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It would appear that I'm now the new education.... something (secretary? Member? Lord of the universe of) for our association. Education is my "thing" at the moment, I'm still a new beekeeper and the lack of access to our association for people like me has been a big part of why I'm now doing what I am. I now have another problem; what do I do for people who are several years down the line from where I am?

If I have any useful advice to dish out at this point it's that ...

Hi
so just thought I would post some pictures of catching a swarm on sunday.
It was tricky as it was spread on 3 branch stubs. (read on below)


So after wetting the bees I used a tin to shake them into. (Would have loved to use a bigger box but the stubs blocked access) ...

I think I still have 4 of the queens alive.
On Monday I made up 5 apideas with nurse bees from my strongest colony and put a queen in each inside a hair roller.
It's best to leave the bees in an apidea queenless and closed in for a couple of days so that they are ready to accept a queen or a queen cell but I had the queens already so I put each one in a roller for protection rather than running them in the front door.
I left the apideas closed for 48 hours with a roller inside ...

The swarm had been hanging since teatime yesterday and as yet no decision had been taken about their new home. There had been some quite vigorous dancing and even a bit of shoulder-shaking, but still the bees couldn't make up their collective mind.

The trouble was, there were too many good places available and the bees had divided into factions. The more conservative ones favoured sticking with what they knew, and there was a very well-sited National hive just a mile away, with ...

Sometimes on Mull it's necessary to inspect the bees in less than ideal conditions. They have a wonderful habit of quietly getting on with swarm preparations then departing the minute the sun comes out!

Yesterday was sunny but with a cold north wind and a temperature in the shade of only 9 degrees. However, the girls were flying better than they had for some time and the apiary was reasonably sheltered from the wind. Having done my first spring inspection on 10 April, it was high ...