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Due to a moderate anaphylactic reaction with my wife and circumstances leaving me with very little free time I’m sadly giving up beekeeping, and wish to sell all my equipment and bees. I would give priority to anyone who gave me a reasonable offer for the entire lot, rather than splitting...

/Rant I know I should be grateful, but I have just spent a most unpleasant afternoon extracting. Had one super of capped cut comb, rest uncapped been ripening for a few days. Needling it is a right faff, then needs spinning for about 10 minutes. Goes back to solid at the bottom of the...

Went to out apiary ( to put in a clearer board) and when finished, bunged up smoker with grass and waited until it was cool to the touch. Drove home with smoker in passenger footwell of SWMBO's car. Forgot to remove it. About 5 hours later, got in car to drive back to get supers- noticed smoky...

Serious flow here at the moment - lime and brambles I'm assuming. Presumably a combination of wet roots and humid weather seems to be helping nectar production. The showers don't seem to be putting the foragers off.

Had a look at a test frame that I put in a double brood hive couple of days ago - no QC's present but a queen present on the test frame. Doesn't appear to be laying yet. I guess that it makes sense that a queen would be attracted to where she ought to be (active brood nest). Coincidence or what?

I thought I'd give national polyhives a go this season - and for the moment any disadvantages are far outweighed by the advantages... Pros - no question that brood , honey and wax production are increased. In particular bees will expand the brood nest to the most lateral frames. - they...

Pictures show an experimental mating hive that I contrived last year that needs significant improvement to it, least of all a decent roof! The remarkable thing is that a small nucleus succesfully overwintered in this. What is even more remarkable is that I removed the queen earlyish March (...

Thornes (non budget) make. About 4 years old. Comes with Varroa Floor 2 Brood boxes 2 Supers Miller feeder Queen excluder Eke for apiguard (Home made) Lifts for above. I'm standardising my equipment to Nationals, so open to (sensible) offers. Collection only. PM me if interested.

6 frame overwintered nuc for sale. Clipped/marked 2011 queen. Starting to burst out of box already, and therefore need to be put in full hive pretty soon. Good tempered italian*local bees. Can sell in rather natty box(Photo shows box without roof- roof is felt covered), or bring your own box...

Afternoon people I've got a couple of nuclei in paynes polyboxes that are a little light, and I need to give them some fondant. I've got the ekes, but if I just put the fondant ( in takeaway containers) on the frames and then the eke and then the supplied clear polycarbonate "crown board" I...

About to go off down the Poly route and put in an order to the above. Their foundation seems competitively priced and it would make sense to add some on to the order to save carriage. I've generally used Kemble foundation - can anyone pass comment on the Wynne Jones stuff? Cheers Pman

I'm going to give polyhives a go next year, probably the paynes national. Excuse the ignorance, but I see a lot of talk of painting them. Can anyone fill me in on the rationale for doing so? Cheers Pman

Morning all Bottled up some of my honey extracted 4 weeks ago(was set solid in bucket so had to be warmed to bottle). This batch had to be pressed rather than spun and presumably as a result has tiny bubbles throughout it. Taste, water content etc all normal so not fermenting. 24 hours in the...

To go with my (ahem) rebranding of my honey I am having some rather funky clear labels made up, and to go with this I want some clear tamperproof labels. Essentially all they are are 10mm *75mm strips of clear adhesive plastic. Googling produces nothing: any ideas of suppliers I could try...

OK, I'm prepared to be shot down in flames, but.......... What about loading super with wet combs, and then using cheapy cling film to wrap them up like you see some suitcases in airports. Advantages (as I see them) 1) do not have to be stored in bee/wasp proof conditions 2) no drips of honey...

Finally girded my loins to extract the 11 supers I took off during the week. Firstly the good news - full of a deep golden thick honey that is certainly the best I have tasted. The bad news: it is an absolute pig to extract ( its not crystallised, but almost seems slightly thixotropic). What...

If any of you were thinking of exporting your honey to China I wouldn't bother. Price is about 90p per kilo! Beekeepers sell it directly from their mobile apiaries from the road, consisting of some 40/50 hives about 10ft from the retail area. Sadly we didn't stop to get a closer look at the...

I have a successfully mated queen in a Kieler whom I now want to put into an expanding nucleus with a queen who I wish to replace. Anyone had any experience with a newspaper type unite with the kieler? I doubt I will need the kieler again this year, and it seems a shame just to lose ( OK, not...

I have put a kieler mating hive within binocular distance of a comfy chair: Two successive afternoons queen has come out for orientation flights. The curious thing that I observed was the workers behaviour. Much excitement, but as soon as the queen was anywhere close to the entrance to the...

There is a lot of information about possible maximal times from a queen hatching to a queen laying, but what are the minimal times people have experienced? I made up a nucleus with a spare QC (No others present on the comb) that I know hatched between 26th and 27th June. Laying today (6th July...