I thought Id write a quick article regarding swarming, in particular some signs to look out for which may denote that your hive is about to or will soon swarm.

1. Queen Cups
One of the most obvious swarming behaviours is the building of queen cells. These cells normally reside on the edge of frames but they can appear almost anywhere. To prevent swarming remove these queen cells, unless you require to superseed etc. See the picture on the right:

2. Queing and Overcrowding
If the hive entrance is fully open (i.e. no mouse guards etc) and bees…

You need to know what to look for when choosing a site:

1. Books may tell you that the hives should be in full sun all day, and in this country that may well be a good rule of thumb to stick to. However, having kept bees in South Africa for many years, I found that that was not a good idea for two reasons.
The first was that wax melts at 110 deg. F. If we start getting very warm summers, being in full sun may cause a problem. The bees will be spending a lot of time…

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.…

Agricultural Research Services (ARS) are making positive strides in creating a strain of honeybee which is proactive in attacking the Varroa mite head on!

ARS are focusing on creating honeybees with a certain genetic trait; Varroa Sensitive Hygiene. The VSH trait in the bee means it is more likely to find and remove mite infested pupae from the capped brood developing sealed inside the comb cells. This can be obviously difficult for the bees to detect as the mite attacks the brood within the capped cells and so rely on the protective layer of wax to escape the bees natural…

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 December without doubt is one of the quietest months for beekeepers. Winter should well and truely be here and all the hard work done by the bees and their keepers. However there are a few things we can do in this quietest of months:

Check the hive is weather proof; a water leak could be disasterous. If a period of sunshine follows a heavy snowfall you may want to shade the hive entrance so any bees do not feel tempted to venture out, rapidly chill and die.

Its also a great time to read up on some of those…

There is a lot of advice online which tells beekeepers to ventillate the top of their hives by putting an entrance there. The reasons behind this are:

1. Bees release metabolic water as they consume honey. The warm moisture rises up to the lid of the hive and will condense and rain down on the bee cluster.

2. If you only have one entrance at the bottom it may get blocked by snow and the bees could suffocate.

I say and a lot of seasoned beekeepers say nae! With the proper ventilation neither of these reasons are valid.

I think…

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…