Alan Wade and Frank Derwent In this two-part series we examine first the lost art of skepping and its transition to the modern and robust frame hive. To begin we trace the origins and practice […]
Alan Wade As individuals, we all experience collective amnesia whenever it’s time to decide what to do next. We muddle along, sometimes making ill-advised choices, if not first overtaken by events. Bees are somewhat different. […]
Bee Buzz Box – May 2019 Alan Wade No, Bee Buzz Box is not trying to cast aspersions on your midriff. But everyone carries a spare in their boot. It is ready and inflated when […]
Alan Wade Hives with two queens In Part I we explored the ‘The one colony – One queen principle’, the universal condition of the honey bee colony. That two or more queens might be introduced […]
Alan Wade The one colony – One queen principle One of the fundamental operating tenets of any honey bee colony is that it will support only one queen, an innate characteristic of the eleven or so […]
Spring requeening October 31 @ 11:00 am – 5:00 pm Swarm cells at margin of brood nest 12 November 2016 – well time to requeen Maxi Apiary Requeening Wed 31 October 2018 Category: Heavy Lifters working party […]
Supersedure cells on comb face 2 November 2016 (offset – central comb area) – a good case to requeen To requeen or not In my long experience of running honey bee colonies, I’ve finally twigged […]
Mini Apiary Requeening Wed 17 October 2018 Category: Heavy Lifters working party Marked queens are easier to find and their loss is a signal that supersedure has likely taken place […]
What we’ll be doing As bees don’t sleep, I guess there is no reason to entirely forget club bees: no rest for the wicked. Time to unpack the gear back from Steritech to check that […]
Should you prevent swarming? While many natural beekeepers advocate allowing bees to swarm, and there is perhaps some merit in allowing them to do so [see Tom Seeley’s Darwinian Beekeeping Seeley-2017-Darwinian-Beekeeping-An-Evolutionary-Approach-to-Apiculture], there is a very a […]