Search results

Lovely day, T 22C, so thought I'd lift my spirits by observing the activity of my five hives. However all the bees busily landing on and flying from the landing board of a polyhive were distinctly smaller than normal eg the bees in the adjacent hive. They were shorter and thinner but of similar...

We got to Nice airport with two hours to spare so sat in a caff. A man on a nearby table was intermittently jiggling either one or both legs at a rate too rapid to count - maybe about 4/second. If he made arm movements, eg raising a cup, the movements might stop but speaking to his companion...

........ scores of posters advertising concerts, gigs, recitals, lectures, amateur dramatics, theatre, exhibitions, demos, political meetings, chauffeured punting - and beekeeping tuition!

Visited apiary yesterday to assess need for fondant. One of my seven colonies dead - masses of dead bees on the OMF starting to go mouldy. Brood box: scanty scattered dead sealed worker brood, no dead drone brood, cells otherwise empty. No queen cells. Four frames of stores. No Q excluder...

I vaguely remember recently reading that in ?Jersey ?France that the AH teams are giving up destroying the secondary nests. Or am I imagining it?

In early October I was dismayed to see a frenzy of wasps around the top of one of my two poly-hives. The colony had been strong and is headed by a 2022 queen.They seemed to be entering the hive beneath a syrup feeder which I had topped up a week earlier. Examination showed that the wasps had...

The vision through most of my polycarbonate CBs is obscured by brace comb. The clarity remains poor because of residual wax, even after scraping it off and soaking in washing soda, . Grateful for advice. I have pinched a pic from another thread (Thanks and apols @Do224)...

I have previously posted my experiences with Wasp Bane but have just happened upon Thorne's advert which states that it contains a wasp-specific pheromone. Strangely, maybe, the WB website doesn't make this claim. I have a vague memory ( as per most of my memories nowadays) that last year I...

The threads on my COT became undone so I've attempted to rethread it but it's not as easy as I imagined.The central holes seem alarmingly big while those at the edge look smaller, which makes sense when you look at the thorns from below - each parallel string is closer to its neighbour at the...

I've caught two moderate-size swarms in the last fortnight and placed each in a 6-frame poly-nuc with OMF furnished with foundation. I checked progress several days later and in both nucs found that the foundation had sagged and twisted so that they had fused with their neighbours resulting in...

A neighbour showed me an untidy hole, about the size of small football, which appeared overnight in his garden. Flying in and out of the hole were small bumbles with white bums and a single orange band on the thorax. I think they are tree bumblebees, Bombus hypnorum. The grass all around the...

On Feb 18th I reported fitting a clear plastic window into my veil to improve vision when trying to see eggs etc. At that stage I had not opened my hives but promised to report back. https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/what-did-you-do-in-the-apiary-today.8543/page-1792#post-858209 Since then I...

Lying in bed this morning SWMBO and I noticed the red sunrise through the window. Sometime later we descended to find our son*, visiting for the w/e and dressed in Lycra, returning from a 45 minute frozen-footpath jog. This is a pic he took en route. * age 50, he's a true MAMIL

The hives in the West Suffolk BKA club apiary were treated with Apivar for nine weeks late August-end October. I am minded to OA vape each hive once any time soon but our chairman suggests that this is unnecessary. I would not plan to check for brood. I'd be grateful for the opinion of the...

A centre page spread in yesterday's Guardian, featuring Angelina Jolie

BBC Radio 4 6 pm News today: report that scientists have discovered that wax moth larvae are able to break down polythene. A solution to the plastics crisis? A commercial opportunity for beekeepers - forget the honey, just breed wax moths.......? [Sorry I can't find a link to the BBC website] 💰

We beekeepers often get asked if honey is good for hay fever and, sometimes, if it helps wounds and ulcers to heal. The US Food and Drugs Administration [Report, BBKA News, Sept 2022] has found traces of sildenafil (Viagra) in honey sold by four honey-distribution companies. I await the first...

Last evening Daphne and I attended a splendid performance of South Pacific at Sadlers Wells. Lots of goose pimples, tingling down the spine, nostalgic tears in eyes etc (most of the audience were wrinklies like us........) At the curtain fall there was thunderous applause from the audience but...

I recently planted some strawberries on the allotment and one plant has had nearly all its leaves eaten. I've consulted Collins Complete Guide to British Butterflies and Moths = poor - no guide to caterpillars. My Field Guide to Butterflies and other Insects has several pages of b'fly and moth...

It's many months since the merits or demerits of WB have been discussed here. The kit is expensive; Complete set £28.60, refill £20 at Thorne's - about the going price on Amazon etc. https://www.thorne.co.uk/search?s=wasp+bane I believe the manufacturers have designed it to be difficult to...