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In early May one of the colonies in my teaching apiary started to display excessive defensive behaviour, following and stinging people for about 100 metres from the hive. I practice a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour for the following reasons: It is very unpleasant for me and for the people who come to…

The first bees evolved around 60 million years ago. Since then, they have survived massively destructive events, including meteorites hitting the earth with mass extinction of species such as the dinosaurs, great geological upheavals, ice ages and more. The secrets of the success of the honey bee are its genetic diversity, its ability to adapt…

Association Colony The colony that was kindly donated by David Marsden, a former FDBKA member, has completed its quarantine. It has been treated with Oxalic Acid for phoretic varroa and passed a health and temperament assessment before being moved to the Training Apiary 10 days ago. This is the same procedure as for a collected…

Many beekeepers suffer colony losses in winter and early spring and wonder what happened. Most losses are avoidable so let’s have a look at some of the common reasons why colonies die out, how we can prevent it and what we can do to help colonies that are vulnerable. Health It is important to carry…

The days are getting longer and lighter, birdsong is in the air, there’s a growing sense of the earth awakening, reenergised after a long sleep. The winter bees in the darkness of their hives can feel this change and they are starting to prepare for spring. On milder days they will venture out on cleansing…

Introduction The honey bee colony builds up to its maximum foraging force in July for the summer flow when they must accumulate enough food stores to last for the next 7 or 8 months. The population of ‘summer’ bees rapidly declines from now on until there only remains a small number of ‘winter’ bees. Unlike…

The day was divided into two sessions, one for beginners and beekeepers with less than 2 years’ experience and the second for improvers and those preparing for the BBKA Basic Assessment. The programme was built around the following topics: Beginners The aims were: To carry out a safe, efficient inspection with confidence, to recognise the…

It’s the time of year when beekeepers are buying in new queens and are faced with the uncertainty of whether or not the queen will be accepted in her new colony. The following method was first described by L.E. Snelgrove ¹ in 1940 who claimed an almost 100% success rate. The method is based on…

There have been many reports of winter and spring colony losses this year for which there could be any number of causes. One answer to the mysterious death of a previously productive colony is infection with a microsporidian, or spore-forming pathogen, called Nosema. Two types have been identified in Britain, N.apis and N. ceranae. They…

General Every intervention by the beekeeper is disruptive and stressful for the bees and the hive should only be opened if there’s a good reason for doing so. It is particularly important to recognize this in spring. The population of the colony is out of balance as the winter bees are starting to die and…