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Second year in Galway, two hives. Found several patches of bald brood in my stronger hive yesterday — capped pupae with the cappings removed or perforated, white pupae vi…
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…
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…
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…
Fourth year in Devon and I've finally saved enough cappings to be worth rendering — maybe 3 kg after draining the honey off. Plan is: rinse the cappings in cold water, th…
Second year, three hives in Ontario. Did alcohol washes in mid-June: 1, 2, and 2 per 300 across the three hives. Felt great. Pulled supers on the weekend and re-washed ye…
Third year in Uppsala, two hives. Sat with my coffee yesterday morning and watched workers wrestling drones out of the entrance — some getting dragged, some just blocked …
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 …
Third year, six hives in North Carolina, and this was my first proper harvest — pulled 11 mediums over the weekend. Sharing my lessons while the kitchen floor is still sl…
First year, two hives in Yorkshire. Did my inspection yesterday and found two capped queen cells in hive 2, both smack in the middle of the comb face, not on the bottom b…
Perthshire, seven years, and every season I read about two-queen systems producing monster crops and every season I chicken out. With the heather flow starting late here …
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…
Uppsala, third summer. Ordered a mated Buckfast queen for a nuc I was making up this week, but the donor colony threw me a curveball — found a frame of queen cells during…
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…
Quebec, five years, six colonies. Alcohol wash on my worst hive came back at 11 per 300 last week — way over threshold, can't wait for fall. I vaporised oxalic once, wait…
Willamette Valley, five hives, fifth season. The blackberry flow — basically our whole honey year — finished this past week, right on schedule. Scale hive confirmed it: g…
Eighteen years, Tyrol. Every summer I see the same casual comment at the club and now on this forum: 'flow's over, I'm feeding a bit of syrup but leaving the supers on so…
A view from the Southern Hemisphere while you northerners melt: it's July, our winter, and my scutellata colonies on the Highveld edge are flying every mild midday becaus…
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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