I just dont understand it! Why oh why get a queen from abroad? I mean what possible benefit can be gained from doing so, or is it easier to get queens from abroad? Im not sure I mean how difficult is it to phone your local beekeepers association and see what they say? Failing that a chat with local beekeepers should provide fruitful and perhaps queens can be found at no cost.

Not only that if you find a queen locally it gives you a chance to see the hive and discuss with the owner the temperament and other traits.…

Jonathon Goodwin the escapologist uses bees to “entertain”. Below is a video of him playing bee roulette and in his new show on the Discovery channel he is covered head to toe in bees while he escapes a locked box. At least he gets stung a lot! Numpty.

Im unsure if I agree with what he is doing as his over reaction to bee stings in the below video teaches people nothing about how they should react (which is dont flap your hands and arms around like an idiot). It also increases peoples fear of bees as they scream and…

Well its getting to that time of year again when liquid feeds are no longer an option, by the end of October the cold weather should have taken hold rendering the bees unable to cope with syrup feed.

Depending on how much honey has been harvested or the strength of the hive will depend on the required feeding. If you have a strong hive and you have not taken any honey it would be fairly safe to say the bees have stored enough honey to get them through the Winter. Although checks should be made throughout the season to make…

Below is a poster that can help you identify Bumble Bees. There has been some recent talk about the not very well known Cuckoo Bumble Bee.

I must admit I never even knew the existence of the Cuckoo Bumble Bee. Seemingly it finds a different bumble bee varietys nest then it will either kill the queen bumble bee straight away or hang around the nest for a while picking up the scent and then get rid of the queen.

The workers are sterile and dont really have much other choice but to accept the new Cuckoo Bumble Bee Queen and…

Bee stings or apitherapy (The term comes from the Latin apis, which means “bee”) as it is known or BVT (Bee Venom Therapy) is thought by many to reduce the effects of arthritis. The bee venom is administered either by needle or actual bee sting. The theory has been banded around for years, with the main concept being the bee venom reduces inflamation. This is of course true as South Korean found that the principle peptide in bee venom (melittin) blocks the expression of inflammatory genes that can cause painful tissue swelling in rheumatoid arthritis patients. Another anti inflamatory subtance…

A great aid when carrying out hive manipulation is a manipulation cloth. Its a very simple design with a rectangular metal frame and two pieces of cloth attached to each long side of the metal frame.

As I took the pictures you can see I was amazed at what a great bee calming tool this is, especially useful for beekeepers in more built up areas. Work through the gap in the manipulation cloth and when finished in that area simply slide the cloth to a new bit or if you require to walk away from the hive for something fold…

A good tip for beekeepers is to keep an accessible water source for the hive to use. Rather than an open water source like a bird bath or similar, bees prefer to suck the water from a damp area.

The absolute perfect solution would be a small sandpit (even a bowl or flowerpot of sand) near the hive and kept moist. However if you dont have any sand the bees will settle for other things! Have you got some seed trays with compost?

As you can see from the picture they will drink from compost in a seed tray quite…

Whats with the bumble bee explosion over the past month? Their numbers seem to have boomed this month; last week I thought one of the trees in my garden might actually take flight it had so many bumble bee wings beating on it! The buzzing was so loud you could hear it 10 metres away.

The numbers are incredible and give me hope, as the poor bumbler hasnt seemed to be doing terrificaly well in recent years, perhaps its the media attention of the plight of the bumble bee and the upsurge in purchasing of bumble bee nest boxes. Maybe…

A recent conversation with my Mum has sparked this post and I think it raises and interesting point regarding the health of bees.

Obviously one of the benefits to keeping bees is the crop of honey provided but lets not forget why the bees make the honey in the first place….its certainly not for us to put in our tea? No, it is of course to help them survive the harsh winter months. But we can supplement their food/diet with sugar syrup and fondant I hear you cry! This I imagine is especially prevelant in more commercial apiaries but perhaps its…

Well it seems that we have to do all we can to help aid the bees survival. One of the things we can all do to help whether you have a garden or not is providing bees with the flowering plants they love.

I say you dont need a garden because you can utilise your window ledges and balconies by using window boxes and pots etc.

So what can we plant that bees love?

Well from my own experiences watching bees in my garden they love wild flowers, herbs (especially rosemary and thyme), escallonia, catmint and buddleia.

I strongly advise creating…