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Hello Looking for advice please. I have a contract to keep bees on a industrial site. I have about 12 colonies there. They would like to buy a fancy watering system for the bees to stop them going in the adjoining koi ponds. I have said there is little point and sent links of how to make...

I havent had a proper paid job since the end of November, being self employed is tricky, and others in household are not net contributors, so times have been lean. I have been trying to make a bit of money from the bees, as lentils are delicious, but you don't want to eat pulses at every meal...

My colonies by the railway are bringing in bright yellow pollen one their heads and thoraxes. It looks like yellow marker pen. It is bright and doesn't look powdery or silvery - not balsam. What do you think it is?

I wondered what proportion of us will be doing a real Spring clean? Usually at this time of year I replace the floors and crown boards with clean ones that I have scorched. I also start a Bailey frame change as soon as there are 10 frames of bees. Last year I even shook swarmed all the bees...

I am still hoping to get a dog. I would welcome people's advice. We have never had a dog, but do look after my sister's dog for a few weeks a year when she goes on holiday. I love her dog and I loved the previous dogs she had, so perhaps it doesn't matter. There are lots of rescue dogs to...

Why are US beekeepers so keen on these and European beekeepers not? They say they help with mites a mostly are made with vegetable shortening, sugar and essential oils.

I mostly leave the snow on the entrance, but I sometimes try to shelter the entrance so it is clear of snow. What do you do?

Results are in. As we expected, honey yields across the country are down with Northern Ireland being less affected and London being most adversely affected with an average of 5.8 lbs per hive...

Interesting http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19913180

Anyone else hearing these stories? Anyone else got stories to tell? Is 2012 a funny year for queens? Of course lots of newer beekeepers are now panicking because a couple of weeks after their artificial swarm they see no eggs. This is normal, if stressful for them. I have been told of and...

Advice please. Someone asked me to collect as swarm really high up on a building on Monday night. She said it was in the eaves on the outside of a 4 story building at least 60 foot up and that there was no access via the roof or windows. She was a bit desperate, so I said I would look. I...

The talk of bees eating a kilo of stores a week in very cold weather once they have started brooding on the Spring had me worried. I hadn't looked at my overwintered nucs for 3 weeks, but it was a bit warmer yesterday, so I checked them. I was so, so happpy to find them all alive. I'm hoping...

Hello, Courses are now live for booking on our website. A TASTE OFBEEKEEPING £50 March18th, or June 20th or 16th September 2012 AN INTRODUCTION TO BEEKEEPING 2 Day course £150 14-15 April or 19-20 May After the course we endeavour to match all students with a local experienced beekeeper for...

There has not been as much ivy pollen or nectar coming in as previous years, but on all my sites you can see the dark brown nectar and then patches where it is crystalising into white honey, before they even get the chance to cap it. I am still feeding thymolised syrup to the colonies that...

The hives all smell strongly of ivy now and some of them have no more room for extra stores, but a few of them still have, so they got another top up of thymolated syrup. Over the weekend there were a few wasps about, so I still haven't put on the mouse guards. One colony at the allotment was...

I feel sympathetic when my neighbours have foulbrood, but when the seasonal bee inspector rang to say be wanted to look at my bees on the allotment this week, I felt the same feeling as I did when the children brought home the letter from school saying that someone in the class had head lice and...

The allotment bees were super defensive yesterday. I had warned the students and told them to wrap up carefully. One of the colonies was so bad that I ended up having to plunge my head into the stinking water butt again. They are always bad when you take the honey off, but I one colony in...

There are a few beekeepers around here who already have their thymol varroa treatment on and I envy them. The ambient temperature needs to be above 15C for it to work properly, so since you can never guarantee the weather I want to get on with it. My back is sore from moving about brood boxes...

At the wasteground apiary in the 2 colonies that had the fancy queens introduced, the one that survived introduction isn't right. One supersedure cell. Just one, so I left it. There are a lot of bees in the box so I wasn't surprised I didn't see her, but there were hardly any eggs. I wonder...

Saturday we set up the LBKA stall at Brockwell Park at the crack of dawn, then I went off to collect honey jars and then came back to the allotment apiary to meet the students. I had collected 4 laying queens the night before from by buddies who have the fancy breeder queens and I was keen to...