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I'm trying to get my head round poly hives. The term seems a bit ambiguous. Am I right in thinking the term can refer both to simple, soft hives and also a more sophisticated type with foamed insulation sandwiched between hard plastic walls? Also, are the simple soft type mainly used for small...

Poly hives are excellent insulators, but lack thermal mass. Does anyone with both poly and wooden hives have any observations on their comparative performance in our recent weather, touching 40C in parts of England?

I've heard Sherriff revolutionised beekeeping when they introduced the full coverage "fencing veil" bee suit in the 1960s. Is this true or just their advertising? Most products are an evolution of earlier ideas, but I've also found sources saying no one used bee suits in the 1940s, just veils...

I'm not sure what to make of this. They stress it's not made by bees. Does that make it fake honey? www.melibio.com

I was wondering if bees' behaviour outside the hive changes depending on humidity? I understand lime trees produce nectar in humid weather, so maybe they forage more, and they may need to fan harder to evaporate nectar into honey. But are there other noticeable effects? More pollen collection...

Presumably this varies across the country and with forage levels. What factors determine when it occurs? When do you see it in your hives? Do all hives do a forced exclusion, or do some just wait for the drones to die off once the queen stops laying them?

A friend has bought a hive, found the supers are full of crystallised honey. From searching on this and other sites, I gather it's fine for us to eat, if you can get it out!, but they're wondering about whether it is safe to leave some for the bees, can anyone advise please? I saw the tip on...

Hi. I see this term bandied around. As far as I can see it is ambiguous and could refer to - - the secretions of aphids and other sap suckers - the sap(?) exuded directly from some plants like conifers, lime etc - the (whatever it is - sap? nectar? What's the difference?) exuded by extra-floral...

I am reading Mysteries of Beekeeping Explained by Moses Quimby, published in 1853. Lots of fun stuff. He comments in passing that "the secret to getting no stings is tobacco smoke". He kept a lot of hives and is credited with inventing the bellows smoker, so I'm going to assume this observation...

I was thinking about Paul Stamet's claims on beneficial fungi for bees. He has a website www.fungi.com where he has a commercial interest in promoting this idea. I'm prepared to entertain the idea that bees might occasionally forage for spores for (a) self medicating or (b) protein during...

I notice that the two casts I hived this year have no drones, whilst the mature colonies have plenty. Furthermore, one is actively beating up and ejecting drones who arrive and try to get in. (It's next to 2 large mature colonies whose drones launch themselves off every afternoon and return...

I rarely open my hives and get about 6 stings a year. Mind you I always wear full protection, including gloves, because I've had a couple of nasty anaphylactic reactions (normally I barely notice them). But I hear stories of other beeks like "my arm begins going numb after 30 stings" so I am...

I saw a post by an American beekeeper on another forum where he commented that a nucleus is generally very docile, but once it has grown to a large colony you will often need a full suit to approach it. He reckoned it may be because large colonies can afford to lose workers in a fight. Is this...

There is a rather entertaining and informative article on 'mad honey' in today's Guardian: www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/16/creating-a-buzz-turkish-beekeepers-risk-life-and-limb-to-make-mad-honey This made me wonder. I have seen a huge area of rhododendron at Cragside in Northumberland...

I heard from an agronomist that farmers are now buying bumblebee nests from Europe, on a large scale. These are placed in a field to pollinate it as a one-use fit-and-forget solution for crop pollination. It's a non native species. The nest lasts one year. I wonder if the farmers even care if...

This is the first warm sunny day we've had for ages and after a cold wet start to Spring, there is finally significant blossom around to draw bees out. I walked round my village to see how the feral colonies fared over winter. They were active and there is zero possibility that they could have...

I was moving a hive 100 metres the other day and explaining to my helper how we can force the bees to re-orient when they emerge, by placing a screen of branches in front of the hive entrance. The theory is that this forces them to slow down and memorise a new route back to the entrance, rather...

I read in BBKA News that the annual honey survey shows an average crop per hive in the 20 to 30 pound region. It strikes me that if you knew the yield per hive in, say, 1940 to 1950 you could get a good idea of the impact of agricultural changes in the UK since that period. This would make a...

A queen mates with several drones. Do the eggs get fertilised by a random drone's sperm, or is there a mechanism which means the children tend to come in "batches" of full sisters?

O ancient shrivelled sages, illuminate us with your wisdom. Will this warm winter mean swarms begin appearing earlier than last year?