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This is my second honey harvest so still pretty new at it but my honey is cloudy this year, is it ok to sell? Last year it was clear The process last year was to coarse strain out of extractor into buckets, then fine strain through muslin into settling tank then jarred. I didn't have a warming...

Two of my hives swarmed at the end of May (24th). Due to the bad weather they took forever for the Queens to mate, finally on 1st July there were some eggs and brood. Now there are charged queen cells (4 on 1 frame in one hive and 2 on one frame in the other) and still some eggs. I didn't go...

Even if bees do fly out in the rain - is there any nectar for them to collect or does the nectar get washed out? Here in Powys its been a nice day today but otherwise mostly rain. Another record breaking cold, dry winter. Drought in April/May. Floods in June. I dont think any hay was made in...

Question is the title.. My bees have propolised the lugs of the frames to the poly making them really hard to prise off without jarring frames or damaging the poly with my hive tool. So I was wondering if there should be a frame runner - there wasn't one supplied? Its one of the ******/Maisemore...

I have to agree with the full protection brigade. Plan for the unexpected. Even if its baking hot I still wear full suit, wellies and the sting proof thick blue gloves. Who knows when you might drop your hive tool or sneeze or a frame sticks to the CB or QE and jarrs upsetting the little...

Suits - I've got a BB one and its great been washed stacks of times in the machine and still good 2 years on, my husband who only helps now and again has an ebay one - not so good. The zip broke recently and also the material isn't as good quality. Gloves - I've tried leather, latex, blue...

Some of you do seem to swell up when stung then, I have started to get local reactions to stings and now wear those stingproof blue gloves that Maisemoor do because I was worried I was getting more sensitive. My husband got stung 5 times on the hand and he had to have time off work due to...

Could be Deformed Wing virus but also my mentor has told me that old forager bee wings can go to look a bit worn

44 within 10km but I also know of at least 2 beekeepers who aren't registered with Beebase (I have encouraged them to do so) Disease within 5km although mine were inspected recently and are Disease free This is in an upland rural area with a few villages dotted around (No OSR in area though)...

Have ordered myself some lemongrass oil, although on the info box on the website it said pesticidal and insecticidal! How weird that it attracts bees. Makes me wonder if it repeals varroa/wax moth and other unwanted beasties. How much and where do the drops go in a bait nuc?

Well I've a few virgins waiting to mate/about to lay plus 2 laying queens and I had some possible plans: 1. See which were most kind to work with and then eradicate and join them as neccessary (horrible isn't it!) to get back to 3-4 colonies ready for the July flow. 2. Plan 1 then requeen in...

I'm a fairly new beekeeper (started in 2010). However my original queen and all of her daughters (3) have two traits which I dont like: following and swarminess, one of the daughters is also particularly fiesty and VERY followy. How do I get rid of these traits? After getting to grips with this...

This is what I thought although I hear stories of people catching swarms and then finding them being Q- especially as it was such a difficult swarm to catch.

farmer was hedging in field next to my bees and burnt all of the branches etc. smoke was going away from them. Dont know if its good practice though but bees didn't seem to mind and went about their business as usual

My question is how do I know if the queen is there? There is a long story involved in collecting this MASSIVE swarm which was on a very high branch. I will share the complete story if necessary but its a lot of typing. Anyway, some of the bees went into the box and sheet the rest fell into...

This is a great post, I may have to do a similar thing but 1. Why the need to clear supers first? 2. Does it matter if you move the Q+ nuc to the Q- hive or the other way around and whats the thinking behind it?

Well I do have two insurance nucs both doing well. Should one of the hives go queenless due to casts and I need to combine... Would I move the queenless hive to the queen right nuc or the queen right nuc to the queenless hive (in the same apiary). Hopefully the casting situation wont mean I'm...

Well maybe thats the reason I never seem to get on top of it then I will try leaving 1 cell next time. Looks like it might be a honey-less year, they'll probably eat what they've made. I gave the swarms to friends due to lack of equipment and space. Never mind - live and learn WHY though do so...

OK then, thank you. I'm pretty sure they were still there though? Perhaps I'll try leaving 1 cell next time. Have you ever been left queenless with this method?

No I thought hives 1 and 2 were still OK as they still had their whole honey crop on board, supers and brood boxes all full of bees