Search results

Help please. I've been to check my rural out apairy and have noticed that the wasps are still visiting the hives. All hives (10) had their entrances reduced to a minimum. The bees are flying but they don't seem to have any interest in keeping out the wasps. I expected the wasps nests to have...

Yes, I know I should have acted earlier, but for a variety of reasons I've just taken some supers off, and have more to clear and take off tomorrow. None of the honey is capped, it all passes the shake test (ha ha) since some is crystallised in the frames. I've extracted the frames and plan to...

I took Module 1 earlier in the year, and was contemplating tackling another. Any advice on which next?

I've been using the green queen marking pens widely available but am finding that the paint is getting cleaned off. I haven't had this problem with my old (yellow) pen of the same brand that I've used for the past two years. Anyone else having the same issue?

Awesome collective, I need your wisdom on the subject of queen clipping. I've started this year to clip my queens, but have only been clipping one wing. I thought this meant the queen couldn't fly and in the unlikely event that my swarm management techniques didn't work, she would remain very...

I have two hives which I acquired at the end of last year, and over wintered successfully. They are sited next to each other but not on the same hive stand. They were both aggressive colonies, stinging my kids in the garden and following me after inspections. So I opted to requeen, allowing...

I have an old manual tangential EH Taylor extractor with a triangular basket which takes 6 super frames. Today whilst extracting some frames, something 'gave' inside the mechanism, so the basket didn't always spin as fast as I was turning the handle. HWMBO took it to pieces, and found a...

I have a polythene bucket which has a nylon gate tap on it which leaks, not from the seal where it joins the bucket, but the tap itself. The hinge nut and the wing closure nut are done up at tightly as possible, but there is still a slow leak. any ideas?

Just extracting some of the first honey from our training apiary and on a number of the frames, there are about 5 cells which contain a bright blue/green colour liquid (honey). Have others seen this and if so what ideas did they have about what the bees were feeding on? Thanks

Hi all, I have a couple of hives that are made up of two brood box with supers in between. When I inspect the bottom box, there are lots of flying bees from the top box around looking for the entrance to their hve. Any ideas on the best way to inspect the bottom box??

This afternoon I thought I might try the post-Christmas sales. I googled the P4ynes website , only to be told that it had been reported as an "Attack Page" and was blocked, based on my security preferences. Now I might suspect HWMBO, but before blaming him, wondered if anyone else out there...

An opportunity at the end of the season to allow us to confess to those things which we have done, or ought not to have done (apologies Dusty). Mine for starters (yesterday) I wondered why one colony hadn't taken down any syrup over the last two weeks. I moved the feeder only to find a piece...

Further to my previous thread http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=24563 the story continues: Tonight I decided that, if there wasn't any sign of worker brood, then I would load the hive up onto a barrow, take it to the end of the field and shake out all the frames. In...

The field of potatoes next door to my apiary has just been sprayed. Should I worry?

Whilst we're on the subject of drone laying queens. Colony history, produced by being the part of an AS which retained the old queen, then threw up queen cells, one of which I let hatch. Last week when I inspected there were a few eggs, all at the bottom of cells, but quite often 2 to a cell...

My dad has volunteered to make me some new floors and I wondered where the best place was to source the mesh. Any favourite suppliers or hints? Thanks

Advice or reassurance needed please. Last weekend was lovely and warm and I took the opportunity to go through both of my hives, and found BIAS, so all was well with my tiny beekeeping world. This weekend, the temperature has generally hovered around the 10C mark, and I haven't been inclined...

Just returned from a trip to the frozen French Alps and thought you might appreciate photos from an apiary I spotted up the mountain. Close up of the hives themselves http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/picture.php?albumid=410&pictureid=2733 Next door - a very large bar/restaurant which every...

Moved a nuc of dead bees today. I had suspected there was a laying worker or a DLQ, and the colony wouldn't last the winter. I found the colony was dead about a month ago, shut up the nuc and left the frames. When I went to clear out the frames today, a number of them had white patches on...