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Hi all, I'm about to go away for a year and although my mom (who's house is where my bees are kept) has said she will find someone to look after the bees, I should have done it myself. I have two hives, one is a fairly new lot arrived about two months ago, the other I have had a while. I tired...

Hi, I need to organise my bees as have let them build on frames without foundation and its hard to pull the frames out. The comb is also fairly old and laying pattern not good so would like to perform a shook swarm to help relieve varroa. What do I do with the left over brood comb and is there...

Hefted my three hives and two were a little light so added some sugar on top of newspaper. Only gave one hive a feed in the winter. The bees seem to be doing well despite only treating twice over the last four years.

Could being in their flight path be the problem? Really hate the idea of squishing a queen!

Thanks Finman. Think I will do. Think this is my fourth year beekeeping as an adult and first time they are trouble.

Thanks, the horses usually have 2-3 acres to run away in. Field is 5 acres. Should be OK?

Thanks for all the advice. I don't have an out apiary but my mom has a field at the bottom of the garden that I could corden off.Just wonder what distance from the horses they really need to be if they are a grumpy lot. Perhaps if I put some wind breakers up they will fly upwards and be less...

Hi, I have a really strong hive who have been doing really well since last year. They stung my visiting uncle yesterday twice on the face when he was about 20-30 ft from the hive. What kind of distance are bees normally territorial over? They got me twice in the face recently too. People ride...

This. I only bought bees once, 20 years ago. Last few years since I took it up again I caught 2-3 swarms per year with one bait hive. They seem to like my moms pine tree a lot.

Thanks all for the kind messages. I might look into steel bucket too. I wold expect a buckets handle to be designed to take the weight of it at least 3/4 full! P.S O9O it did come off the hinge rather than break as you can almost see in the picture.

Thanks, I think I'm going to buy a small extractor as the work involved is silly. That or make a press of some sort. The honey is only for our consumption and I normally process it in a room where the animals aren't allowed. There are building works now so I had to use the kitchen this time. Its...

Well, I had been squeezing by hand honey all day, had just tasted some and thought that it really was the best I had ever tasted.Back killing me. Got paranoid the dog might get into the honey bucket so was looking for something well out of her way. Picked it up by the handle with one hand under...

Sorry to hear that. He who dares wins though. Your next venture will hopefully be more successful. How long were you doing it for? I am still paying for a business that lost me lots of money five years ago.

Had my third swarm this year arrive in my bait hive today...

Thanks for the replies. Not all of the cells in that pic are domed are they?

It was in a bait hive. Can't disturb them for two weeks. What I should have done is used starter strips. I read in Michael Bush's book that you don't need to but I think in the case of bait hive u do.

Hi, My recently arrived swarms brood is very patchy. Do queens sometimes take a while to settle? They are grumpy too. Got stung before I even opened the hive today!

I put up a bait hive with 32mm spaced frames and no foundation. Not sure how I'm going to sort that hive out. Comb is stuck to the wall one end and one frame has a comb and a half on it..

Thanks all. I was also worried about the dead bees contaminating the honey but I imagine they would have finished it before it was too much of a problem. Hopefully they don't poop when they die?

Hi, I made two silly mistakes on Sunday. I gave the bees back the bubbly honey leftovers from my plastic honey bucket. I poured them into a jam jar and grabbed a twig and put it in. In hindsight, I have now contaminated the honey with a twig and also I saw lots I bees drowning in it when I...