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Jenkins are you this rude face to face? I have a lot to learn but two years back I made the decision to learn none of it from you, because of your uncivil tone on this site time and again. I was taught by a genuine expert to expect a supercedure cell usually central on a frame. The twice - just...

First full inspection of the two colonies that have overwintered in huge number, one double brood the other double-and-a-half [why I did that in the Autumn escapes me this minute, it will be in my notes.] Today I introduced the QE below the 'super' which does have brood but not too much, and no...

Al this is proving to be an extraordinary beginning to the season on all fronts. Yes this is very early indeed for swarming but with there being the sealed cell and even just one other QC with a larva that I would say is swarm activity rather than supercedure. The position of the cells suggests...

First dandelion pollen coming in today. Not that I've seen dandelions out but clearly the bees have. Second pic with dandelion, willow, and I don't know the white. Blackthorn?

I love the thread! Nicely Gordon! Nobody yet has mentioned the most searing expense, perhaps because you don't yet have bees: the sting … Hey, how about you leave off buying bees and collect yourself a swarm come May or June? That's £240 worth of bees for free if they're a primary, and it's...

No hum for me except when I'm at the hives. No not once. Is six years not long enough yet for it to bed in??? Mind I have visual replay quite a lot. Especially after watching a queen on the comb and she mesmerises me. That clip will play over and over.

Gorgeous sunshine in North East England most of the day! Veritable motorways of forage flights going in three directions. Wonderful to behold. First full inspection, my smallest colony and oldest queen [2016]. I had no smoke but I know these bees and no aggression from me lifting out the frames...

Willow pollen coming home

Timing of removal of insulation: Thank you guys for prompting me to consider if removal of insulation yesterday was too soon. I've been working on the notion that the insulation is essentially for the period of the winter cluster. I have had rapid build up of brood doing this so far with my...

At last, calm air! By 11am a great deal of flying and mustard-yellow pollen brought home. Gorse and Willow around here in quantity. Lots of dancing bees too which I hope are the first of this season's generations. I had decided it was time for a good tub-full of syrup in a rapid feeder rather...

Visited my apiary at 12noon not to do anything but to observe if there was activity on this day of glorious sunshine in the North East and yet breezy with temperatures reaching only 8c according to the local BBC weather. Many bees dancing and resting on the warm wood of sunned fronts, but more...

Well thank you gents for putting me right. One of my colonies had a bad experience with my trickling the first time I did it, that's all I'm going on. I'm reassured to hear that vaping is safer.

So 48 hours after this first fondant feed of the season, I discovered today that three colonies had hardly touched what I had supplied, and a fourth colony had gobbled the lot. Strangely I was glad that one colony had eaten it all, as it's evidence that the recipe I had found is ok. They got...

Putting something that kills little mites into a colony of small insects has to be regarded as a 'necessary evil' for the bees. The fact that an overdose of the stuff will kill bees too is enough evidence to me that vaping is a challenge to the wellbeing of bees.

I'm impressed mate.

Oh I had my angry queen for a season! wow were they trouble, but 80lb later from that one hive I wasn't complaining too much. That was the 2017 season and then she and her brood got killed off by the Beast from the East so I didn't need to make the decision to take her out or not last season...

Another and rather different kind of 'plan for the season': The lady of the big house where I have established my new apiary, the lady who is a professional garden designer and has been planting her own gardens for pollinators for years - she has been sending me links to the claimed "gentler way...

We all have different approaches. Mine verges on the 'leave well alone' end of the spectrum. I am surprised you have done more than one vape on a critically small colony. OK it gets the varroa but vaping is a serious challenge to the bees too. Beyond a judgement as to whether they need fondant...

Re Fondant. I made my own yesterday, to the Edinburgh association recipe. Is that crazy? I'll see tomorrow if they have wanted to eat it.

You've reminded me mate: the only time I speak to a worker is when she has stung me. And I apologise to her in her dying agony. In my book every sting on a beekeeper is the beekeepers fault. Sorry if I'm taking 'the moral high ground' here! But it's the way I feel about it. I know - romantic...