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Dear all, I read Snelgrove's book over the Christmas holidays and now the swarming season is upon us I am trying to work out my plans for artificial swarming. Basically the Snelgrove method is a vertical artificial swarm where you find the queen and move her over with the flying bees to a new...

As I have had some problems with aggressive bees this year I am going to re queen in the spring, when, hopefully, the numbers in the hive are lower. Given that the bees are aggressive what is the best way to requeen with the least amount of manipulations? At the moment splitting the hive into...

I plan on Requeening in the spring, my highest priority is calm docile bees at all times, my second is to have succeeding generations carry on these traits (hopefully) Thus I believe I should be looking for a Carnolian or Italian Queen but which is likely to be calmer and to have dominant calm...

Is there a website/page or a book or a thread here that can tell you what all the things are or help you identify all the bits that have fallen on to the Varroa board along with any varroa?

It has been suggested I get a thick fabric bee suit - who makes the suits with the thickest / densest fabric?

As you can see from the other posts I am having a few troubles at present. I am a second year bee keeper with two hives that I spilt from one rapidly growing Nuc last year. I even got them both through the winter having got 16lbs of honey off them. I have learnt to love beekeeping, it keeps my...

This weekend I managed only to get my clearer boards (porter bee escapes) on, but not the supers off the next day. I find it very difficult to find time to do an inspection two days running to get clearer boards on and then supers off the next day. When I get back to the bees next week - if I am...

I have heard of and am trying, using sugar water spray to try and calm bees whilst it can push them down I wonder does it encourage robbing? Is it better to use just a water spray.

When inspecting I regularly get between 1 and 5 bees vociferously 'ping' at my head. My reply to this has been to move away and vigorously smoke them and myself moving away again when the bee(s) have moved back for another run up, so to speak, check they haven't found me and the return by a...

Last week I discovered the queenless hive had not managed to raise a queen from the queen calls they had so this week I was going to add a frame of eggs. However I found a sealed queen cell (and eggs) in the donor hive. So I moved the frame with the queen cell to to the AS hive. Did I do the...

Hello, Having just completed an AS I thought I ought to check all was well. On checking the queen cell left for re queening I saw that the lava was a dark brown colour - all the pictures I have ever seen have white larvae. Is there something wrong? (sorry I am not adept enough or prepared...

Hi all, When are the bees least likely to be in the fondant at the top of the hive? I have mine over the feed hole in the CB and have noted it has nearly all gone - thus I need to change it but preferably when I will disturb as few bees as possible. TIA

Keeping bee hives indoors seems like a good idea, I wonder at the practicalities. What method of swarm control is used? what happens to the bees that escape inside the shed? is there a bee escape next to the window?

I should have at least 2 plots to plant approx 10m x 3m on the allotment for nectar for my bees. The soil is generally heavy clay. I intend to rotavate the plots before planting but they are likely to be quite weedy! Can anyone recommend plants that would provide a good nectar crop, out...

Having looked at the recipes for fondant here I note Northants Beekeepers have given the recipe as 4 parts sugar to 1 part water and a teaspoon of vinegar - is vinegar a good substitute for glucose syrup?

Is Bakers fondant the same as fondant Icing? Can I feed my bees with fondant Icing my wife has not used? will they be put off by the colour?

Wet or dry? I can see the advantage of dry storage but I am only, usually, able to get in a bee suit and manipulate my bees once a week so if I put a super on wet for them to clean won't they start using it again by the time I return a week later? (even with a crown board in the way)

Hi, as a relatively new bee can anyone recommend a book that explains the more complex artificial swarm methods such as the dumaree method and the use of a snelgrove board? TIA

I have what I think is a cast swarm in a hastily constructed Nuc box that I caught at the weekend (I am awaiting some new wooden ware!) That I wish to unite with another hive. At present I have two hives one I will need to AS as soon as my new woodenware arrives and another that has a virgin...

I have just seen a swarm in a nearby dry stone wall that retains the churchyard. I nipped home got the smoker going and a box to see if I could catch them but only 20-30 bees were left randomly wandering around the area. Has the swarm gone or is it possible that they have moved into the wall?