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I had an empty hive, lost to a swarm last year, with drawn brood box and a half full super, that I'd been meaning to tidy away for ages now. Luckily, or perhaps not, a new swarm has moved in and made themselves at home. I'm guessing that there is no risk of them swarming away, so I plan to...

I had a pretty poor last year; lost one of my two colonies, and let the other swarm. For various reasons, I did very little around the hives, my inspections were not frequent enough, and everything is in a bit of a mess. I hope to do better from now on, and want to start afresh. I plan to do a...

I found a swarm in my hedge while I was cutting my grass this afternoon. I reckon it's a swarm from my own hive as it was so close, and my inspection showed a sealed Q cell last week. If I'm lucky, I've got my own bees back. They're currently in a cardboard nuc box on the floor. The Q seems...

If all goes well, it looks like my single colony has made it through the winter. I feel very exposed, having just the one colony, so I want to split this one, and go back to two (one didn't make it through winter last year). Obviously it depends on weather etc, but when should I start to think...

I've left a super on my NS hive for the bees to feed from over Winter. I understand that I should remove the QE, but won't this mean that the Q will start to lay brood in the super in the Spring? I want to keep things simple, while I gain experience, so would only want to be working with brood...

I'm going to do my first extraction and jar filling soon. What is the base level of kit that you'd recommend? I only have one hive at the moment, with two full supers and one new empty super. I hope to get back to two hives next year, and don't plan to go over that. My thinking is that I need...

I didn't put the roof on straight today after an inspection. :hairpull: I wandered past the hive this evening, expecting all to be quite, but it was mayhem. There were bees trying to get in through the roof, through the OMF, and through the front door. I fixed the roof and reduced the entrance...

I know this is a "how long is a piece of string" question, but is there a rough guide to how long it takes a colony to fill a super? I'm going to put the first one on each of my two this week, and wondered how long I have to make up the second, third etc. Is it days or weeks? I know weather...

I have two hives, about 5 feet apart. Both were new last year from nucs. One of them is now really active, with lots of pollen going in, there is lot of biscuit coloured debris on the floor below. The other, while active, is very quiet in comparison. Where the first hive has several bees...

The temperature is supposed to be in low-mid teens round here this weekend. The bees have been active from my two hives during much lower temperatures, snow apart, lately. Do you think I could, or should, do the first proper inspection of the year now, or is it still too soon? If it's too...

Both my hives were quite active today, which is both a huge relief and a wonderful sight to see. Plenty of pollen being taken in. Do I still need to keep checking stores, or is that it now, as the bees are looking after themselves? I guess I should keep checking as the weather may turn cold...

Hello all, I'm new to this forum and new, since July 2017, to keeping bees. I have two colonies, set up from nucs in July 2017, that I am trying to look after. Late December, I checked their supplies, and with little experience, the hefting felt ok, but I was terrified of starvation, I gave...