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On my last few inspections I have noticed that there seem to be "drone collecting areas" within the hives. So far the common factor has been a partially filled stores frame, which by the nature of it is towards the outer edge of the box. Almost only drone bees - and not many drones on the other...

Just started to extract my last few frames - and found some red nectar stored. It is quite dark, and not in all cells. Unfortunately I had not seen it before it was extracted and so 2 frames worth of honey is now in my extractor and dark toffee coloured. Is this likely to be honeydew or would...

This isn't a question on what goes on the label - but how the label goes on the jar :-) How to you make sure the label is 'level' and the same on all jars? When I was giving away the odd jarful - it didn't matter whether they were all the same or not - but now my local village shop has offered...

I know this should not really be a problem - but the reason for me getting bees in the first place was not to sell honey. I wanted a small 'rent' from them, for my family, but not the near 30kg I have got so far this year. What is the best way to sell these very small amounts? I have proper...

We've just been listening to one of the hives - there seems to be a piping noise than an 'answer' what do we do? :-)

I am trying to establish the level of verroa infestation - there are usually no verroa on the (solid) floors of the hive. I do NOT take this as an indication that they are not there! The bees keep the floors spotless - no cappings, bits of bee etc to be seen, but it does mean I have nothing to...

What is the trigger for the bees to cap the stores? I had assumed that they capped it when it got to the correct water content, but having taken capped honey showing 19-20% water, and uncapped at less than17% this has lead me to question my assumption.

I quite often listen to the noises in the hives - and I am amazed at the volume of the scratchy/scrabbling noises I can usually hear. What are they doing that makes such a noise? :) I have also heard a queen piping, and we were so intruiged listening to her, that we didn't take on board the...

Hi, We re-housed a swarm, and put a Queen excluder under the brood box to encourage them to stay :-) How soon should we remove it?

My friends child (nearly 3) is fascinated by the bees (we have 2 hives in the garden, one by the sun-lounge so thay are quite close) So - how soon do people introduce children 'up-close' - and how small a bee suit can I get? :) Once started, I would hope to keep his interest, so are there any...

Hi - This is my first season - and I was expecting the number of bees in the colony to be reducing by now - I know my area is late to stop foraging as we have heather and ivy, but the main colony has 2 supers on and is packed full of bees except for a few of the outer frames on the supers. The...

what are they up to here? killing something? but what ? It can't be very big! piccy 1 piccy2 When I got home from work thre were about 30 bees (all workers) on the landing platform, and then about half an hour later they were like this - several bees deep! There are a few foragers still...

Hi, When I inspected this evening, the queen is laying on all but the outer frames, with loads of capped brood and larvae on the rest of the frames. (And some stores on brood frames and in supers) In what circumstances would you a) add a brood box or b)split the colony? I'm sure there are...

Hi - I'm new to bee keeping, and would like some advice on what my bees were doing this evening: Around 8pm they were flying in and out as normal - but by about 9pm, there seemed to be a row of guards spaced out along the hive entrance, with a further row of bees lined up behind - seemingly...