Category Archives: Bee-keeping

Bee Invasion!

Posted on May 13, 2024 by james

As I was about to sit down to dinner on Saturday evening, the owner of a farm where I have some hives turned up to tell me that a swarm (possibly or possibly not from one of my hives; I … Continue reading →

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Bee Inspections, 11th May 2024

Posted on May 13, 2024 by james

Before heading off to the “Team Bees” apiary, I went through my hives at home. Nothing too exciting going on… One colony needed supers and another looks to be superseding. In another colony I found the queen, but most of … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 7th May 2023: “Team Bees”

Posted on May 13, 2024 by james

On behalf of a local charity that has been set up to grow and cook food for people who are unable to provide themselves with hot meals, I have been setting up a new apiary. There’s very little money available, … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 5th May 2023: Demaree boards

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

I thought I’d try the Demaree method for swarm management this year, so I made up a couple of boards to help. They go above the supers, under the upper brood box, so the arrangement from bottom to top might … Continue reading →

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A new beekeeping toy

Posted on May 8, 2024 by james

For me, this makes a lot of sense rather than having to rely on gas heating or lugging a battery to all of my hives. I’ve wanted one for a while, but asked for contributions to the cost for my … Continue reading →

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First swarm of the season

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

Kind of… I received a message this afternoon saying that there was a large swarm by the road in our nearest town. I didn’t see the message immediately (I was fighting weeds at the time), but when I asked about … Continue reading →

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More bait hive painting

Posted on May 7, 2024 by james

I’ve almost completed painting my bait hive brood boxes now. At least, I thought I had: six of them. I was sorting through them in the apiary after the bees had gone to bed this evening and found at least … Continue reading →

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Memory Lane, 29th April 2023: Sycamore in flower

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

When this happens I have to fight the need to go and check all the hives in my apiary to make sure they’re not swarming. Once the sycamore starts flowering they go crazy for it and the volume of their … Continue reading →

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A change of boxes for bait hives

Posted on May 6, 2024 by james

I’ve decided that I’m going to use only boxes that aren’t in quite good enough repair for permanent hives as bait hives now. Ones that aren’t perfect, but can be repaired to be reasonably close. Or in some cases, home-made … Continue reading →

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Fat dummies completed

Posted on May 5, 2024 by james

I was hoping to spend today in the veg plot, but the weather was back to its usual appalling self again today. I hid in the workshop and finished off my current set of fat dummies. First up was to … Continue reading →

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