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Quebec, five years in, and every September the same bar fight breaks out at my club: the wrap-early crowd says get insulation on before the first cold snap stresses the c…
All six of my hives in Drenthe have had robbing screens on since late July when the wasp pressure started. They've done their job — zero robbing this year, first season I…
Perthshire, seven years in, and every autumn I re-litigate moisture strategy with myself. The traditional camp: quilt boxes of wood shavings or a moisture board under the…
Galway, second year, three hives on a rural site. Arrived yesterday evening to find one hive shoved clean off its stand — boxes separated, four frames pulled out and scat…
Devon, four hives. Nights are dipping under 10°C so this week is entrance week: reducers in, mouse guards on. Mice move into hives once clusters form and stop patrolling …
Eight years keeping bees in Provence and this is new: after a long session scraping propolis off frames and boxes last week (dry, crumbly, lots of dust in the air), my fo…
Second year in İzmir and I finally extracted — 19 kilos from two hives, which felt like winning the lottery. But now my borrowed-turned-bought secondhand 4-frame extracto…
Fourth year in Hokkaido, where autumn arrives early and hard. I lost a colony two winters ago to mice — found the nest in spring, a fist-sized hollow chewed through two c…
Planning winter configurations now while I can still feed accordingly. Fifth season in Małopolskie, southern Poland — real winters, weeks below freezing, but nothing like…
Promised the club I'd report back, so here it is. Put robbing screens on all seven hives in mid-July when the dearth hit here in Oregon. Fair warning to anyone installing…
Bought one of those $30 honey refractometers and finally checked it against a club member's calibrated one at extraction this week: mine reads a solid 2 points high. Hone…
Third year in Uppsala, five hives. After watching a neighbour's yard get robbed out last week I've reduced everything — but now I'm doubting myself on the two really stro…
Fifth year in Małopolskie, and I've just pulled about 25 drawn supers plus a stack of old brood boxes for storage. Last autumn wax moths turned four of my stored brood co…
Six years in, five hives on a ridge in Wellington, and every winter I go back and forth on this. It's mid-winter here, we've had three southerly fronts in a row, everythi…
Second year in Vermont, four hives. The little stream behind our place has dried to nothing in this hot stretch, and yesterday my neighbour (very patient, but still) sent…
Fifth season in Małopolskie, about to extract my main crop and questioning my setup. I own an electric hot knife but honestly I keep going back to a plain serrated bread …
Istria, seven years, and this spring I finally put propolis trap mats on four hives — the plastic grids that go on top like an inner cover. The bees, being bees, dutifull…
Galway, second year, three hives all on screened bottom boards. I've had the sticky trays in constantly because I like doing mite drop counts, but a fella at the associat…
Ontario, second year, going into my first real harvest — maybe three supers between two hives. My club rents a 4-frame extractor for $10 a weekend, which is obviously the…
Vermont, second year, four hives now after a split. Last August I watched a weak nuc get robbed out in an afternoon — silvery frantic bees fighting on the landing board, …
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