Search results

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. Martin Bee

    Tree wound sealer

    As a horticulturist as from the 70's I have found a hand full of soil rubbed over the fresh cut wound has enough of natural bacteria etc in it to dry up the bleeding and aid the healing process and this is only done on any wounds larger than a secateur prune.
  2. Martin Bee

    Skeps Appeal™

    I think it was a rather late swarm and a poor queen so not large enough to keep warm in the winter. I am in a high cold position hence the bee house which now protects 5 nationals and 2 warre hives with space for one more. It is my one and only and was done in the autumn after the bees were...
  3. Martin Bee

    Skeps Appeal™

    Well Emma you have started but before you buy more skeps why not try and make you own. It is fairly easy as I found to make from straw left behind from the edge of a field after harvest. Bound by long bramble stems de-thorned and split with the pith scraped out. Best done with new bramble but...
  4. Martin Bee

    Amm / Native Black Bee Discussion

    Yes Steve there are beekeepers in a four mile radius one is commercial and has a number of apiaries but the nearest one about half a mile is a leave alone who just produces swarms. They are all stripy mongrels which doesn't help my darkies.
  5. Martin Bee

    Amm / Native Black Bee Discussion

    I am thinking of improving the gene pool of my dark bees by getting an unmated black queen from Scotland and trying to turn her into a drone queen to improve the chances of mating my queens with dark drones rather than local mongrels. Any advice as I wood be doing this in a double nuc with a QE...
  6. Martin Bee

    STUDENT ARCHITECTURE PROJECT

    You are not far from Kew gardens who have a lot of interest in bees and I am sure there are students there who may be able to add more ideas as they have a lot of public integration. I was a student there 53 years ago so I can't give you any names to look up.
  7. Martin Bee

    Just for some fun.... an excuse to smile.

    Be(e)ware of being interviewed
  8. Martin Bee

    Collecting smoker fuel

    I posted this before. Following a visit from a Canadian beek I now use the dried flower/seed heads of the Stag-horn Sumach (Rhus typhina). They keep smoking well as the seed has an oil content. As can be seen from the photo I have a good supply as 3-4 seed heads lasts about an hour and doesn't...
  9. Martin Bee

    Shredded plastic-backed corrugated cardboard packing - is it safe in the smoker?

    I posted this before. Following a visit from a Canadian beek I now use the dried flower/seed heads of the Stag-horn Sumach (Rhus typhina) which are still on the bush from last year. They keep smoking well as the seed has an oil content. I have my supply near my bee shed as you can see in the...
  10. Martin Bee

    Warré in Switzerland

    The Warre has a smaller footprint and the connecting piece from the hive to the outside landing board had to be made from painted insulation foam which I am used to working with as I have made two national hives from insulation foam. Also the legs had to be taken off which was not a problem as...
  11. Martin Bee

    Warré in Switzerland

    From my emoji of my beeshed designed and built last year for 8 nationals inside but I only had 6 available so I used 2 Warres that I have used for six years. The shed is based on similar ones I have seen in the Alps.
  12. Martin Bee

    AZ Hives in Beeshed

    As you see I have a bee shed which I built last autumn with 8 nationals. But as you can see from the article below the Americans can do it even better!!! Robotic Bee Hives Beewise's Beehome is a high-tech beehive that helps beekeepers remotely monitor and care for their bees...
  13. Martin Bee

    First cuckoo

    My first cuckoo heard this year was last Monday in the Elan Valley
  14. Martin Bee

    Forage Range

    As in the past I worked for Thames Water doing ground maintenance with reservoirs, Sewage treatment works, associated water ways and drainage rivers etc. there is nobody in London more than about 1 mile from Himalayan Balsam. Along with Japanese knotweed it was quite a problem to control.
  15. Martin Bee

    First warre, upgrade to crown board and quilt.

    I have Warres and just have a plastic mesh between the top box and quilt. When the bees have deposited enough propylis I just freeze it and shake it off. This keeps the cloth on the bottom of the quilt box clean.
  16. Martin Bee

    Bees on the BBC website

    I caught this on the BBC at the time and posted https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/search.php?searchid=4988942 But I still have not heard anything back yet
  17. Martin Bee

    World Bee Project

    On Thursday I heard part of a program on BBC radio 4 about this project. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0000xrh (about half way through) I have since looked up more detail about it. http://worldbeeproject.org/ I have sent them the message below but as yet not received a reply. I heard the...
  18. My  Bees

    My Bees

  19. Martin Bee

    What is sustainable beekeeping

    In the early '70s I was part of a maize breeding program using American and Hungarian varieties to produce crops for grain and silage in UK conditions. We also had varieties from more northern "Iron Curtain" areas for crops needing shorter summer times but they did not like UK wet summers and...
  20. Martin Bee

    Worth a look

    Drones only have the genes of the queen and no father genes therefore if the queen had a brother he would also have the same genes. Equally she can't have genetic sons as all fertilised eggs produce females. In plants self-fertilisation is much the same.
Back
Top