This morning the bees flew heavily on flowering corn. I’m sure they were happy for the EU ban on treating seeds with neonics. It would have been no good for the colony with beebread made of pollen from corn grown
Reading the hardboard
One of the most important parts in my management system has become a simple thin hardboard in front of the entrance. The first thing I do when I come to an apiary is going reading them. They give a lot
Harvesting with all the flavor
Larry Garret in Indiana is a beekeeper of art. Look at his harvesting. His honey is worth double the price. He writes to me: I typically begin harvesting the first honey in early June and continue to harvest each week
Swarm from a tree
Last year my friend had a call in July about a swarm that had come from a big old tree. The cavity couldn’t bee very big. And the swarm was not big. http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=235 But the bees in the tree survived the
MT-colony conclusion
I have shared the performance of this colony which had almost a box of plastic small cell frames and natural positioning of these frames (as the uppermost broodbox). Which also had a tough experience with mice living in the bottom
First crop from the multitest colony
Last year I gave almost a whole box of plastic frames 4.95 mm cellsize with natural positioning, http://www.elgon.es/diary/?p=384 This colony was a very nice colony, but needed some thymol as it came up with some wingless bees. It gave an
The queen of the wall
Five days after I hived the swarm from the wall I checked it. I placed it about three km from the wall where it originated, to help form the ”stock of the region”. It wasn’t a very big swarm, but