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I'm talking about previous years too. Last year I counted 6 wasp nests and a hornets nest within a few hundred meters of the hives so there would have been far more about. Wasps and hornets all about the garden, but no problem with the hives. I know from here some people seem to have no end of...

What was the answer again? I often wonder with such threads if I live in an area that is very different to most. OK, I've only been keeping bees for about 5 years but each season has been very different. One the bees stuffed their hives with ivy and still had plenty left in spring but last...

I get this quite a bit in some of my hives, thought it was normal. The colonies have been fine, young queen in full lay, plenty of room etc. Seems to happen more form in a poly hive.

Possibly saw a bee and a cell with common mallow pollen today, is it really bright pinky purple? It almost looked artificial.

I assumed one of my colonies had superseded late last year as I noted the queen was different in my first inspection of the year. I've inspected it regularly and either seen a queen or eggs. I've not done a thorough inspect until today due to the weather. Today I went through it and found two...

Unfortunately they can be just as useless right up to the director and the councillor may not be any help unless they get something out of the situation. Just be careful they don't suddenly do something daft and take action against someone's hives or something else stupid. Is it worth speaking...

My point is that this spring has been very hard to read and get right. I added an extra brood box on one as they needed it but that was just before May when the weather turned. I could not really predict 3 solid weeks of rain, frost and 70mph winds - even with a few years experience down here...

Whilst I agree with that, it's been hard to get the timing right this year with the extreme weather we've had. I got the timing of adding supers in April right, but then the cold hit and the bees ate all their stored food. I was mulling over removing them and giving some food but took a gamble...

Has anyone had much problem with recent orders from Simon the Beekeeper? We placed an order for 6 different items and when it arrived there were problems with 4. Wrong tool sent, wrong clothing sent. Most concerning was the Api Life Var having an expiry date of this month so useless. Previous...

I would agree with the comments about cover crops, they have all sorts of radish in. Triticium turgidum, caught my eye. I didn't know honey bees frequented wheats, is this common?

That's what it sounds like, a hover fly, Helophilus pendulus? Mating and going to lay eggs in the pond. I like its transaltion - "dangling marsh-lover" If you go to this page and search for Helophilus there's some others: Hoverflies | NatureSpot

I would also add make sure you have a few decent water sources away from your neighbour. Our bees make a very obvious bee line to our pond to collect water and if I don't remember they often fly into me, I wouldn't want this to happen to a neighbour be they grumpy or otherwise.

Thanks for that, very interesting.

I use the pro Ultrasafe Violet long cuff nitrile gloves. A good thickness and the last multiple uses. I normally double glove as the bees can get through them (and marigolds). They don't rip and when I'm finished with them they are used as a disposable glove when working on machinery etc. As...

I have supers from various sources and the Thorne's normal price supers are the only ones to have a slot cut in for castellations to be inserted. Their budget ones don't.

Those that have bad problems with wasps are your bees very calm? We get loads of wasps and native hornets but don't seem to suffer any problems so far. My bees aren't bad but can be a bit grumpy when inspected and I wonder if they are more likely to defend themselves? I often run without an...

This is something we thought about before getting honey bees. We spend a fair bit of time looking around and never saw any honey bees but wondered if they'd out compete the bumbles, solitary bees etc. Now we have a few colonies we tend to see the honey bees on different plants than bumbles, as...

As has been said, it is hard to stop it rooting. I've used goat willow for sticks and stakes around the garden and they've rooted. If you're really keen to get good results I gather the best time is late Autumn, so they can use the moist winter to root, but Nov to April is normally fine. I've...

I'm in a cool part of Devon and half of my hives had drones flying outside yesterday.

Who's laughing? I'm aware of Salix caprea hybridising that's why I also included grey willow in my list. My plants could be goat, grey or a hybrid. I've grown hundreds of cuttings, with hardly any failures here and in the UK it seems to be common to root them from cuttings. I also own a few...