Finally I’ve extracted the honey from the hives. A good six weeks later than last year but finally it is done. Despite having an extra hive this year and hives that did not swarm thanks to my swarm management strategies I’ve extracted less than last year too :( So why so much later this year? And why so much less? The

Saturday 25th April turned out to be a day with lots of different aspects of Beeutiful being actioned so I thought I’d tell you all a little more about it! The day started with a trip to a wine bar, yes really a wine bar at 8.30am! Drew the manager at Cellar Magneval in Fleet is working very hard to

January! Not a lot happens in the apiary in January, a quick visit early on in the month to administer a varroa treatment, also a heft (lifting one side) of each hive to check they have plenty of stores and that’s it. However in other parts of the world the beekeeping season is in full swing! Bees Abroad (beesabroad.org.uk) is

The main honey flow is now over for 2014, the bees have had a great summer. A mild winter helped them build their colonies up easily, with brood being found at the first opening of the hives in March, allowing a plentiful of bees to be foraging as soon as the weather conditions were right. Despite what some may say,

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and t-shirt sleeves are now the norm. Hooray spring/summer has arrived at last. My colonies have survived the winter and the first few weeks of spring, an anxious time where I wait and hope they are all ok before I get a chance to make my first full inspection of each hive.