sustainable beekeeping ∙ baking ∙ chickens ∙ wildlife
I often hear beekeepers say that it's not too late to lose your bees even in March, usually with a reference to feeding. I was asked by some friends (and former students of mine) to do a PM on their hive as the colony - having been active earlier a few weeks previously - had …
It was the first proper warm day of spring yesterday so I was able to get in to my hives, and also transfer a colony over from a WBC to their new home (a National), ready to be transported in a few weeks when they have propolised the frames to the box for security. With …
Even though my hives are just across the road from me, I'm trying to limit my visits to the apiary in light of "The Restrictions", and when I go, I wear overalls and take a hat/veil with me just to be on the safe side. However, I wanted to make sure they were ok and …
I went to check on my bees today and see if they were flying, as it is quite mild and the wind has dropped. There was activity with all of them apart from the very late swarm I collected in August. I noticed my stick entrance block had been dislodged so I presumed a mouse …
We live in complicated times. Grass-fed meat or veganism; plastic use or glass and metal; electric cars or public transport. "Save the Bees" is similarly fraught with problems and there is a vast amount of misinformation regarding pollinators and their relative impact. I recently saw a Twitter thread about the introduction of beehives on to …
I collected a number of swarms this year, and probably a third of them have gone on to be viable colonies. I am pretty ruthless with swarms in that I leave them to their own devices: if they don't get going or the queen doesn't mate well, I don't throw a lot at them to …
The wasps are out in force at the moment as they no longer have brood to look after, and therefore are not only , but also deprived of their sugary hit they have been getting from the larvae. Wasps catch meaty prey for the larvae but cannot digest it themselves, so chew it up for …
We've had a beautiful couple of weeks here in Sussex, and I was wondering how my bees were doing. We have had a distinctly unbeautiful patch of weather during June and I was appalled to see on Twitter that many people's colonies had starved, having been caught short following the removal of a spring crop …
Continuing with the feral bee theme, Paul had put up bait hives in Market Wood in the hope of enticing a swarm from one of the nearby oak tree colonies. Sure enough, there was lots of activity and bringing in of pollen when he checked after a week or so. https://videopress.com/v/2gTKVSni?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata We decided that these …
At my introductory beekeeping courses, I always recommend using a British National hive, or its cousin the WBC, as they are readily available, and provide beginners with large boxes and robust, well-proportioned frames with which to handle the bees. Just because they are used commercially doesn't mean one has to manage one's bees in that …
Wayward Bee 