I managed to expand the number of colonies over the course of the 2025 season from 8 to 14. However, I lost 2 in the Autumn, I suspect the queen stopped laying – no brood or bees. So I’m going into Winter with 12 colonies of which 6 are very strong in terms of frames covered, I seem to have one strong colony that has exhibited Varroa Sentive Hygeine (VSH) behaviour – brood was being uncapped in the Autumn and the colony had very low mite counts . I’ve put together some advice for beginning beekeepers and having made a lot of my hive equipment with some of the plans on the site.

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My Beekeeping

I have been keeping bees for around 20 years. I will be focussed on trying to get a reasonable honey crop. I use mainly 14 x 12 National equipment but still have some of the standard BS National hives I started out with. I keep my bees in my garden and an out apiary site a few miles away.

Articles

General information on what to think about if you are getting started in beekeeping as well as advice  on apiary management. I try and rear my own queens using grafting and and a Cloake board. Go to   Articles

Plans

Asection with the main plans that I use for building some of my hive equipment.I have built other stuff, such as a solar wax melter, oxalic acid vaopriser but not got around to uploading the plans. For the completed equipment articles go to.   Plans

Blog

I try and keep my beekeeping blog updated over the course of the season. I will post about my successes and failures as well as add to the articles and techniques section. I’ll also provide some information on the Yellow Legged Asian Hornet and news on the current situation.