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I had a very unusual experience with my bees yesterday. Last Thursday I checked my bees in the morning and discovered a very large cluster of bees covering two sides of my national hive. I assumed they were getting ready to swarm so collected them in a box and later transferred them to a five...

What a mad year this has been. My bees were out foraging yesterday and again today, and bringing back pollen. Don't know what they've found, but I don't think it's ivy as the pollen is too yellow?

I have 2 hives. I recently had 2 cast swarms from one hive, one of which I managed to catch and home in a nuc. After a couple of days I decided to unite that swarm with my other hive. The swarm turned out to be queenless for whatever reason. Two days later with the united box still on the hive...

My second year and having to contends with swarms. After checking my garden apiary on the morning of the 12th when everything seemed normal, in the afternoon the sky was filled with a massive swarm from one hive that settled on a tree in my garden. I was able to collect them quite easily and...

I just wondered whether the bees can revert to foraging after they've formed a cluster? The reason I ask is because I check my bees daily and recently due to the temperature drop there's been no activity. I assumed that they had formed their clusters for the winter. However, due to the mild...

Checked the hive activity this morning. Just to put my mind at rest does this look like robbing to anyone? https://youtu.be/wOJRSJKh2wk A lot more activity compared to the larger colony next door! Thanks, Jeff.

Checked the girls in both hives today. I noticed in one frame that a few cells had 2 or 3 eggs, mainly single eggs though. Could this be the early indication of a failing queen? Not a clue how old she is.

Just seen some videos about using oxalic acid vapour to treat for varoa. It looks like a quick and simple method. Anyone on the forum using this method in the UK with any success?

Something quite unusual happened today! I'm going to unite a small swarm with an established hive and offered the laying queen from the swarm to any club member that needed a queen rather than squish her. The beek came over this afternoon to collect her and she was found quite easily, however...

After finding the Q above the QE when I first inspected this hive I changed the QE over to one that was newer. When inspecting the hive today I found her above the QE again. I caught her and put her back below the QE in the brood box. She does seem to be on the smallish side but is very...

I collected a small swarm this morning. Due to the number of swarms this year it doesn't look like anyone in the club has room for it, and I want to stay with just 2 hives for now. My 2nd hive is from a swarm and has been in a brood box for about 3 weeks now. My plan is to unite the 2 swarms...

I've recently been feeding a new colony with a rapid feeder and they quickly built some brand new white comb up into the entrance, which I removed. After finishing feeding I put some wax cappings in the feeder for the bees to clean up for me before removing the feeder from the hive. When I can...

Does a crownboard on a national hive need any bee space under it? Just wondering if I could use plain square of ply without a frame around it?

As explained previously, after finding the queen and brood in a super above the QE and the brood box full of nectar I switched the boxes around (12/5). The queen moved up into the brood box, the bees made space amongst the stores and she started laying. I put a QE and super of drawn comb on top...

I carried out my first inspection of my new bee colony on Tuesday and found some unexpected issues. I was intending to buy a Nuc this season, but instead was offered an established colony in a hive for the same money from an experienced bee keeper; no brainer really! Strating the inspection in...

Hello to everyone on the forum. I'm a new beekeeper based in the village of Earith in Cambridgeshire. I have just completed a beginners course with Huntingdon Beekeepers Assoc. and got my first bees (see "first inspection issues" in the beginners section). I've been waiting to get some bees...