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April has brought a beautiful start to the season, and an early one at that! Compared to last year, the weather is so much better and the bees are out flying, bringing in pollen and nectar, and it is shaping up to be an ideal start to 2025. |
Please note that all of our branches will be closed on both Bank Holiday Mondays this May, apart from our Rand branch which will be open from 10am to 3pm (this does not include the Buzz Stop restaurant at our Rand branch - this will be closed on the bank holidays). |
If you are local to Lincolnshire, we still have a few spaces left on our June beginners course. The course will be on Wednesday 4th June and will be aimed at the novice beekeeper with no experience, or someone who feels they need to revisit the basics. Follow the link below to read more and book. |
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Ideal for those just out of reach swarms. Made from canvas and metal with nylon rope pull cord for closing the top. Place the bag underneath the swarm and gently ease the bag upward to enclose as much of the swarm as possible. Pull the cord and shake gently. |
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& Api-Bioxal Liquid Bundle |
For the month of May we are offering the Budget Swarm Catcher & bottle of Api-Bioxal Liquid for the reduced price of £50 when bought together. Read about the Budget Swarm Catcher in our Equipment Focus above. |
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Marking queens - why do it? |
> So you can see the queen
Even in a small colony, being able to find the queen will make carrying out hive manipulations much quicker and generally a lot less stressful. Many manipulations require you to be able to find the queen so marking her makes her easier to spot. Even if you do not need to know where she is, being able to find her and pop her to one side can give you peace of mind whilst you move things around. |
> So you can identify how old she is
If you mark queens in a different colour for different years, you will be able to tell in which year she hatched and therefore determine her age. This will help you to make plans for the colony like requeening and make important observations such as how long she may have left before the bees supersede her or if the reason the colony is dwindling is because she is getting old (or not). |
> So you can see if she has swarmed or been superseded
This sounds counterintuitive – how would you be able to find the coloured spot if the queen has swarmed or been replaced? Well, you can’t. But knowing that the queen in the hive IS marked, you will know that any unmarked queen found in the hive is not the queen you had there originally. This is helpful particularly at times when you haven’t managed to get to the bees in a while and they could have swarmed and requeened or even superseded in between inspections. |
> So when she swarms into a bush, you know which hive she came from!
Perhaps combined with using numbers and as long as you have kept good records about which queen is in what hive, this prevents you from having to go through all your colonies to determine where the most recent swarm has come from. You should be able to spot a marked queen fairly easily in a swarm as there are fewer bees and no combs to hide round the back of. |
> For breeding
For beekeepers rearing queens of specific strains, using colours as well as numbers can help to keep track of breeding lines. |
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What a month April has been! The early part of the month was fantastic for the bees as the sun was shining and the temperatures good for the time of year which meant they could get out and forage. Our worry was that as unpredictable as British weather is we could still get a nasty cold snap. We have been lured into a false sense of security before, believing that the good weather is here to stay, only to have the strongest colonies die out due to bees’ lack of ability to forage and to support their expanding colony. Luckily, we have had a glorious month and the state of the bees reflects this, with lovely full boxes of bees and big frames of brood. |
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Early in the month we removed the ekes which had been used for feeding, because we wanted to avoid the bees moving up into them and building comb. Although some had already moved up and started building wax, thankfully that is all it was. There was no sticky, honey mess to clear up as we managed to get there just before the honey flow came in, phew. That is a messy job if ever there was one! |
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With the bees building up nicely this month, we were able to start taking off nucs for sale. Funnily enough, the first nucs were actually the most difficult to make up, simply because we had lots of great frames of brood but very few of honey for stores. This improved as the days went by and as the flow came in. |
As we don’t take honey off, we have treated for varroa using Apivar. We have used this treatment before and find it works very well. |
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With the colonies looking very healthy and many on double brood, finding the queen when needed can be a laborious task to say the least! This is why at the beginning of the season we try to push the queen down into the bottom brood box and put a queen excluder above. This just means we know where she is and where the brood is so when we come to manipulate the hive for any reason, it not only takes us less time, but it is also less stressful for the bees. |
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This photo here just shows a frame of plastic foundation that the bees have drawn out and filled so beautifully, except for one odd little patch in the corner. Who knows what has happened there but they clearly didn’t like it! |
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Other jobs we have been doing this month are checking for any damaged or old frames and replacing them with new ones and having a little spring tidy of the apiary. |
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And of course, as with every year we get the occasional inevitable swarm! Sometimes things get missed or the bees didn’t read the manual, but we just do our best to keep them to a minimum and catch any we find. |
All in all, this season has got off to a great, if rather early, start and with the weather forecast looking warm and sunny for the foreseeable, we don’t anticipate slowing down any time soon! |
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The lecture video release for the first Friday in May, at 5.15pm UK local time is Sean Stephenson’s overview of microscopy and how it relates to beekeeping. Sean covers microscopy techniques employed to investigate honey bee diseases, the anatomy of the honey bee and what bees forage on. The talk covers the equipment required, the methods for disease diagnosis, anatomical dissections, and the preparation of both anatomical and pollen slides. |
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Sean is a Master Beekeeper, Chairman of Bucks County BKA and a BBKA Exam Moderator. He runs the Bucks Microscopy Group which has over 40 members and meets at least 10 times a year. Sean is keen to promote microscopy, to help people understand the basics, develop skills and to introduce an awareness of botany and entomology. You can view the lecture on the show’s YouTube Channel. |
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Sean Stephenson’s 2024 lecture on microscopy |
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If this fires your enthusiasm for microscopy, remember that there are several interesting microscopy classes to enter, with of course the exhibits to browse at The National Honey Show itself. Details can be found in the Show Schedule of classes: www.honeyshow.co.uk/schedule/ There are also often microscopy workshops at shows, so do check out the information on the website around August for Sean’s Microscopy workshops at this year’s show. Booking for National Honey Show workshops is from September, online. |
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Northern Bee Books have many microscopy books to choose from and are re-printing Val’s father’s book on ‘Pollen Microscopy’. The new edition should be available in a couple of weeks’ time, new ISBN: 9781912271986. |
We have a special leaflet featuring the junior classes, which will be distributed with your June issue of BeeCraft. Do encourage our younger bee enthusiasts to enter classes. Some of the entries are to be sent in advance. Entries (including junior entries) that need to be delivered in person on the Wednesday of the show can be sent, if arranged in good time, via any of the Thornes distributors south of the border, or Northern Bee Books. They are happy to deliver your entries for you. Remember we invite teachers and group leaders to book for our schools day visit on Saturday 25th October 2025. George from the Thornes team has compiled a video from the Schools Day visit 2024 which you can view. |
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We look forward to seeing you at this year’s show:
National Honey Show Thursday 23rd to Saturday 25th October 2025 at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9RT, UK. |
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Bees for Development at RHS Chelsea May 20-24, 2025 |
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Bees for Development is thrilled to announce that they will be exhibiting at RHS Chelsea from Tuesday, May 20 to Saturday, May 24. This year, they’ve created a unique Balcony Garden inspired by the profound connection between people, bees, and biodiversity. |
Designed as an urban retreat, this garden is a sanctuary for pollinators. It beautifully combines elements of both English and African beekeeping traditions, offering an uplifting and practical message: we can all make a difference for pollinators, even in the smallest of spaces. |
Named “Making Life Better with Bees,” the garden has been made possible thanks to the generous sponsorship of EH Thorne, London Honey Co., and Protek, with design by The Humble-Bee Gardeners. |
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Bees for Development looks forward to welcoming you to this inspiring space! |
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Monmouth Bee Festival -14 June, 2025 |
Join Bees for Development on Saturday 14 June for the Monmouth Bee Festival 2025, a vibrant community celebration of bees, pollinators and the vital role they play in our lives. |
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Taking place in the beautiful Nelson Garden in Monmouth from 12pm to 4pm, this free, family friendly event promises something for everyone. There will be face painting, seed ball making, beekeeping displays, homemade cakes and refreshments and much more, all set to the sound of live music. |
Visit our website HERE for more details. |
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Beekeeping with the Batwa Community in Uganda |
The Batwa of southwestern Uganda were evicted from their ancestral forest land in the early 1990s following the gazetting of Bwindi Impenetrable and Mgahinga Gorilla National parks. Since then, many have lived landless, economically vulnerable, and socially excluded. |
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With support from Bees for Development (BfD), and The Uganda National Apiculture Development Organization (TUNADO), in collaboration with local partners like Bwindi Mgahinga Conservation Trust (BMCT) and local leaders, beekeeping is emerging as a pathway to self-reliance. Through hands-on trainings, Batwa youth and elders alike are learning how to weave and manage bamboo hives, harvest honey hygienically, and care for their bees sustainably. |
Read the full blog post HERE. |
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Where do the bees go?
An exploration of key UK forage species for pollinators
By Lesley Jacques, NDB |
“A beautifully detailed exploration of the key forage plants that sustain UK pollinators, blending stunning high-resolution pressed botanical scans, ecological insights, and expert beekeeping knowledge. Essential reading for beekeepers, nature lovers, and anyone fascinated by the vital relationship between plants and pollinators." |
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Northern Bee Books (1st ed. 2025)
Paperback (A4)
122 pages
£20 |
Reviewed by Ann Chilcott
Scottish Expert Beemaster and author of The Bee Listener |
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Where do the bees go? An exploration of key UK forage species for pollinators by Lesley Jacques is a detailed guide to 24 of the key UK families of important pollinator plants for bees. Jacques is a scientist by profession with a special interest in biology and botany relating to beekeeping. She is a Master Beekeeper and was inspired to compile this plant portfolio while studying for the National Diploma in Beekeeping which is unique to the UK. |
What makes this publication stand out from similar beekeeping books is the attention to detail and its timely focus on all UK bee pollinators which are currently under threat from climate change, habitat loss, disease, and pesticides. It is a beautifully illustrated book and the pressed flower photographs are superb. The author has painstakingly and skilfully collected and preserved an elaborate herbarium, and photographed pollen grains from each collected plant. |
The book is written in a field guide format though its A4 size probably restricts its use to indoors. We find information relating to each plant family including the number of genera and species, and features such as leaf shape, petal numbers, fruit type, flowering times and habitat. The most valuable information for the beekeeper or conservationist relates to the food value of each plant which is reflected in its nectar and pollen production. The protein value of each pollen is explained and shown as a crude protein level. We learn that plants whose pollen falls in the crude protein range of above 25% are considered to be of most value to foragers. The other key features are bee forage potential, and notable foraging bee species which are shown in tabulated form. We learn whether a particular plant produces pollen, nectar, or both, and if it is of value to honey bees, long-tongued or short-tongues bumble bees, or solitary bees. The different foraging bees are listed by both common and binomial names. |
Some families contain more useful plants than others and here the pea family (Fabaceae) section, for example, features five important plants all with similarly sized and shaped pollen grains and crude protein values. |
A contents page to help the reader navigate the book, and an extensive reference list contribute to the value of this book for beekeepers and beekeeping students with impending examinations. However, the readership of this informative and topical book will be wide-ranging—farmers, botanists, conservationists, gardeners, research scientists and many others will find this a very useful book. |
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Newburgh Industrial Estate, Cupar Road, Newburgh, Fife, KY14 6HA |
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Oakley Green Farm, Oakley Green, Windsor, Berkshire, SL4 4PZ |
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Chilbolton Down Farm, Chilbolton Down, Stockbridge, SO20 6BU |
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Quince Honey Farm, Aller Cross, South Molton, Devon, EX36 3RD |
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Beehive Business Park, Rand, Lincolnshire, LN8 5NJ |
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