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Tonight I had a dander to see the bees. Three colonies are left in the apiary while their more populous cousins are up in a favoured spot in the mountains. Two of the stay-at-homes are focusing on Himalayan balsam and one wasn't. The one that wasn't had four bees all doing the same dance on one frame. OK, let's have a look. Six seconds. Six?! On the Sussex scale posted earlier by Nellie that means a little over 7 km. Which way? Over the hills? With the benefit of Google Maps I can see ...

Very newby. Have smith hive and have been reading every book and forum I can but the more I read the more confused I get. Bees are still busy with balsam and willow weed and now wonder if I should start with the apiguard as early August is frequently advised for treatment and when should I remove the supers. Advice would be appreciated

Today I made my first ever sale of honey. An historic first not just because it is our first sale, nor because it is almost certainly the first honey to be sold from this garden in its long 350+ year history, but it is quite possibly the first jar of honey ever produced and sold in this group of islands. Although at this stage I'm growing bees rather than producing honey, I had reason to remove a ’super’ I’d put on to allow the bees to keep their own winter supplies. I’ve no proper extracting equipment ...

About a week ago I registered with the National Bee Units BeeBase website and database. Indicating location and providing information on apiary sites was easy enough, and then I made a start on recording inspections.

By the time I reached the fourth inspection for first two and then four hives at one apiary site, I was already feeling somewhat muddled and frustrated by the database's interface.

Not user-friendly, certainly: for examplle each colony inspection record ...

A succession of artificial and natural swarming in the course of little more than a fortnight may prove to be the turning point in my bee-keeping. Such a short while ago I had just one viable colony, plus the remains of a colony that had lost its queen but was nonetheless producing drones. Now I've three more hives with queens, though I'm not yet sure whether they are mated. The first scent of autumn is in the air, and the weather has turned much cooler and wetter: I'm now concerned that we may ...