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I tried to stay away. Heaven knows I tried. Despite the trials and vicissitudes of the last year I've managed to just say NO, and have fought off the gnawing craving to hit the Beekeeping Forum tab on my toolbar. But I've just realised how much I've missed the sneering sarcasm and put-downs so...

The back-story is this: New queen post-swarm, not yet laying, bees filling up the brood box with nectar despite 2 supers of foundation. So moving on to today: no sign of queen but one frame-worth of capped brood and larvae. Forgot to wear glasses so didn't see eggs. Also about 10 queen cells...

Greetings to everyone out there in forumland. Let us pause for a moment to reflect on what a wonderful community we are. Let us engage with the new week in a positive and supportive frame of mind (Hello sky! Hello clouds! Hello bees!) and resolve to treat each other always with respect and...

Definitely an FAQ for me! So, our main colony swarmed and we rehived them in an old BB with a frame of drawn comb and half a dozen of foundation. They settled in fine and were out foraging and whatever. Then on day six, lots of aerial activity followed by loads of bees wandering anxiously around...

My wife and I have been having what we euphemistically refer to as 'a discussion'. Our bees swarmed into a convenient shrub last Friday and we popped them into a hive - a bait hive, as it happens, that was already primed with half a dozen frames, three of which were drawn. Since then they appear...

The story so far: starting with one hive, carried out an AS on April 7th. Horrid weather, possibly no significant drone posse in the region, no great expectation of successful queenage. Would have combined quite soon but encouraged by this forum to hang on in there. Two weeks ago, no sign of...

To my slight surprise the bait box on my roof is attracting a lot of attention. From bees rather than disbelieving neighbours, I hasten to add. If a swarm sets up home in there, can I immediately move them 50 metres away or does the 3 ft 3 mile rule apply straight away?

On inspection 11 days after the time the new queen should have emerged I could see no eggs, nor could I detect a queen (not particularly surprising as there are lots of bees). How long should I keep looking? The colony was extremely calm and just going about its everyday business. I did notice...

Should it be full frame, or starter strip?

Along with a bunch of other odds and sods I find myself with an item that is like a top board but has a rim about 1.5 cm deep, with a cut out on one of the sides, about 4cm wide. This is presumably to allow bees in and out. My first thought was that it was a board for isolating the two brood...

Well, back from hols in North Wales (very nice, thanks for asking) so it's 8 days since carrying out the Artificial Swarm. Pollen is going into both hives and we've just moved the Q- hive to the other side of the Q+ one to bleed off the flying bees. So what should I be doing next in terms of...

Got a Langstroth hive with two supers of drawn comb. Inspected yesterday: 7 frames of bias, shed-loads of bees ...and half a dozen queen cells, which we promptly knocked down. The bees are Carniolans so it doesn't take a lot to figure out what they're up to, the rascals. Trouble is, we're off on...

Yesterday they were ordinary muddy-coloured Carniolans, today they are sporting more gold than a posse of Harlem homies. Either they've become The Bees of the Damned or the OSR has come into flower. We have about 10,000 apple trees over the back fence almost ready to blossom; it will be...

So, while at my son's house today I sneakily treated my handsome and elegant beard to a couple of wafts of his expensive aftershave. A little later, back home and with the temperature nudging 20 degs, I decided to inspect the insects. Tell you what - bees have no feelings for the finer things of...

Yesterday there was a fine large bumble bee hanging around the hive most of the day, snuffling around the omf and peering in the entrance. This morning there is a ball of bees on the front of the hive with something shiny in their midst and no sign of the bumble. Jolly unsporting behaviour by my...

Among the usual scattering of debris under the hive - wax, legs, that kind of thing - there appears to be a number of eggs. Is that to be expected? The bees are pretty active and have just finished a pack of Neopoll.

...in the throat. This should be interesting. Epipens locked and loaded.

A few larvae at quite an advanced stage have appeared outside the hive. Might these be drone larvae? MAQSs were taken off 10 days ago.

Here is the scenario: Langstroth hive, currently with MAQS on (to be removed today) plus one super which was returned to the hive 3 weeks ago after extraction. Prior to putting MAQS on we fed them 6kg of syrup (rightly or wrongly). So, when we remove the strips today what do we do with the...

Along with the various squadrons of wasps launching attacks on my colony there have also been periodic sorties by half a dozen or so big black bees - about half the size again of the regular honeybee, with a shiny black abdomen and a furry thorax. And they are very buzzy. What might they be?