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I got started the other way around. I had no idea or ambition to be a beekeeper but a swarm arrived in my plum tree 20 years ago one very wet June. I knew a beekeeper and asked him if he would like to come and collect it. He asked if I wouldn't like to keep it myself and loaned me a nucleus box...

It is good that you use natural products to target your garden pests. The only thing I would suggest is not to use products on plants that are actively blooming and that bees will be visiting. Bees will forage for up to 3 miles so unless you are very remote, there is a likelihood that your bees...

Hi Good luck with your bees when you get them. Fire away with your questions but don't be surprised if you get more than one different answer. Views on beekeeping are probably more varied than those on poultry keeping, so there will probably be many responses and all of them could be right...

Swarms can be captured when they cluster, by spreading an old bed sheet on the ground below them, shaking the cluster into a cardboard box or similar and then placing it upside down on the sheet with a corner propped up slightly to allow access to the box. I paint the inside of a suitable sized...

Hi and Happy New Year from me too. It was about 8C here yesterday and very calm. so all 8 of my hives showed a little activity.... mostly cleansing flights and foraging for water. One of the hives has dysentery which I think may be due to Ivy honey..... we got a mild autumn and there was quite...

@noble That's really interesting. I'm wondering if there is much migratory beekeeping in your area (bees pollenating early crops....fruit or nuts perhaps) that would cause so many swarms to be looking for homes in February, although I imagine your climate is almost sub tropical compared to the...

Wow! You must be in an amazing part of the world for bees! How many wild colonies is that now that you have cut out and hived? Must be costing you a fortune for hives. At least you had an empty one to put this into. Funny how it wasn't empty for long. How fortuitous!

@noble In my experience wax moth is a symptom of a weak and/or failing hive rather than the cause of it. A strong hive will keep wax moth at bay. A swarm will even take over a hive that has died out and been decimated by wax moth, clean it out and start anew and be perfectly healthy....it is...

@Leahs Mom In 19 years of beekeeping I've never fed my bees pollen patties and only very occasionally syrup. That said, I've never dealt with a package of bees (or ever want to) but I appreciate the need to feed packages because they don't come with a packed lunch (tummies full of honey) like...

I had some ants that looked like they were setting up home between the crown board and the roof in one of my weaker colonies. I also used ground cinnamon, dusting the top side of the crown board and underside of the roof with it and it worked for me too.

Yes it looks like you have a bit of cross combing going on where there has been a honey flow. What width are your bars and did you use wider bars when they started laying down stores? Have you done any inspections since installing them? I think you may no longer be able to inspect them comb by...

I have gabled roofs on my top bar hives and I put an old feather pillow on top of the bars for insulation, or a stack of old newspapers or some wool carpet off cuts.... but then I'm a hoarder so there are always plenty of things lying around here that will do the job without buying something...

In a top bar hive the bees will almost always locate the brood nest nearest the entrance holes and the honey stores behind that. If the hive has entrance holes in the centre then if they are allowed to expand both ways they will often store honey at both ends. If you live in an area where...

@Leahs Mom I would rather (and do) feed my bees syrup made from granulated white sugar than feed them honey from another apiary, no matter how reputable I felt the source... Pathogens like AFB are known to be transmitted via spores in honey and what may not adversely affect one colony that...

I lean very much towards natural beekeeping but I would agree that it is better to feed a colony than let them die. I only use swarms to populate hives and sometimes a late caste swarm will need help to get through winter. I don't treat my bees and the past few winters I have had 100% survival...

I can see some drone brood n the "queenless" colony which suggests she is either failing and unable to lay fertile eggs or you have a laying worker. This happens when there is no brood or queen pheromone in the hive to supress the workers from developing ovaries. It is very difficult to requeen...

Hi noble I think it's absolutely fantastic that you are cutting these colonies out of the trailer and even more so, when you have no previous experience with bees. It is far easier to fix a cut out comb into a frame than try to attach it to a top bar and I've got no real gripe with framed...

For the hobby beekeeper, a top bar hive makes an awful lot of sense and my bees are certainly happy in them and do well. Start up costs of buying a Langstroth hive, frames, foundation, bees and beesuit and smoker and maybe even an extractor are in excess of £500. I have a neighbour who reckons...

@ Happy Chooks My colonies give themselves a new queen every year after the old queen leaves with the prime swarm. If I am lucky, I catch the swarm and she goes on to found a new colony in a new hive whilst the original colony raises new queens, to either swarm again and again (cast swarms...

Quote: 99% of the time a swarm is the bees means of reproducing. You need to see it as giving birth and a natural birth at that. Compare that with a package which is like a premature baby, born by cesaerian (sp?) section and with a transplanted heart (since the queen is not usually related to...