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I have been keeping bees for 7 years now. I have 6 hives but more colonies all in my garden. When I started out I read with interest various views on why you should not keep bees in your garden. I have to say that in many ways it is a far more satisfying experience as you can see as many times a...

AS the weather was good this afternoon I had a very quick look in my 5 double national hives. I pulled a few frames from the top box only to check that all was ok. 4 out of 5 had multiple brood frames, the 5th only having 2, and one had at least 8 frames of brood on them. This colony had 2...

I opened up a normally mild hive last Saturday. I took the supers off - "hmm they are a bit feisty today" I split the BB's and was in the process of moving the top one when they came at me en masse like the charge of the light brigade with multiple stings in seconds. I quickly retreated to...

I came home from work and had a quick glance at my hives. One had a pile of dead bees outside. On suiting up I discovered these were in fact a pile of dopey drones that had been expelled from one hive. A quick peek in the hive and all looked well. I took off the Spring crop on Saturday but left...

I came home from work and had a quick glance at my hives. One had a pile of dead bees outside. On suiting up I discovered these were in fact a pile of dopey drones that had been expelled from one hive. A quick peek in the hive and all looked well. I took off the Spring crop on Saturday but left...

I had a hive where the queen failed mid summer so I combined with another with a young laying queen. All went well until September 7 when I noticed some supersedure cells. Assuming the bees know best I let them get on with it. My concern is that since then I have seen no eggs. I assumed that she...

Earlier this season I placed an empty BB above the existing one and moved my strongest colony to double brood. it is now going great guns with 16 frames of brood. Thinking afterwards that I should have placed it below, that is what I did with another colony. On checking that colony today, the...

Despite reading an earlier post on how difficult it is to establsih a wild flower meadow, I have 500 plug plants waiting to be planted to form the basis of a wfm. My question for more experienced gardners is this - I have had these plug plants for 2 days already yet I am reluctant to plant them...

Knowing that I have sufficient experience to get in and out in under 2 minutes, and with the temperatures in the South so warm today, I decided to follow a recent post and remove 1 frame, push the others and pull out a frame or 2 in seconds to have a quick check.; I have 4 colonies and 1 NUC all...

:hairpull::hairpull::hairpull:For the past few days my hives have been surrounded by 6 inches of snow and the weather has been overcast. This afternoon we had about 30 minutes of sunshine and I was amazed at how many bees ventured out and perished in the snow, dotting it with their dead bodies...

I have a 6 frame poly NUC from you know who and it is my first time looking to bring a NUC through winter. My concern is that although I ensured that it was rammed full of stores before winter closure the colony seems to be racing through them. A couple of weeks back on a warmish day I opened up...

My local farmer planted acres of OSR right next to me this year and I was looking forwards to a bumper harvest and fun and games with swarmy bees. I learned today that the crop had totally failed, along with other farmers in Surrey. Appartently weather related but he will now have to plant oats...

These chaps visited the garden daily in South West France earlier this week. Des anyone know what this is ?

I had 4 hives in excellent condition all with 2011 queens going into winter. All came out well but since emerging from winter 3 Queens have failed and are currently being superseded. I am wondering why this might be and was thinking it could possibly be due to the Queens not mating well last...

I have read the books and understand the theory but I am wondering about reality. Last year I had OSR less than 100m from my hives. This year the OSR will be a mile or so away. Given my learning experience last year with OSR and quite how "active" (swarmy) my bees became, my question is does...

I have 4 hives in my garden and try to provide a good environment. I have planted over 50 lavender bushes, countless spring bulbs etc but I wonder whether any of this makes much difference to the honey bees. The lavenders are very popular with bumble bees (which is fine by me) but rarely have I...

There seems a huge variation in terms of when people stop inspecting in the Autumn. My feeling is that if the weather is still warm and the ivy out then I am going to carry on having a look. It lets me see what stores they really have and allows a check for any amiss. Last year I did my last...

Checked my 4 hives this morning. It is apparent that one has a queen who is not as proloific as the rest despite being a new queen. This colony had 2 supercedure cells - one charged and one not. My question is why the bees are looking to supercede when there is no hope of the new queen mating...

I am a year 2 beekeeper who has had a very, very eventful second year although 116lbs of honey is a nice reward. I keep extensive records including a section for lessons which I thought that I would share. • It is the numbers of frames of brood that counts – 8 in a national is a crowd as I found...

I recently bought a new book from the USA - A Beekeepers Lament. I was not certain that this would be worth the read as it pictures the life of a major US Bee farmer and I doubted that I would learn anything that I had not seen on the various documentaries re Colony Collapse Disorder. The book...