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You're absolutely right. I do have my own ideas. You have no desire to help. So if you have better things to do please do not waste your precious time making pointless comments. If you ever have something positive and constructive to say then I will gladly read carefully and learn from those...

Then make a case instead of just posting a sarky comment. You certainly know more than I do about keeping bees but all you offer is a put down rather than any helpful advice or suggestions. Which frankly is about as much use as farting in a gale.

I mostly give things away. So far this year I have given three nucs to people starting out. Last year I did sell some honey but it all went to charity.

Having said how lousy the weather is which doesn't help moving to a new rural location so everything is different.....when I went through them in the cold it was apparent they were piling in honey. In my last place I had nothing until late summer so I'm not used to extracting in spring. But...

Erm ..no and no. Whatever gave you that idea? Am I not at liberty to try it and see if it works for me?

This is what is driving me nuts. And the forecast for the next week is only just reaching double figures.

A Bailey was the preferred method. The amount of honey for me isn't the main thing. It's more the bees I'm enjoying.

That indeed is the plan, however, as they say, no plan survives contact with the enemy!

I started with double brood but this year I've had all sorts of fun and games with early swarming and superceded. There was an article I read recently about sticking with single brood nationals so long as you do a complete comb change every year. I'm going to try that and see how it works for...

I had to do an inspection today even though the weather was a bit chilly. One colony was looking to swarm last week so needed to make sure the measures taken had worked. Another went and superceded the queen so needed to check them as well (founds eggs but couldn't spot the new queen). They are...

We moved house in March and now live in a rural location - the bees have a fruit garden overlooking a field and a stream with the nearest house half a mile up the hill. All very lovely. What I hadn't bargained on was how totally different everything is in this new location. There is one field...

For what it's worth - I've offered foundationless frames with no starter strip at all and found the bees seem to prefer them. I have noticed that those which I fit with wire sometimes have areas where the queen doesn't lay (ie along the run of the wire) but if I use heavy duty nylon fishing line...

We are moving house so last night I put the three hives and two nucs into a van and transported them to our new place. I left them sealed overnight and went back this morning to open them up. The weather has changed for the cooler so they weren't too quick to emerge but by midday there were...

I had one colony the year before last that did something similar. I'd given up on them and just put them to one side to live out their days into the autumn. Then towards October I noticed there were still bees going in and out - looked and found a nice queen laying beautifully. I nursed them...

I had two colonies last year that stored fondant. This year I’ve fed less and they’ve only just started needing some homemade fondant. The weird thing is that I had one hive which due to work commitments last summer I left with a whole brood box of honey on top. They are the ones now the...

I opened one of my hives which had formed a supercedure cell at the end of July. I was rather surprised to find a new queen sat right on top of one of the frames - so surprised she scuttled down before I could reach for my marking kit. Could I then find her again? - Of course not! But I did...

Can't be - I don't have any.

I agree - that's how mine have been and they do just fine over the winter. If I need to renew frames I remove the lower BB early in the spring when it's empty of bees and brood.

I have poly and cedar hives - both work fine over the winter if you simply put an empty super on top containing some form of insulation. I use a couple of old towels with a foam layer on top of them - then put the roof on top of that. No need to go adding anything around the brood boxes like...

Up to this year I have been using a tangential extractor which I found tended to damage the comb if I span it fast enough to extract all the honey. I suspect that meant I was leaving a fair amount of honey in the frames. I store the supers wet in the garden and even though they were sealed they...