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The winter has been very wet especially in February with only a few touches of frost. In the main, the bees have only taken defecating flights although there has been an increase of bees returning with pollen on their legs lately. The mild, wet winter has meant that many plants are already shooting. The hellebores… Continue reading Honeybees overwintering

We removed the queen excluder and left the hive with a super on with 3 frames of capped honey and others with honey and nectar. The brood box has plenty of frames with honey and nectar and we are confident that this should supply the bees with sufficient food until the spring. We will heft… Continue reading Honeybees settled for the winter

With have completed of second recommended application of Apiguard for our bees. The results look good as the mite count was very low. However, I think what we have to look carefully for wax moths as the removable floored showed several clusters that maybe their lava. There was also a large wax moth cocoon too.… Continue reading Varroa Mites and their treatment

We have had our Varroa treatment in the hive for a week and now need to change the pack for the second week. http://www.nationalbeeunit.com/index.cfm?pageid=93 For more information on this parasite which can cause so many problems for the honeybee. Fortunately, the bees don’t appear to have shown any adverse reaction to the treatment, which is… Continue reading Honeybees & Varroa part 2

Having put the board in on Monday as the forecast was cooler weather we waited 5 days to see the outcome. The board had been painted white to aid seeing the mites. Vaseline was applied to the edges and from the front to back to form 4 oblong areas prior to putting the board in… Continue reading Honeybees and the varroa mite

We are experiencing some odd weather at present, heavy rain showers and of late high winds. Over the last week, the bees have been very busy when the weather permits. Despite a number of heavy rain showers they have been out foraging. The level of pollen on them is encouraging as they build supplies for… Continue reading High winds and rain not ideal for bees

The Tap Trap has worked well, reducing the number. of wasps in the apiary. However, it will need a recharge of bait soon. It has been very effective and we are pleased with the trap. Presently we are using a bait composed of berry jam and water only and it appears to be working satisfactorily.… Continue reading Update on wasp traps

The apiary is now having a regular visitation from wasps. As a consequence, we are going to make a wasp trap as indicated by drbeekeeper on his website http://drbeekeeper.com/2013/08/the-battle-of-wasps-attacking-bees-heres-how-my-bees-are-winning/ Meanwhile, we have ordered a wasp tap-trap from our bee equipment supplier. Information about the trap can be found at https://www.taptrap.com/en/trap/tap-trap The drbeekeeper trap is homemade… Continue reading Wasps, wasps and more wasps

Five days ago we opened the hive and noticed something odd in some of the brood cells. As a consequence, we open the hive early this week and took two photos of the brood frames. The brood frames were being drawn out well and there was plenty of food on the frames. However, there were… Continue reading Possible hive problems for our honeybees

We opened the hive at 18.40 to check the condition of the colony and the feeder. Because we had not seen eggs previously this was our main aim. Finally, we saw a good number of eggs and larva in various stages prior to capping. However, we are concerned that a number of the uncapped larvae… Continue reading Opening the hive for the second time