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Giving up beekeeping. After ten years trying to master the dark art of beekeeping, I have had to accept it's not for me. I have three colonies at the end of my garden available together with quite a few spare brood boxes, supers and a couple of varroa floors. Plus two suits (XL and XXL) and...

I recently posted asking about how long it may take for bees to vacate a filled honey super using porter bee escapes. I'm pleased to report, on that occasion, they were all out within 24hrs. Another hive has now produced me a full honey super. I repeated what I had done a couple of weeks...

Can anyone please advise how soon after placing a clearing board beneath my (first) honey-filled super, I should remove the super? How long does it take for the bees to vacate it? Also, if I open up and there are still a few bees inside, what is the next step? Replace and wait? Or something...

I first registered on this site in 2011 when I did my course. Since then, a number of home moves and a loss of colonies have resulted in slow learning. I'm certainly still a novice, even after 10 years! Keep the bees at home now as when they were away it became out of sight, out of mind and I...

Two questions please guys. 1. I have (had) two hives. One (from a swarm last year) is nice and strong. About 6 weeks ago it had swarm queen cells on a super frame. Having read about the process to start a new colony, I decided to have a try. I removed the sealed queen cells along with a couple...

Three colonies. Opened them up for the first time about a month ago to discover two were very active and one had completely disappeared. Where did they go, I wondered? They were coming and going about 3 weeks prior to this but, apart from a few bodies, the hive was empty - and devoid of stores...

I took a long break from keeping bees after my previous colonies were wiped out by wasps, so I consider myself very much a novice. With two captured swarms from last year and a donated colony, I have three colonies to inspect. They're now at the end of the garden where I can keep a closer eye...

Due to a pervious issue with wasps I closed the full entrance of all three of my hives with timber to allow only a small entrance. I purchase some circular disc thins that go over a hole on this timber and can be rotated to create a small entrance. It worked - wasps kept at bay and colonies all...

I inspected my three colonies today. One had a little sealed (and unsealed brood), the other two were devoid of brood but had loads of bees and lots of store (honey and pollen). The bees look very healthy and active and, on sunny days, are still bringing in stores - albeit in lesser quantity...

After some time not keeping bees I find myself the proud carer for three colonies - two swarms and a nuc. All are doing well, the swarms appeared in May and the nuc was donated to me by a kind neighbour a couple of weeks ago. All are very active in today's sunny weather. I've been feeding them...

To cut a long story short, I gave up keeping bees last year. I brought my empty hives home and had a buyer for them. I left them in my garden. Lockdown prevented collection and the sale fell through. Fast forward a few weeks and a swarm moved in. They chose a varroa floor upon which was resting...

My new, young colonies are growing nicely. I had no plan to take honey from them as this is their first year. But I have a question about heather honey. Where I live, welsh sirhowy valley, there is a wealth of wild flowers but now the heather is in flower. How do you tell if the honey being...

See my other threads but.. moved bees home last night. All went very smoothly, three hives, two nucs and one older that is producing a nice honey super. Even 'invented' a means to carry them by strapping them down, inserting lengths of 2x1 planed batten inside the strap and under the roof, and...

New beek. I now have 3 hives, one bought at auction and two from nucs. Put them on our small farm and then suffered the anxst of choosing a bad site where they few right across my daughters all-weather horse arena, result horse stung, me stung, .... bees have to move, and after just a week! Bee...

New beek. I now have 3 hives, one bought at auction and two from nucs. Put them on our small farm and then suffered the anxst of choosing a bad site where they few right across my daughters all-weather horse arena, result horse stung, me stung, .... bees have to move, and after just a week! Bee...

Had the seasonal bee insp visit on monday, very informative and my hives that I have had for a week passed with flying colours. Phew! But.. the spot where I had placed them was not so good a the flight path took them across a footpath and a horse all weather surface. Daughters horse got stung...

Went to help a friend open up his hives today. Hadnt been opened for just over two weeks as hive two was aggresive and gave him several stings, he only having had a t shirt under his suit. Hive 2 today was quiet and a lot more friendly, with 1.5 brood, about 4 frames of sealed brood in the b/box...

New to the world of bees... have just seen that there is a bee equipment auction near me at Hay on Wye It describes lots as including several hundred hives, all inspected by RBI. Does this mean they are going to have bees in them? If so, what is expected at these type of events regarding...