I managed to get the inspections done on the hives in my garden today - all queens seen, all laying well and a fair few drones in the hives, especially the double brood hives. I have one weak hive, on about 6 frames, but there is a lot of sealed brood so numbers will pick … Continue reading Population Explosion
Asian Hornet Traps
My Asian Hornet monitoring traps have been re-filled. Have you got your traps out?
Supers Warmer
My new Supers Heater Trolley from Abelo arrived this morning, so I hope to be able to warm up the supers that are in my bee shed so that I can extract the honey, somewhat later than planned. To use, you stack your supers on this heated platform to warm them for extraction. The heavy … Continue reading Supers Warmer
Start of a new season
I did the first proper inspection of the year today, checking all the hives in my garden. All were lovely and strong, plenty of bees and brood, but one was a bit low on stores, so I will have to keep my eye on that one. I moved the overwintered nucs into hives for them … Continue reading Start of a new season
Incubator disaster!
I checked my incubator last night, like I always do before I go to bed, and was horrified to see that the temperature was only 24°C when it should be 35°C. I checked to see if the temp setting had been inadvertently changed, but it hadn't. I opened the door, and found the fan constantly … Continue reading Incubator disaster!
Plastic-eating caterpillars could save the planet
MOST scientific research follows a logical progression, with one experiment following up on the findings of another. Every now and then, however, serendipity plays a part. Such is the case with a paper just published in Current Biology, which reveals to the world a moth capable of chewing up plastic.
No smoke without fuel
I went to check on two of my out apiaries today, upon arrival at the first site, I went to light my smoker......... Ah! I had forgotten to bring any smoker fuel - oops! Good job my bees are docile, so I carried out my inspections without smoke. One of the hives, which I found … Continue reading No smoke without fuel
Carniolan Bees
I am more and more favouring the Carniolan bee as my preferred sub species of the honey bee, and am in the process of changing all my queens to Carniolans by raising my own. Origin The Carniolan (Apis mellifera carnica) honey bee is the subspecies of the Western honey bee that has naturalized and adapted … Continue reading Carniolan Bees