Questions and answers from the Beekeeping Community app — beekeepers helping beekeepers, worldwide.
Spring check-in from the Lowveld. The aloes carried us through winter and now the litchi and macadamia orchards are flowering, with the first eucalyptus stands not far be…
Southern hemisphere check-in. Three weeks ago my colonies were tight clusters ignoring me; yesterday's inspection found the two strongest wall-to-wall with bees, drones o…
Southern hemisphere check-in. We finally got a calm 16°C afternoon in Wellington yesterday so I did my first proper frame-by-frame inspection since autumn, all six hives.…
Victoria, Australia — late winter turning, and the silver wattle is flowering with the willows about to break. My colonies have noticed: brood nests expanding fast on the…
First year, one hive, Yorkshire. For the past three weeks my colony has bearded every warm evening — big calm curtain of bees on the front, which I'd learned to accept as…
Second year, two hives near İzmir. Every evening around sunset both hives have a thick curtain of bees hanging off the landing board and up the front — last night it was …
Fourth year, Texas. A friend's shed had a colony in the wall cavity — maybe 8 months established, comb from top plate down about 3 feet. Took me 6 hours. Bees are in a de…
Caught a lovely prime swarm on June 6th here in Kent — big one, filled a skep. Hived it on a mix of drawn comb and foundation and it has gone like a rocket: two deep boxe…
Devon, fourth year, strongest colony I've ever run. Inspection today: little queen cups along the bottom bars and comb edges on practically every other frame — I counted …
My overwintered colony here in Vermont has become a monster: double deep, both packed, bees hanging off every frame, three mediums on and they're drawing and filling the …
Fourth season in Devon and my strongest colony has decided it's time: five capped swarm cells along the bottom bars plus two charged open ones. Queen still present (saw h…
You all know the rhyme: a swarm in May is worth a load of hay, a swarm in June is worth a silver spoon, a swarm in July isn't worth a fly. Well, it's the 29th of June so …
Perthshire, 7 years. One colony beat me to it this spring — prime swarm left around June 10 (caught it, it's fine), but the parent hive is now throwing cast after cast. T…
Devon, 4th year. We've got a tawny owl box about 3 m up an ash at the bottom of the garden, empty since the winter, and a swarm has moved in — I watched the tail end of t…
Got a call about a swarm in a live oak, nice volleyball-size cluster but it's a solid 10 meters up on a limb I can't ladder to safely. I've done the bucket-taped-to-a-pai…
Minnesota first-year here. My elderly neighbor kept bees decades ago and yesterday, when a swarm (not mine!! checked!) went over our street, he ran out banging a saucepan…
After a near-miss last month I've been photographing every cup and cell I find, and I think a proper visual thread would help a lot of second-years. Posting mine: hive 1 …
Second year, two hives in Ontario, basswood about to pop. Last year I inspected every single week all summer because the books said so, and honestly I think I set them ba…
Caught my first ever swarm off a neighbour's fence post 10 days ago and hived it on foundationless frames with starter strips because that's what I had. Went in yesterday…
Walking fence line on the back forty yesterday and heard them before I saw them — good-sized colony maybe 12 feet up in a hollow post oak, entrance the size of my fist, t…
Join 12,000+ beekeepers logging hives, asking questions, and mapping forage.
Get the Beekeeping Community app