Search results

I have bought honey jars before from beekeeping suppliers, sent through the post, usually Fedex, I must have been unlucky this time, 10 were smashed with broken and powdered glass filling the unbroken jars. Has anybody else had deliveries of jars that had obviously not been carefully handled by...

I bought a tub of apiguard this year rather than the trays, carefully followed the instructions regarding the scoop and spatula placing the stuff on the waxed cardboard. Hive is brood and a half, with a 50mm eke, closed crownboard and varroa tray inserted. Anybody else had the capped brood...

Looks like the bees have given up with the cell on the left, the royal jelly is pitted where the bees have nibbled at it, the centre cell is capped, and the one on the right has a 1-2 day old larva. Only 3 cells, in bottom brood box. Should I leave them to it, or A/S? 2012 queen; perhaps...

Well I never, frog spawn already in my little pond, 2 weeks earlier than usual. I hope that is a good sign, of a warm and early spring.

Someone just back from Jamaica gave me some honey to taste. It certainly is delicious, two different types of honey, one a light orangey colour, runny, which most likely is Logwood honey, and a dark honey. I was happy with the taste of my honey until I tasted Jamaican honey!

I treated myself to a new poly hive, impulse buy when checking out prices for jars etc. The hive doesn't seem to have/need a crownboard? Is that usual? Also the roof, which is nice and thick, doesn't allow for using a wooden/polycarb. crownboard. I suppose it is possible to dispense with the...

To all you beeks who keep bees on allotments, what colour is your honey this year? Mine is very dark, can hardly see through the glass it's so dark. Honey from a hive a few miles away is a lot lighter, suspect it is mainly bramble and lime, the taste is lighter as well. I have extracted...

I have a 70lb settling tank, with honey gate, which was almost full. I cleared out the wax in the double strainer and then forgot to put it back on top of the tank, for a moment or two. :eek: So I'm pretty sure some wax got in to my lovely pure filtered honey. What is the best way to retrieve...

I introduced a queen from an apidea into a nuc on Saturday. By Sunday, somehow the bees, or queen?, had eaten all the candy. The candy was home made so probably was too soft, and melted! I haven't taken off the tabs yet as wanted to introduce slowly. So, two options, just remove the plastic...

I culled a number of emergency Q cells yesterday, and noticed that some of them had like a purplish line down the back. I am hoping it is normal and just a sign of a different stage of development of the larva.

I have a colony that is making Q cells, queen has gone, very calm bees, brood and a half, with 2 supers, one being drawn. In terms of the bees making honey what is the best thing to do? Allow the bees to carry on with one Q cell, or re-queen now? I have some spare 2013 queens.

In doing an A/S the other day I removed a number of Q cells; is it possible to collect and save the royal jelly for grafting on another day? Does royal jelly keep in the fridge, or freeze well? And if so does the royal jelly need to be diluted when grafting?

I A/S'ed a hive 4 days ago. Today, from the part where the Q is with flying bees and foundation, they attempted to swarm. Why would that happen? I saw her on the ground in front of the hive and slipped her back into the hive. All the bees went back in after a lot of nasenov fanning. I put in...

I A/Sed a colony today, with Q on her frame in new brood box + foundation on old site. The brood + half with swarm cells and super moved to one side and a quarter turned. My question is, if I don't want to raise a new queen is it possible to wait 5 days then remove all Q cells then put the...

Is it essential to position the larva the same way up in the cup-kit as it was in the cell in the brood frame? After finally managing to get the larvae out with a fine brush, in some cases, i think they went in up-side down to what they were in the brood frame. I am trying the Ben Harman...

I have a colony on brood and a half, with a super filling, and another super perhaps going on today. What would be the best way to get some drawn brood comb, as I am still short of this after 3 years beekeeping. My idea was to put a brood box with foundation below the super/supers and above the...

Why does my laptop make a strange juddering noise and freeze when watching a video, eg on youtube?

I need a shed for my apiary site at my allotments, and was thinking of making it out of pallets. Has anybody made a shed from pallets, who can give me some tips, or what the pitfalls are to avoid, etc. I'm not that experienced in DIY, but when I set my mind to somert I'll go for it! It won't...

I have some broods/supers with a number of knots, some on the top edge of the brood boxes. What is the best way to patch these up, making the boxes bee tight?

I put in the second tray of apiguard today. After about an hour there were a good many bees flying about the apiary and a smallish cluster on the front of the hive tucked up underneath the edge of the roof. Common sense told me it would be the bees disturbed by the apiguard come out for a bit...