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This has just come from the BBKA communications person, Ian Campbell: On the 11th of March we received confirmation of an Asian hornet found in a potting shed in Ash, Kent. The finding was around 5 miles from a nest found and destroyed in 2023 near Canterbury, Kent. The details for the early...

The standard advice is to use granulated sugar to feed bees - presumably because there are additives in finer sugars. I have access to a vast quantity of sugar (at no cost other than shovelling it out of 750kg bags) but I can see that it is finer than granulated sugar. Does it matter? Can I...

I've read here that thymol can help control nosema (I forget which one). I've just come across a suggestion that oxalic acid can help control chalkbrood. Is that real, or just a positive consequence of controlling mite numbers? I don't (think I) have chalkbrood in my hives. Maybe I'm not...

Until recently, we used to make a point that honey bees were not numerically endangered and therefore did not need 'saving'. I think we've stopped saying that now because survival on our planet today is difficult for so many insects (and plants, animals, fungi...) I've come to realise that it's...

I would like to be able to read a colony better before I open up a hive. It has that feel of long experience of observing bees. The little booklet by H. Storch is sometimes held up as the ultimate goal in this area. However, Ken Basterfield dismisses it as a work of imagination and wishful...

In his book of poems for every day of the year, Brian Bilston's poem for today is A Quick Dip into Wikipedia. As usual, it brings a smile and is a little delight. Do others here rely on it as much as I do? My wife thinks - without any published source to reference - that Wikipedia is more of a...

I've just found this video I took some time ago. What is going on here? What are these bees doing to the bee clinging to the wall near the entrance? This behaviour had been going on for some minutes before I started to video it. I lost track of the picked on bee when it feel to the ground at...

For various reasons I'm fed up with my warming cabinet as an incubator. I was thinking of an upgrade and spotted this, below. I'm unlikely to have more than 20 cells at a time but this seems to be a good option without too much overkill. Because the final payment for my holiday is due next week...

Anyone here following this? I'm thrilled that Beth Taylor is through to the final on Sunday night, and not just because she's from Glasgow. I was a close friend of her grandfather, and I've known Beth since she was tiny. Her unaccompanied singing as a teenager at her grandfather's funeral was...

Perhaps this should be in What did you do at the apiary today, but as the apiary in this case is an observation hive, and there's not thread for that, I thought I'd share this experience here. The bees have in the hive a few weeks now. They were initially queenless and there was one cell. Only...

Two days ago I introduced a new queen in a cage to a nuc I made up for the purpose. It has plenty brood and nurse bees. I haven't yet removed the fondant plug. Yesterday, I lifted the cage out to see the behaviour of the bees. Immediately they surrounded the cage in large numbers. There didn't...

I've done a bit searching here but couldn't find an answer. A mentee is buying a National nuc colony (all that's available just now) but has an empty Langstroth hive. Any suggestions on how to manage the shift? Feel free to point me to a link if that's quicker.

A friend, who sent me the pictures below, describes what she saw thus: 'No discoloured or distorted larvae but I’m not happy with this. I thought it was sacbrood but now I’m not sure. It’s a strong hive with a good laying rate and no varroa on the board.' Any comments?

A number of my colonies and those I look after have become too defensive and I have to do something. My plan is: buy a queen and keep her in a nuc (I've ordered one from BS Honey Bees.) graft her day 1 larvae and use mini nucs for mating (I already do this and it works for me) when I have mated...

I use a 6.5L slow cooker to reclaim wax. It is in the garden shed. I forgot about it the last time I turned it on. Much later, when I found it, the contents were black and rock hard. With a lot of effort I've been able to reclaim my slow cooker. So I can carry on as before - and will always set...

I've been removing 'nadired' supers - the first season I've done this. Most have empty combs with few bees. But some have brood and lots of bees. So I've put them above the QE and (because I'm worried about the queen being in that box) shaken the bees down into the brood box. All very messy...

Today's BeeCraft, back page. (Dani asked me to post this.) I talked a lot about people on BKF in my 90-minute chat with Richard Rickitt for this feature but none of that stuff appears here. And I did try to get someone from BKF to be the next person featured but left it too late to arrange this...

I am hoping to build a permanent observation hive. I have a 6'x4' shed in the garden which I can use solely for housing the hive. I've painted the interior white and fitted a 4' LED light. I can't find (free) DIY plans on the web. I have Frank Linton's book which describes options but has...

Having got thoroughly fed up with vaping torches that you fill from the bottom with lighter fuel, I looked around to see if there were any torch heads for tins of butane with a nozzle of the right diameter (21mm) for a GasVap. Here's one. I used it a few weeks ago on about 30 hives and it...

'Honey never heated above hive temperature' I've come across this claim from time to time. It's not one I'd be able to make. I usually melt solid honey in buckets at around 45°C. Recently I tried 36°C and nearly a week later the honey was soft but but looked like creamed honey. A few hours...