Recent content by chrischris

Home hive which has a danish buckfast Queen 75lb of osr during may, now has another 6 supers ready to take off mainly balsam, rest of hives (local bees) 2 supers to take off, if it had not been for the buckfast hive I would not have had much

As our bees have lost so much forage due to modern farming methods, HB should be seen as a plant that our bees need to aid there survival.

This is more of a seeking of views from other beekeepers regarding treating for varroa, having just watched the DVD Queen of the Sun I was interested by a view expressed that we may be doing more harm than good by trying to suppress varroa levels, it was suggested that we are not allowing the...

The flow is on in my neck of the woods lots of balsam coming in one hive has filled a super in a week others are all filling up.

Tippex works well for me

Hi brought my first Buckfast Queen last year mid august, managed her on single brood over winter, went to double brood may this year when they was brood over 9 frames, they quickly drew out the other brood box and she started laying in there, at one stage there was brood at all stages on 15...

Hi, had the same scare last year on 2 of my hives, it was nearly 4 weeks from AS before the new Queens came into lay, so my lesson was to be patient and not rush to the conclusion that you are Q- for a while yet. Cheers Chris

Hi picked up a swarm on 1st may last year and thought I would be ok as regards swarming, however they swarmed in the july, when I checked the hive after the swarm there was one well hidden sealed Q cell that I had missed and they were only on 6 frames. So no certainty that a swarm will not swarm...

swarms Called to 3 swarms yesterday, passed 2 on, 3 swarms today again passed 2 on, its very swarmy here in west yorkshire

Hi, in my experience some allotment holders run with the hare and the hounds, I moved my hives from my allotment due to a similar problem. To my face everyone thought it was great that we had Bees on our site but behind my back some of the allotment holders were stirring other plot holders up...

Into my third year as a beekeeper so not that experienced, have inspected all my hives today (6) 1 hive brood over 9 frames and drone cells sealed drone cells present, super over Q excluder 75% full some capped bees between all seams, have added a further super, 2nd hive brood over 8 frames with...

Oxalic Have some left ready mixed, I live in wakefield if thats any help.

Hello everyone, I was wondering if you more experienced beeks could offer an explanation re the following - Last night a neighbour came round to saying there was a swarm of bees in his garden (not mine I hasten to add) so off I went with all my kit and sure enough there was a swarm of bees in a...

spraying weeds Interesting reading everyone's views re spraying weeds, refering back to my original post my concerns are that we seem to have an ever diminishing supply of wild plants for bees and insects to live off and our local councils are just adding to the headache, no wonder the bee...

Hi fellow bee keepers, this might sound like a moan but this morning when walking my dogs round the local football/playing fields saw this chap with a full white boiler suit, white wellies and full breathing mask on walking round the field edges spraying something from a pressurised spraying...