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Hi All. This time of year my bees are usually finishing their OSR foraging, however, this year there is not any about. My last couple of inspections I have noticed a smell very similar to weetabix, before opening up and during inspection. Any ideas as to the forage? Thanks.

I had two nucs headed by Buckfast Queens, both started completely from scratch, absolutely certain they were the only queen in the box. Both have been in their nucs for nearly four weeks..both building well. One ready to re-house in full size hive. Inspected today and found a different Queen in...

This is probably a daft question but here goes. I have a few drawn supers with old style large plastic ends. They are still in good order, however, a few times when separating supers to inspect I have pulled a frame or two up out of these supers, along with bees i.e. from the super below! I have...

Hi all, I did an AS and left the Q- section alone with one sealed Queen cell for the usual 3 weeks. Checked tonight expecting to see eggs or larvae. Instead I found the empty QC which had the emergence hole (now somewhat old), no sign of a Queen, but also two large emergency QC's. I assume these...

Hi. this is my third year keeping bees. According to my records and memory my bees usually start swarm preparations about the last week of April (ish). I know things move about according to the weather, however, armed with this information and temperatures of 6-8 degrees celcius at the moment...

Are grumpy bees on the first inspection traditional? This is my 3rd year keeping bees and every year so far they have been seriously bleeped off! So much so that I had to give up half way through the second hive due to alot of hand stinging, even when I was standing next to my other half...

Hi.Last year I was determined not to miss any swarms and kept a close eye on both of my over-wintered colonies (with Queens from the previous year). Then one weekend of heavy rain, unable to inspect and hey presto they were off! As there is no guarantee of a repeat, what do you do in your apiary...

Hi. For the last two years my beekeeping has been made complicated by returning Queens getting lost from mating flights, most commonly ending up in the wrong hive, with sometimes two Queens in the same hive (not supercedure as they were marked and co-existing sisters!) Hives being about two to...

For one reason and another my hives have only just got going this last few weeks (long story...), they are still bringing in plenty of stores. I therefore want to extend the season for as long as possible before removing the honey and treating for varoa. Bearing in mind that temperatures will be...

Quote from the Monthly Essex Bee-keeping magazine: "Clive de Bruyn" There was a huge sigh of relief, far and wide, when the news of Clive’s de Bruyn’s demise was found to be untrue. We look forward to his future services to beekeeping. Editor

As per title: healthy/strong colony..if you make it Queenless how long in your experience would you expect Queen cells to be started? Thanks.

Hi, this is my second year beekeeping. I have two colonies and a nuc (the newly mated queen of which has just started to produce eggs today). My main large colony/honey producer became queenless as she got lost/whatever so ended up with laying workers. 20 days ago I put in two frames of bias...

It's a miracle! Removed laying queen from small colony last week and put her into a nuc with 2 frames of brood/bees and stores. Two days later, checked she was still in the nuc. She was. Same day i.e. two days after making small colony queenless, checked small colony three times to ensure no...

Hi. After 3 weeks one of my new queens has come in to lay. Nice brood pattern, space, stores good temper etc etc. Now have 3 Qcs! They did the same thing last year. Is this normal behaviour? I'm sure they have their reasons but seems wrong to me. Are they just doing the belt and braces scenario...

May be controversial...or not. I have read in various books that workers cannot fly once they have become egg layers. I have also read on this forum that this is wrong and they can fly. Has there been a scientific paper or study? Thanks. Just means I won't have to walk so far in the future if...

Hi, now this is probably a daft question...but here goes...bit of a what if...? As you may have read in my last post; I am waiting for my two hive's newly mated Queens to come into lay (fingers crossed). I have a spare nuc box doing nothing: can I shake in some mid to young ish bees from the...

Hi, this is my second year of beekeeping. Cut a long story short....I have two hives in a similar situation as last year. I am waiting for two queens to come into lay. The bees are well beehaved but the larger colony is slowly filling the BB with stores. There are two supers on top, the lower of...

Hi, finished my heating cabinet at the weekend (unable to attach photos for some reason...security token?). Looks a bit Mars lander. 600cmx460cmx430cm. I followed the advice off the forum and used an STC-1000 which is superb. I have also used a 45w 1ft eco cylinder heater from fleabay, as...

No..not the religious type! Just a spelling mistook. Inspected on Sunday and found that an expanding colony had started to make large holes (3 inches by 3 inches) in the foundation on the last two empty frames. 7 frames of brood, food, etc. The holed foundation did have some pollen mould which I...

Hi, this is my second year beekeeping. My two hives (commercial BB with National supers) have come through the winter successfully. After a non returning virgin and a poor laying Queen last year I was hoping to be more prepared this year. I now have a spare full size hive for AS and a nuc. What...