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As a beekeeper of only 4 seasons I have never seen bees on fruit except a few on the odd apple left over on the ground this dry spring. I have just been looking at the Egg Plums we have which have been pecked by the birds. Usually broken plums are full of wasps but I did a double take as today...

Thank you. Link: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14577&highlight=Der+Alte+Fritz

Whearas the Human animal is always completely blameless and innocent of anything - ask any human. Just wondering if the incident occured at night. It would account for bees behaviour and horses extreme fear??

comment withdrawn as it appears to have been posted in wrong slot - pardon

Just to put the cap on this one. It appeared that the drones were getting stuck on their way UP to the supers so I guess the drones were just hungry. There was nothing but honey in the supers. Thank you everyone.

Is there a general rule of thumb for the optimum amount of feed available in store frames to colony numbers? ...Or how much feed will keep a frame of bees alive for one week? This seems a bit of a problem to even ask, as our bees seem to have very low brood - so I cannot ask if there is a ratio...

More thoughts Just a note to ask you to consider updates on your situation if at all possible; there seem to be few of us interested in your predicament. Sadly, Pest controllers will mostly decide to kill the colony; a few will know bee keepers who will take some or all of the colony and, of...

From a fellow 'accidental' Bee keeper A very interesting tale. You sound a very dedicated, capable and thoughtful family all very good traits for beekeeping!. Sometimes a colony will try to swarm and for some reason the Queen does not go with them, in which case they return to their old home...

Queens off lay in May - is rape the reason I was searching Forums because we are having the same problem in all our hives. It happened last year too and a lot of the local Bee Club members are saying the same thing so it looks like a trend BUT WHY?? Three of the hives effected have had supers...

Erica. Good photo! Is it 'real'? Looks like good way of choosing lotto Numbers! sense of humour is necessary in beekeeping.

Thanks Finman. As we are 'accidental' beekeepers and were chosen by a colony that took up residence in our garden, we are rather spoilt and may have not taken up bee keeping had they been 'nutters'. I have been trying to hang on to the daughters and to keep the strain as their honey production...

What effect does this have on the breeding line? Any idea how to avoid breeding in over defensiveness? Our bees developed a habit of attacking our forearms at the end of the last season just after you opened the hive. Smoke and being quiet and gentle made no difference. If you left them for 10...

When you think about it - it IS logical, as Nature is. I have noticed that the colour of workers does seem to change as the season develops but thought that would be seasonal adaptation or even sun bleaching. I attended a talk at the 2011 Stoneleigh Convention given by an American, Keith...

As the virgin Queen will mate with arround 10 different drones, does this effect the characteristics of the workers she produces to a noticeable degree? i.e. Is the different sperm mixed up straight away providing a hap-hazard colony or is each drone's sperm used up in turn producing a gradual...

I saw this gizmo at Lidl. Looks like a useful bit of BK kit. Will look out in case they repeat the offer! S'pose I've gone off topic too - only slightly though.

I try just to heat syrup enought to get rid of crystallised but the other day I forgot it for about 20 minutes :eek: [moderate boil] and it had reduced but not changed colour other than being more concentrated - certainly not burnt. Does anyone know if it is still safe to feed to my bees? I...

Thanks folks. Yes plenty of honey and pollen in the brood! The thing that I thought of first is that the drone hive [mentioned earlier] is right next to this colony so i thought they were after the supers. I have noticed for the past week there have been bee legs on the varroa board - now i...

Hi, Yesterday when we checked one of our hives we found large numbers of drones dead and trapped in the Queen excluder. See photo attached. They are head up suggesting they were trying to get in and up. We were very puzzled about this until a bit of surfing suggested we have a virgin queen in...

I know it's all a bit more complicated than that. It's ALL terribly complicated and not at all standard. Last week at our local club meeting we found a worker bee [dead] sealed up in a queen cell. Somebody must have slammed the door while she wasn't looking!! As they say bees.....invariably...

Your experience and advice much appreciated. As this colony was our first [unsuccessful] attempt at an Artificial Swarm and we messed it up we are thinking of amalgamating it with another colony and calling it a draw!