Thanks all, I think her rescue was more due to luck than any quick thinking but it is so nice to have something possibly going right for a change. It has very much been a baptism of fire this year, but has me interested for what's to come ;)
Just went into the hive to add feed and it looks like my requeening was a success after all :D
We thought the bees had killed her because we were inspecting the hive as she came out and the other bees started balling her, so we had a frantic few minutes recatching her, re-sealing the cage and...
Fed swarm and old hive. Looks like requeening was successful on the old hive because the queen is alive and there are eggs and lovely capped worker brood :D
Only trouble I can think of is that if they are going to just have a covert apiary, they may be able to do so regardless (unless all apiary sites have to have a huge neon sign above them as well - so if there is no sign but there are bees going back & forth there may be an illegal hive there...
I can appreciate why he'd want easy access with his (probably massively) increased workload, but should my local inspector ask for this I would have to respectfully decline as that would involve leaving areas available for the local ratbags to get into, where they may not be seen doing...
How wonderful :D
I don't travel far for work, so wouldn't be much help :( But another option is rather than someone necessarily taking it the full distance we could work out a chain system if we need to.
I'll be at Ragley Hall (Alcester in the Midlands) on 2nd August, so could get from there...
That's the one. It was ruled that if it goes hard when stale it's a cake (so VAT free, though it always confused me as to why there is VAT on biscuits but not cakes).
Did he give you a receipt stating VAT value paid on it? If so, I'm not sure but trading standards and HMRC might be interested in knowing about it if he hasn't passed it on (I might be wrong but think they'd class it as fraud and that may slow his 'business' operations in future if so:reddevil:)
One hive still makes an apiary :D
(from Latin apiarium "beehouse, beehive," neut. of apiarius "of bees," from apis "bee," a mystery word unrelated to any similar words in other I.E. languages. Got curious enough to check the etymology)
:iagree: Lovely hive and good luck with it all :D (don't forget though that like most addictions you will possibly end up spending more than you intended, but unlike a lot of addictions this may make you some of the money spent back :biggrinjester:)
I have to say that purely from a consumer viewpoint I am far more likely to buy something from a market or farm shop that shouts locally made to me, so tend to veer away from what looks to be the usual type of labels found in supermarkets (which I think the usually available ones unfortunately...
Another newbie here. Definitely been a year of steep learning curves for me & I'll be grateful to have a hive that goes through winter, having honey is a definite no-no for me (which I realised about a week after getting bees when the weather was so atrocious and a few weeks later when I...