Category Archives: Bee-keeping

Memory Lane, 12th June 2022: New apiary site

Posted on February 16, 2024 by james

I’ve been looking for a new apiary site somewhere nearby and the owners of local property have offered me space in an area they can’t really use alongside this south-facing pasture. Access isn’t perfect, but not bad — the actual … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 11th May 2022: Wax on, wax off

Posted on February 12, 2024 by james

My bee shed needed to move so I’ve been pulling together everything that was in it. I’m mostly using starter strips and unwaxed frames now, so I’m not entirely sure what to so with this lot, that is “some of” … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 3rd May 2022: A double-decker xylophone

Posted on February 6, 2024 by james

Ok, perhaps not 😀 At the start of 2022 I needed to make up a lot a frames for beehives, but storage once made up is a bit of a problem, especially as my bee shed was due to move … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 13th April 2022: Incorrectly-made brood boxes

Posted on February 5, 2024 by james

Years back I got hold of a load of polystyrene brood boxes and supers from Abelo for much cheapness because they were made with both top- and bottom-bee space, as you can see from the photos. I’ve been wondering what … Continue reading →

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A short-distance hive move

Posted on March 4, 2022 by james

I’ve been needing to move a couple of colonies from my old apiary site on one side of the house to a new site on the other side of the house for a while and planned to have it all … Continue reading →

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BBKA Module exam bemusement

Posted on January 12, 2022 by james

A few years after I’d started keeping bees I took the first of the BBKA’s exam modules (Module 1 – Honey Bee Management). It felt quite a struggle at the time as circumstances meant that two of us had to … Continue reading →

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Honey extraction (part 3)

Posted on September 29, 2021 by james

I think I’ve found the electrical fault — looks like the heater element in the uncapping tray has died — possibly shorting neutral to earth. A quick check shows it to be in its eleventh year, so perhaps I can’t … Continue reading →

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Honey extraction (part 2)

Posted on September 29, 2021 by james

Sometimes life just doesn’t want to do you any favours 🙂 I started extracting the rest of my honey this morning. By lunchtime I only had eleven more frames to process. I shut up the shed and came in for … Continue reading →

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Honey extraction day

Posted on September 29, 2021 by james

Today was intended to be honey extraction day. For once I was hoping that the weather wouldn’t be warm enough for bees and wasps to want to be about, but it didn’t happen and things just went downhill from there, … Continue reading →

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One more swarm

Posted on June 21, 2021 by james

I can stagger about a bit now the antibiotics are having an effect, so this afternoon I was doing odd jobs in the garden to stave off the boredom and when I was taking my shoes off to come in … Continue reading →

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