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Dear Florence It's a very long time since I last visited the forum, so apologies that I have just seen your post today. Please let me know if you are still interested. Best wishes Ian

Mentorship Hi Chris I will send you a private message (under 'USER CP', then 'Private Messages'), so that you have my email address. Regards Ian

Mentorship Hi paul Sorry to be so slow replying - I just checked yesterday after a long period. I have also sent you a private message (I hope). Cheers! Ian

Mentoring Thanks Martin I sent a private message last night - (I hope!) Best wishes Ian

I am looking for an assistant to help with 15 colonies in South-East London. I am a Master Beekeeper with 15 years experience. This would suit someone new to beekeeping who wants to practice first. In return I would be willing to provide help with starting up (including bees) and a share in the...

whether this is more, or less, than the number owned by the average newbee like me? The average human has 85,000,000,000 so nearly 100, 000 times the number in a bee. What is interesting about the bee, is how much it can do with what it has, e.g. memory and learning. For example, in electronic...

The bee has a remarkable range of abilities. The brain has just under a million neurones, more than most other insects. There is a lot of academic interest in bee brains (eg Free University, Berlin have mapped the bee brain extensively). Part of this interest is because it is conceivable that...

Recent evidence has added to our understanding of the range of functions of the bee mandibles. 2-Heptanone can be injected during biting, and causes temporary paralysis. This video describes the mandibles and mandibular glands.

Finman, what insulation is used by Finnish beekeepers? When you say that with insulation the colonies last nine months - is that just an issue of how long the stores last? Can cold kill a colony, for example if it has too much brood already? I am still holding out for any scientific evidence...

Thanks DerekM and Hivemaker. I would appreciate some further information on natural heat loss, if it is easy to post.

Thanks for your replies. I think that the replies so far illustrate the difference in views. The standard text books do not recommend insulation (that I have read); and clearly the practice of different beekeepers varies. Hence my question - does anyone know if this has really been tested...

Does anyone know of any good evidence about insulating hives in Winter? By good evidence, I mean something like a comparison between two methods. Although most seasoned beekeepers don't use any insulation, there does some to be some variation in practice. By insulation I was thinking of anything...

The gadget I described above lifts the hive clean off the stand, so is an accurate absolute weight. However the horizontal beam acts as a lever, so only about a third of the hive's actual weight has to be lifted, and that is by the back, so is not much of an issue. (A picture would probably be...

I have huge respect for Finman, so would generally give him the last word. However I do use a homemade gadget myself, which I have found useful. It has two legs, about six foot long, joined in an 'A' shape at the top, with a four foot horizontal bar hinged to the joint. The legs are stood in...

There are many factors in yields. There are far fewer honeybees (I believe) than there were in the 1950s

I'm not convinced that there are too many bees in London, although it would be quite hard to prove either way. I think that the idea of a saturation point for bees has been debated for over a hunderd years (Langstroth talked about it). I certainly don't see too many on forage plants near me.

The culprit! - See the poor bee in the post below

These are a couple of bees from my colonies, to illustrate the effect of varroa. The lower one probably has Deformed Wing Virus (I would think)

I am attaching a video about the internal organ changes during metamorphosis

I am attaching (I hope!) a link to a video about the anatomy, both external and internal of the bee antennae