I wrote a post back in January about a hive I had which contained the bees we rescued from a wall in a squash court in 2016. As it was free comb cut from the cavity in the brood box, I couldn't have access apart from 6 frames in the super above, from which I …
First hive check
The past few weeks have been warm, sunny and mild here in the UK, and as such, the bees have been out looking for pollen and nectar. I don't normally check my bees until March or even April, but as they have been so active, I wanted to see what was going on and they …
Comb building
I was going through some of my files and discovered this: https://youtu.be/821uVRAcZ1I I think it brilliantly shows how the bees build their comb, and why I don't use foundation. Worker bees exude little flakes of wax from glands in their abdomen, and mould them with their mandibles in to the familiar hexagonal cells. The bees …