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I had a rummage through the indoor hive yesterday, discovered to my surprise that the bees must have got dissatisfied with the their queen in the autumn and replaced her. These bees are on double brood - they needed it early last summer so I left them with it. I'm quite surprised that I've...

366 days ago a green, angry sounding box turned up on my doorstep. I've managed to not kill my bees for a whole year. :)

Just wondering, will bees in a hive with good stores go for the oldest crop first or do they just go for whatever is closest to the brood?

Please tell me bubbles are just from my rough handling - I have a vague paranoia that my bees are secretly brewing hooch :)

I've got two hives at the moment and I'm very keen to not have any more. Hive 1 lives down the allotment and has bees that are basically a bit crap - they're reluctant to draw out comb and very keen to start consuming stores at the slightest hint of bad weather. Hive 2 lives in the workshop...

I feel like I've been in hibernation. Broke my foot at work in Nov, three months in a cast ( damned glad it wasn't swarming season! ) unable to heft my hives :( . Then surgery on my throat in January - on my birthday - thanks for that surgeon! Then emergency surgery on my throat four weeks ago...

So I'm resisting temptation to open the hives and I think they're ok for stores judging by the weight but I'm wondering what - assuming the colonies survive - the state of a hive tends to be in the spring? My bees are little so and sos for building brace comb and propolising everything down (...

Just a few from the blog - Hope you enjoy the last pic :) http://thenakedapiarist.com/2015/10/30/eye-candy/

I love the smell of propolis and I was determined to find a way to use it in the kitchen, it turns out with a few other ingredients it makes a great bitter. In short I made tinctures of california poppy petals, grapefruit peel, propolis and hawthorn berries, blended them and added a little...

Just wondering if anyone knows what causes it - I've been making some hawthorn vodka which comes out a very pale red initially but I sweetened it with a very small amount of my own honey - which is very pale. Over the next three or four days the vodka darkened to a rich tawny. I've come across...

I don't often get to use an SEM - all mine are TEMS but I put a lunchtime to good use yesterday. I'm pretty sure the coloured up grain is squash pollen but I don't know about the others - this is pollen gathered from the inspection board. I'll post up more when I'm done playing with false...

are we supposed to cluster with other beekeepers until it warms up or something? I'm missing my weekly bee related drama :)

Can someone clear up something about fondant for me? I've been told that fondant is a suitable winter feed as firstly, bees won't take cold syrup - which makes sense and also that the lower liquid content means less need for bees to void liquid hence less requirement for cleansing flights which...

My normally placid hive went nuts on Saturday. They're in a desperate situation - plenty of bees, plenty of brood but no stores ( I've not even taken honey off them ), I wanted to check they've been taking down the syrup I've been feeding them for the last few weeks and apply varroa treatment...

I made this up as I went along and it won a medal! - a cardboard one but it's still a medal :) http://thenakedapiarist.com/2015/09/22/the-naked-apiarist-bakes-off/ Dough 750g Strong white flour 140g Butter, salted rub butter into flour 100ml water 250ml milk 80g honey yeast Mix a bit of the...

This is exactly how I found it right in the middle of the roof. Are my bees trying to send out a warning to any interlopers in the area? ;)

I set up four ( well, three and a bit ) brews last Weds. The one I'm most intrigued by is Cyser as I've never seen a commercial example. As there's a fair bit of sugar in apple juice already it's fairly economical on the honey - I've used 500g in 6l. Had a sneaky taste last night ( though it's...

Something I was asked the other day whilst musing over the possibility of doing a talk. Getting away from the whole colony collapse issue, what are the big unanswered questions about honey bees from a science point of view?

Is this normal? The indoor hive has two frames of nothing but pollen. They're on a double brood.

Hive 1 is causing me some headaches. It's got one deep and three supers at the moment, all was progressing well but thanks to the bad weather we've had on and off the bees started uncapping comb, then using the empty cells to store again - I now have three supers with a mixture of capped and...