Loving it!
A 2017 queen in 2020 The bees don't care about COVID-19; in fact, they seem to be having a great time. I don't know if it's the reduced air pollution, the beautiful weather or something else, but my bees are…
Tag: Queen Rearing
Harsh Realities
Steve with Keiler Nuc 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…
Making Queens!
Buckfast Breeder Queen In my area, we are entering the busiest time of the beekeeping season. Colonies are expanding rapidly, and some have swarmed or are about to. Spring/early summer is often like that; a massive amount of nectar and…
How’s your Dronage?
Drone: Makro Freak/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.5) Drones are awesome. Everyone should love them, but they have had a bad rap. Many believe that they are "lazy" and all they do is hang around eating stores and contributing nothing much…
Any Beekeeper can make Queens
Queen honeybee by @squgcreative You don't even need to be able to graft larvae to make good queens. Apparently, grafting puts a lot of people off, because they find it too hard or they heard that it was difficult and…
Crazy Busy and Butt Calls
butt call As I was planting out some tomatoes at my Mum's place today, I became aware of a voice emanating from my back pocket. I grabbed my phone and was horrified to discover that I had "butt called" Murray…
10 x 10 Queen Production
Queen Honeybee by David Illig https://flic.kr/p/nCMgZU The Chosen Ones I have some great queens in my hives. My best one is a "yellow dot" in her third season. Her hive is always one of my tallest, giving me loads of…
Mrs Walrus has Spoken
Correx Nucleus Box The honey flow seems to have slowed down for a while, and my bees are less desperate to swarm. Last week I discovered that three of my hives swarmed even though I had checked them, which goes…
We’re all Newbs at Something
Walrus with bees The term "newb" is typically used by gamers to describe somebody new to the game, or gaming, and is somewhat derogatory. However, we all have to start somewhere. Even the most gloriously proficient expert at something was…
Diary of a Beekeeping Walrus
Apple Watch Screen Am I Dying? For the last seven months, perhaps coincidentally since my Dad died, I have been having strange aches and pains in my chest and back. I'm okay with pain, mostly, but when I don't understand…
The voice of Peter Little (Exmoor Bees)
Peter Little and Steve Donohoe Peter Little has always been an absolute legend to me because he knows so much about so much and is quite happy to pass on his wisdom. He runs Exmoor Bees and Beehives with his…
The Voice of David Kemp
David Kemp at Buckfast Abbey in the 1960s Back in the day they used to put honey in cans rather than jars, and the picture shows a very young David Kemp sealing the lids on with the old canning machine.…