Recent content by Ron Birrell

Had an issue with a one handed queen catcher a few years back. Found and marked a Queen then not long after used the catcher to mark another Queen. On releasing the second Queen she was immediately balled and killed. I went back to using a crown of thorns after that.

I agree with James. It's a Black Oil Beetle. Meloe proscarabaeus.

Beekeeping from a wheelchair. Absolutely. I belong to Manchester and District Beekeepers' Association which is a teaching apiary. A few years ago we made a purpose built area for two national hives. This was done specifically to enable the training of novice beekeepers who are wheelchair users.

Petrol is by far the quickest and more humane way for wooden hives. Not too good for poly equipment though. Washing up liquid for that.

In my past life as a photographic set builder I have owned and used various makes of portable table saws. Depending on what you want to push through it, the big problem is they can skitter across the floor unless fixed down. As with other posts, making bevel cuts tend to give less than...

Hi Park Farm Bees, I am a member of Manchester and District Beekeepers' Association. We have just opened bookings for Novice Training 2022. The link below will take you to our website and may be of interest. https://www.mdbka.com/

I have 'The Pollen Loads of the Honeybee' and Rex Sawyer's 'Pollen Identification for Beekeepers'. My go to reference though is 'Pollen Microscopy' by Norman Chapman. Full of beautifully detailed line drawings of pollen grains together with colour photograghs of the plant it comes from.

No such thing as an idiot question. OA is Oxalic Acid.