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Some worrying trends: Could this be a side effect of the covid pandemic? eg beekeepers not visiting colonies so often as they used to or whatever.

... winter solstice everyone.

I arrived at my out apiary this morning to find one of my Demareed hives swarming. They settled on a dock plant ~ 20 m from the hive so are now safely in a nuc. They were Demareed ~ 3 weeks ago. I last inspected them on Saturday 22nd May and there were no swarm preps, just the expected QCs in...

A bunch of QCs emerged in my incubator yesterday evening / overnight. I've fed (honey) and watered them and would normally get them into mating nucs asap. However it's pouring down and cold out today, so hesitating to do it. How long can I leave putting the VQs into mating nucs?

I didn't realise it was in doubt. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-radar-tracking-uncovers-mystery-honeybee.html

World Bee Day 24 hr sale tomorrow. 10 % off everything.

Can't believe I'm posting this in mid May, but I'm feeding a few colonies that have zero stores and wondered if anyone has spotted any good sugar deals?

Of those members that do cut outs, do you charge for the service? If so how much? I did my first one (and possibly the last) on Tuesday. The nest was in the attic room sloping ceiling of a 17th century farmhouse, between the sloping ceiling plasterboard and the roof sarkin felt with slates...

I just received this message from our BKA: Three hives of bees were stolen from Clonter Opera Farm near Congleton sometime between 23rd January and 14th February (most likely between 7th and 14th Feb.). Obviously beekeepers need to be alert that unscrupulous bee-dealers are operating in the...

On Sunday I noticed a small hole in the roof of one of my nucs. The hole doesn't go all the way through the poly, but it's not far off. Diameter is only ~5 mm. (The stippled circle next to it is ~7 mm diameter.) Could this have been done by a bird?

Just listened/watched David Evans deliver his varroa talk on Zoom. Great speaker and very interesting talk, particularly around the data that shows why it's important to treat sooner rather than later (autumn treatment) and with the correct miticide.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90565797/this-honey-is-real-but-it-wasnt-made-by-bees Presumably they won't be allowed to call it 'Honey' in the UK as the regs stipulate that honey must be made by bees.

According to The Honey Regulations 2015 honey is defined as: I'm guessing (perhaps incorrectly) that Chinese honey is produced by Apis cerana and not Apis mellifera bees. If that is the case, can Chinese honey be labelled legally as "honey" in the UK?

There were sugar shortages in supermarkets earlier in the pandemic which may have eased now and someone (Karol?) warned of possible sugar shortages due to covid in producer countries (Brazil I think) so I thought I would check prices and possibly get some in now ready for autumn feeding...

Inspected a nuc my out apiary today. This is a AS nuc containing the original queen. Until recently I have been bleeding off frames of sealed brood into the original hive, but the new queen is now laying well so now they have built up and are ready to be re-hived. Strong nuc, brood on 5...

I collected a swarm yesterday evening. It was almost dark when I got home so I left them in my garage last night in the large cardboard box I used to collect them. I popped them into a Maisies nuc this morning ~ 9 AM. They settled down and all seemed fine after ~ 30 minutes. They are...

I had a call on Tuesday to a swarm in a pear tree. It was too high for me to reach - would have needed a scaffold tower or an exceptionally long swarm capture device. I set up two bait hives and left them. Today I had a text message saying that one of the bait hives was in use, so I drove...

Just unpacked my new Lyson extractor and now I'm trying to dismantle it for cleaning. To get the frame basket out it's necessary first to remove the large pulley. The pulley is fixed to the shaft by an Allen bolt that passes through a nut. I haven't been able to loosen the Allen bolt. I...

I introduced a home-grown laying queen to what was my q- cell starter colony. I left the plastic tab of the butler cage intact for a couple of days, then it took them over a week to release her (my home made fondant is a little hard I think). The new queen is still present and walking the...

I just checked one of my colonies that was re-queened last week. The bees had released her so I checked quickly for eggs. Didn't see any eggs so had a longer look through to find the marked queen. I was just about to give it up when I spotted her - the blue marking had almost worn away...