hanging from an archway in the garden and bundle them (a few times) into our old wooden hive. We swapped them onto new frames when I...

Mrs FG and I went through the two colonies at the weekend and have finally seen both queens. Both are really pretty and fairly huge, compared to the workers. No drones seen yet, but some of the cells are built up higher than the norm, so I guess that's what they are about. The dark colony we...

Good luck, Simon! Tried Archery for a bit; fantastic fun but really hard work and I was only using the bow of a tiny girl :-) the proper ones are massively hard work (and the arrows go 10 times faster, I guess). Stay in the zone; I'm sure your bees will behave well while you're away. FG

Good luck, Simon - all the best. Simon Wot? (so we can cheer!)

OK, patience it is. Thanks for the comments. I spent 30 mins or so sitting and watching them this morning (not going into the nuc). They seemed to be foraging very keenly (as the other two full-sized colonies were today - lovely weather for a change) and bringing in pollen and nectar - i.e...

Advice or thoughts required . . . I found a fairly small swarm (maybe football volume?) hanging from a holly bush at head level. This sounded much easier than the ladders and chimneys I've heard about :-) so I put in into a poly nuc hive with frames of foundation and a full frame feeder of...

Hope you don't have to wait too long - I remember the frustration of reading this forum while waiting to get my first bees. If I land another swarm, I'll try and contact you and you can beam over with some National kit. FG

Shaag, the larger swarm (now a functioning colony) has just driven off in a car, heading for South Bristol. New beekeeper 'Fraise' was at the wheel after PM'ing me yesterday - sorry. There's still a small cast swarm in a poly nuc (Langstroth) that I'm happy to either keep or give away. It...

Due to my lame beekeeping, and some captured swarms (maybe mine, maybe not), I have 3 and a bit colonies of bees and I only want two. I caught a fairly big swarm (10 days or so since they moved in) in a full hive and a much smaller cast swarm (4 hours or so since they moved in) in a poly nuc...

OK, so I've been lazy this year. A combination of bad weather and lots of work stuff has meant I've just kept an eye on my two colonies and left them to it (so far). I have a pale yellow colony (from GWW) in two Lang brood boxes. I have a darker colony in one Lang brood box (from PH). Last...

Both colonies seem full of stores, but the weather here has been very dry for ages, so you could be right - flowers, yes but nectar no. FG

Thanks for the advice. I'm surprised they are getting so warm: the hive isn't in sun, it's only 20 C or less and shaded; the bees have a full brood box, then a queen excluder, then a mainly empty brood box on top with undrawn foundation (so mainly space at the moment). Maybe I need to open...

I have two colonies of bees; one is a full Langstroth box and the other nearly a full box. They are positioned 50m or so up the Hill from the house and garden. We have a pond on a raised patio with fish, currently toad-poles, and the bees use this as a source of fresh water. The last few...

What do you mean by excessive? Two main reasons for lots of drones (I believe): 1) the colony is happy, likes the weather and is starting to produce drones as a normal "preparing for summer and possible swarming" action; 2) the queen has run out of stored semen and is now only capable of...

I guess they were nailed from the flat side through to the bevelled side, so you could only see the nail-head on one side? That's how I do mine, after GWW showing me how. FG

Mrs FG and I just finished inspecting our two colonies on a beautiful day. Good news: they are both doing really well, loads of stores, loads of larvae and capped brood, loads of bees :-) The smaller colony was filling half of a brood box already and going great guns. Loads of stores - where...

I think it's on the edge; you probably don't NEED to inspect unless you suspect something wrong (disease, impending starvation, etc). I nearly went for it today, as the weather was so good, but it seems to be short days still at the moment with a nice sunny bit for a few hours but still...

This seems very unlikely to be true. The thick walls of the nuc or hive will be 'bee temperature' on the inside; the very low rate at which they conduct heat means there's a big difference between inside and outside, so the inside gets to stay close to the cluster's outer surface temperature...