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Second year in Galway with three National hives, and I'll be honest: when I "heft" the back of a hive I have absolutely no idea what I'm feeling. Last year I thought they…
Second year in İzmir with three hives, and yesterday was awful. The hills are bone dry, nothing has flowered since July, and my smallest colony was light, so I made 2:1 a…
First-year beekeeper in Minnesota, two hives from packages in May. This week I've been finding twenty or thirty dead drones in the grass in front of both hives every morn…
First autumn feed here in Yorkshire and I've made a hash of it. Two colonies, both a bit light after a rubbish August, so I mixed up 2:1 — 4 kg of granulated sugar into 2…
One year ago today I installed my first package in a snowy Minnesota April — okay, the anniversary math is off, it was the day I ORDERED them, but let me have this. One c…
Second-year in Galway. At Tuesday's association meeting one of the old hands said "feed early or feed never" and everyone nodded like it was scripture, and I nodded too, …
Third year in Uppsala and I've been caught out before — two Septembers ago I was still feeding in October and the syrup just sat in the feeder going mouldy. This year I w…
Second year in Ontario and everyone at my club keeps saying "your colonies are raising winter bees right now, protect them from mites." I get the concept — the bees emerg…
Fourth year, eight hives now in central Texas, and I've never registered with the state apiary inspection service. Partly laziness, partly the classic worry — why invite …
First year, two hives (single deep + medium each) in central Minnesota, and everyone says 'feed to weight' like the math is obvious. It is not obvious to me. What I have:…
First year in Yorkshire, started with two nucs, and neither has done brilliantly. One's covering about four frames of bees with a laying queen and a mediocre pattern. The…
Third year, four hives in the North Carolina piedmont, and we're in that ugly gap before goldenrod really opens. My neighbor (lovely woman, endless patience) texted me a …
Second year, three hives in Vermont. I know the bees being raised from now onward are the fat winter bees that have to live until March, and I know mites had to be dealt …
Every year the forum fills up with 'is it too late to X' threads in October, so here's my pre-equinox list from north Georgia, 22 seasons in. Adjust timing north or south…
Every August I tell this story to our club's first-years, so here it is for the forum's. Years back, during a hard Georgia dearth like the one we're in now, I opened a nu…
Second year, two hives in Galway, and sometime in the last month my bees turned into grouters. Every frame is cemented to its neighbours and the box. The crown board migh…
Second year, two hives in double deeps in Vermont. Supers came off last week and both hives feel lighter than I'd like — one especially, maybe 60% of what its sister weig…
First year, one hive, Minnesota. Went out this morning and there's what looks like FIGHTING at the entrance. Workers grabbing other bees, dragging them off the landing bo…
Quebec, 5 years, and every August it's the same: inspections that were smooth in June turn into a demolition job. Frames cemented to the rests, inner cover practically we…
Fourth year in Devon and having a comb reckoning. Some of my brood frames are from my very first season and they've gone properly black — heavy, opaque, can't see light t…
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