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I foraged 2lbs of blackberries from the hedgerows today, so as an experiment, I turned them into jam using honey instead of sugar, and using a dozen little unripe crab apples for the pectin. Rather to my surprise it has set beautifully and tastes wonderful.

From the top of my local hill here in the East Midlands I can't see any agricultural land that looks to be OSR this year, where normally there would be plenty of fields growing it. Has anyone else noticed less land put to OSR? Found this table on the AHDB site which would indicate the whole...

I made lemon marmalade today, using a half an opened can of lemon mamade that has been sitting in the freezer for over a year. Bit of an experiment. The instructions were to add 4lbs sugar and a pint of water to the whole can, so I added 2 and a half lbs runny honey and no water to the half can...

One of my bee colonies may need lessons in comb building. I removed a super today, most of the frames were neatly filled and capped. A couple were a bit wavy. One frame of comb however, was twice as wide on one side, sticking out nearly an inch beyond the frame sides. In order to fit this in...

Quote - "Over 1.7 million people have supported a campaign to make farming more nature-friendly in the Southern German state of Bavaria. 18% of the eligible citizens of Bavaria have signed a mass petition demanding bee-friendly farming – the biggest petition in the history of the Bavarian state...

The colony I acquired in November has become more and more defensive as they have built up. I had them on double brood as my plan was to split and make two colonies and they have become too unpleasant by far. So on Tuesday I split them, mostly so I could find the queen. Checked today and...

Has any other BBKA member not received some of their magazines? I missed two editions last year, and so far this year have only had the January issue, until I emailed whoever and eventually they sent me March and April's edition. I've been in touch with Royal Mail, who need posting and franking...

Spotted this bee yesterday, her hairs are white instead of the usual gingery brown, she seemed healthy, although a little clumsy. Is this something to worry about, or a genetic aberration?

I was browsing the beeculture website and came across this snippet - "You can also spray (mist) packages or swarms. Over the last few years, we’ve followed this protocol to ensure that we’re starting our research projects with mite-free bees. Once the packages arrived, we placed them in a cool...

I like the porch idea on the WBC hive I acquired last month, so I'm wondering if it's possible to fit a WBC porch to national hives. Has anyone tried this? I've looked at the porch offered by Don Honey and it seems very similar to a WBC porch but more pricey. I like the entrance slide idea and...

Can I trickle apibioxal in a WBC with a solid floor? Do I need to ventilate it and if so how? I've never used oxalic before, but I don't believe these bees have had any treatment at least since the summer, and possibly before that.

I've been offered a colony in a WBC and will need to move it to my apiary. There's no way I can get a WBC in the back of my car. Is it feasible at this time of year to transfer the colony on its frames to a poly national (which will just fit in the car), or is it too cold and too late to disturb...

My B-i-L in the States has been inspired by my enthusiasm for beekeeping and has started looking into beekeeping in Florida, where he lives. Hobby beeks have to be licensed in Florida, and apparently can keep one hive if they have an acre of land, and one more per additional acre. Now I know...

Today was the first time in over a week that I've been able to get up to my hives. One hive was raising itself a new queen in that time and adult numbers have reduced quite dramatically as it was not a particularly strong colony and then they swarmed. Today there was some serious robbing going...

last year I had a hive on brood and a half. This year they are on single brood, but I used some of the shallow combs that had brood in last year in the super above the QE this year, and in those combs, the bees are storing pollen as well as honey. Is this normal instinctive behaviour because...

I have a cedar hive with a deep roof so I intend putting a slab of celotex into the roof. The roof as it is has fillets so the inside top doesn't touch the crown board. So my question is - is that air gap necessary? Do I need to put fillets in so the celotex doesn't touch? Or are the fillets to...

I've just seen this on the American Food & Drugs Administration website: "Added Sugars Are the sugars in a jar of honey or a bag of sugar added sugars? If so, what should the total and added sugars declaration look like? Yes, the sugar in a jar of honey and the sugar in a bag of sugar are...

There is a huge cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) in the copse near my hives and it's in full flower now. It's such a big tree that the flowers are way too high for me to see if the bees work them. Does anyone know if bees gather nectar or pollen from these flowers? I know the fruit and...

In this month's b**craft mag (I won the sub, didn't buy it), it says bees cannot use ivy honey that has crystallised in the combs. My bees were back and forth to ivy all of October and some of November, so in mild panic I gave them a slab of fondant today. They do have crystallised honey in...

I was offered a colony of bees. The beek said he'd do a Bailey comb change first so they were on clean comb as they were on very black old comb. He also put an apigu@rd treatment in between the BB's. He's now on holiday, and the landowner yesterday told me he saw a swarm of bees on 17th, so I...