It should be fairly straightforward, shouldn’t it? A colony makes several virgin queens, eventually whittles them down to one, and she flies off on several mating flights. She returns to the welcoming embrace of her workers, and begins the long process of laying hundreds or thousands of eggs every day during the summer, autumn, and … Read more
It really is quite incredible how a supposedly intelligent creature such as myself, with years of experience – I am in my early sixties after all – can continue to have an endless supply of Walrus wobbles. Yet, this is the case. Some of my calamities stem from idiocy or carelessness, but others appear to … Read more
Sometimes unexpected things happen in beekeeping. What seems weird to me, or peculiar, or interesting, may not chime with you, but here are a few cases that caused a raised eyebrow or two. Welcome to my beekeeping twilight zone. Her Majesty Returns Recently, the Mole and I were inspecting a colony that had clearly swarmed. … Read more
This is a time when some large discrepancies show up between colonies. One of my apiaries was absolutely booming and nearly every hive bursting with bees. In other places, the picture is more varied. However, I did find my first charged queen cell today, so the season is well and truly underway for me. Swarming … Read more
If I Had A Magic Wand… I have put together a brief survey of my readers – please spare a minute of your busy day to share your experience. Thanks! There was a poll here, but it’s closed now. Here are the results:
Raising queens has helped my beekeeping enormously. I have been able to compare hives headed by home bred queens with ‘self-made’ queens. The latter tends to occur when bees swarm or when I make a ‘walk away split’. I leave them with one queen cell from which to create a new mother. It’s a comparison … Read more
There is that saying, “if it were easy, everyone would do it,” and I think it applies to some aspects of beekeeping. Frankly, in the early years of one’s beekeeping life, just keeping them alive and well is a significant achievement. Come to think about it, that still applies to me now after nine years … Read more
There is always something new to learn about bees. The same probably applies to almost anything. Material for my blog posts should be endless and easy to come by. Ubiquitous, you might say. I have a vast library of books, interviews with beekeepers, my own experience, research papers, and so on. Now and then I … Read more