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Actually this is broken waspbane from two years ago that fell out of a tree and got a hole smashed in it. As the wasps were so evident at the apiary I tipped all the dead wasp liquid out through the hole in the box and refilled with Guinness honey and sugar syrup feed I had knocking around. Then...

My farm apiary has a lot of wasps around so I placed a waspbane - this is a pic taken after 4 days. 😱

When I was looking for an out apiary I found that persistence paid off. Letters got me nowhere so one day I sat down with my phone and kept ringing local farmers till I found one that sounded persuadable. I then talked him into a quick meeting and we agreed a suitable placing. Talking face to...

I have a virgin queen emerged on Sunday and put straight into a mini mating nuc in my back yard. It's now Saturday and at 15.30 I noticed a gathering of bees standing outside the nuc entrance. I went for a closer look and actually saw the queen (she's marked) flying round the yard. It's 22C and...

last week the prime swarm that I caught from my apiary only 16 days previous had the cheek to swarm again - they hadn't even drawn all the frames and were in the middle of an OSR field. They must have chosen to make swarm cells the second queenie started laying. I did see a swarm depart last...

I've had a very busy couple of weeks chasing my bees that have swarmed from being in a field of OSR. From 8 colonies there have been 7 swarms (that I know of). Caught 7 of em and lost a small one that was too high up. Four are definitely prime. 2 definite casts and one I'm not sure yet. Have run...

At home I only have one nuc colony with a homebred queen. Colony really small so will take it over to farm apiary. Farmer dave kindly brought the rape to the bees and planted up the field where the bees live. Visited my colony in a garden up the hill. Removed nadired super - all empty and back...

In the field apiary. I visited my 3 nucs with home bred queens from last summer. They overwintered well and are now living in cramped conditions. Moved one lot into a new 14/12 poly hive. Rain clouds arrived so the other two put on hold till sun comes out to play. In beekeeping HQ - (my house)...

My bees were out in force on Saturday but I've been waiting for OH to bugger off back to work in order to check the stores situation. Of course the day he starts back it's peeing with rain and I'm reduced to being an iPad beekeeper again.

I made soap too. And jolly good soap it is too. Also today I need to melt yet more honey from my buckets and jar it. I have a sign on my door saying local honey for sale. As I'm opposite a big park there are many peeps passing and word has been spreading. I'm up and down like a yo yo answering...

The current trend for salted caramel, salted fudge etc makes me wonder has anyone tried making/selling salted honey?

I bought myself pink and purple posca pens for pimping my home bred queens next year. Did number two vape on the home hives, drop from first round quite small. Melted lots of wax ready for candles, I actually have enough for some pillar candles this year. Made some lip balm but it smells awful...

Did you fess up to the neighbour that it was from bees?

I have this problem with a couple of my poly nucs. Being full of bees there is nothing that can prize them apart without forcing something between the join. I use the flat end of my hive tool and insert it at both ends of the box to crack the seal. Unfortunately the polystyrene does suffer from...

I fed all 6 farm hives. No need for smoker as they were no trouble 3 days ago methinks. They have feeding containers placed directly on top bars. First three were fine. Fourth colony got really angry and I got two stings through my suit. This riled up the other two hives that I opened...

Are you up to 6 hives now Erica? In my apiary - I did nothing. In my hall I cluttered the place up with 5 boxes of glass jars and a package of oxalic acid (my yacht deck was looking decidedly grubby) In my kitchen I stank the place out making the thymol recipe In the back garden I spilled...

Tomorrow it will be spelling. I'm sure we can all agree a teaspoon holds 5 ml and that punctuation is sadly lacking on the forum. However, I enjoyed reading your post. Very interesting. Thanks Finny.

Thanks for the pics. I have placed my order with OH aka 'maker of all things wooden' and hope to be presented with an exact copy in the next few days :icon_204-2:

:icon_204-2: sprechen sie deutsche?

That handy little eke sounds just the ticket. I want my OH to make one for my 4 nucs that need vaping. Any chance of a pic? As for what I did today - I bought 40 kilos of sugar at 39p each from farm foods. Then made a jerry can of syrup and added thymol. Tomorrow I will go dole it out.