Recent content by Mint Bee

I agree entirely. Moving WBCs is a PITA

some people have no consideration for passengers :LOL:

WBCs bases have legs

hives should be placed in the car so that the frames are aligned with direction of travel (not perpendicular). This reduces frame movement and the chance to squash bees. don't move with the lifts on and strap brood / supers to base directly. they are bulky and will allow boxes to move during...

with the poor weather and nectar flow, what little the was in the combs before it warmed up had started to crystalize in the center of the combs. With the decent temperatures in the week before extraction, bees bought in raw nectar which hadn't been ripened to honey, and failed shake test, so...

Bramble starting to flower. feels early

harvested about 40lbs over the weekend from 4 hives. All frames would have failed shake test, but I didn't want to leave it anymore as it was starting to partially crystalize in the comb. It came out off scale of the refractometer I have (30%), but was cloudy from fine crystals after filtration...

heavy petal drop on the OSR so harvested some frames at the weekend. Maybe 40 lb. if lucky. mostly uncapped and 30+% moisture so will need drying. Already starting to set in the comb so I've added the supers to a hive that has just been upgraded from a nuc, in the hope that they use the the...

If you can do that / want to do that its fine. If you have a few apiaries, its definitely a more practical approach to consider apiary biosecurity rather than individual hives.. Plenty of mixing of drones and workers in an apiary rather negates treating individual hives as separate entities, IMO

it would work, but any sort of structure to 15' is likely to fall foul of council boundary guidance, if someone complains, IIRC edited to amend inches to feet - spinal tap moment :cool:

Rubbish. Just because one may keep bees in a small garden, doesn't mean one should. If this was a neighbour of mine, I think I'd be well within my rights to be mightily pissed off in their actions restricting access to my garden . IMO defiantly fit with the guidance for anti social behavior...

so @SWEET you are telling us that you have been conducting full frame inspections from March (as would usually be carried out for a spring disease check) or lifting the odd frame?

more days over 30C in the summer, longer warmer autumns, very little in the way of cold weather in the winter, variable springs in duration, rain and temperature. Very general observations, and from the south of the UK, but I'm certain all have an impact on forage and bee behavior

Worth giving the swarm queen a chance. Some swarms I've collected locally have been excellent, some have been awful both in terms of temperament and productivity and need re-queening. However, if they are any good, you could always combine with the small hive to save buying in a queen

I think there should be more respect in general for those work and make a living in the wider agriculture industry with the vagaries of the weather. Certainly more pressure and costs without any corresponding increases in honey price generally for beekeepers, even without this years poor...