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I use Hive Heart - produced in Europe - have the heart in the hive (temp, humidity and frequency of bees song) and the scales which measure the total weight of hive (scales sit on the stand, hive on the scales) U.K. supplier...

Put queen excluders on and a super - bees needed space and from opening the crown board they had built a load of brace comb filled with nectar being converted, have spent last few weeks building wax comb above crownboard in space for fondant tubs, and a friends beehive where she left a super on...

Weight of hive in Kent in increasing for last few days (peak is evening when all foragers back and then reduces as water driven off) - has seen a small increase for last few days despite wet weather - so colonies are able to support themselves with more coming in than being used.

Same as W0otz (not surprising as only a few miles apart) - girls are coming back with full pollen baskets, best advice is have a look at your bees on a busy day - are they bringing back pollen? If you can’t see any returning but loads of bees out foraging then may be worth considering adding...

Might be a touch over budget but I got a Thornes UniMel electric extractor - good price and really pleased with it. https://www.thorne.co.uk/processing/extraction/extractors/budget-extractors/electric-unimel-tangential-3-frame-s-s-extractor.html I’m also looking at maxing out at 6 hives, and I...

Poly NUCs seem to not be touching their fondant - main hives despite 20-25kg of Heavy Syrup in August and September all 3 14 x 12 hives have consumed 1-2kg of fondant already with bees clustered at top. Think with the very mild weather down south, colony size has been kept large without the...

I’ve found the longer I leave it churning the paper it gets - having accidentally heated mine to 32c took a extra 99 hour run but now jarred.

Bees going mad (both Honeybees and Bumbles) for Mahonia × media yesterday when checking the out apiary.

You don’t have to fill them completely - I initially filled with 5kg of honey and added a single jar of seed - so works well as long as the paddles can move the honey in the base. Cleaning - not done that yet 🤣 however I would imagine the easiest is add soapy warm water and let it stir, drain...

Sorry bad wording - the honey I extracted in August, although W00tz did get some lovely Ivy honey which has quite a nice flavour.

The wide lip works quite well with a 27l gates bucket - with smaller non-gated buckets it’s tip it up and pour, recommend grab a honey scraper from Abelo, makes it much easier. Emptied these 3 buckets at lunch (all were pretty much full to the brim)

I picked the Abelo (Lyson) 50l creamer/decrystaliser at the National Honey Show - so far used to melt crystallised spring honey, which is now being creamed (added a jar of creamed honey from the show entries) and will use as a big lot of seed for the next lot which will be my remaining 40kg of...

I use Hive Heart and Scales on my two hives - that gives me both the internal and external temperatures, weight of hive, frequency and amplitude of noise within the hive. I get readings from my mobile (hives in back garden) but can get a GSM sender...

With swarm control and artificial splits next spring will likely be upto 4 (unless your looking to merge) - the year after 8, then 16… this year went in with 2 (1 hive and 1 overwintered nuc) - due to some bizarre swarm behaviour in the main hive and agreeing to give a nuc to 2 fellow beginners...

Have you contacted the Dover Bee Keeping Association?

Marked 5 queens as absolute beginner - used the one handed which worked well - the slots meant the queen aligned so easy to mark thorax - used pens but dabbed on glove first so only a little put of liquid on nib - better to light touch a few times than flood in one I thought.

It was - lovely drive through some stunning scenery, really enjoyed it.

Well collected my Welsh bees from Ceri today (300 miles there yesterday 300 back today) - settling in nicely and orientation at 18:00 today

If it’s psychosomatic I’m still happy - got last week on finger while marking queens, normally fingers swell up and then onto back of hand - very slight swelling at sting site but no other. Whatever the cause - it’s a lot better than previous stings.

Yes - all calm once again and the girls are starting to head to their permanent homes (or building up ready to do so) - helps as can recognise what went wrong (always mark your queen before winterising hive is one lesson) and double check when knocking down that you haven’t got any remaining...