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We are pleased to start with a thank you to our daughter Cerys for her presentation, “Bees and beekeeping in Llŷn & Eifionydd in times gone by”. It may have been below zero outside our mid-January meeting in Y Ffor Village Hall but it was a happy and informative meeting inside. As beekeepers we are absorbed mostly with the practicalities of our craft, but what a pleasant reflection to learn about the lineage of local beekeeping back to its importance in Medieval Times and its

A snowy start to the year brought a surprise five inches of snow on January 5th—and a reminder that weather can catch beekeepers out. Clearing snow from a hive’s solar panel restored our temperature monitor, but also showed how a thaw-refreeze can create a hard crust. Weighed on January 1st, all eight hives had lost weight. Now’s a good time to plan for swarm control: spare kit, a nuc box, some reading, and maybe a bait hive.

Change is reshaping bees and beekeeping across Europe. Visitors from Germany, Belgium, Denmark and Switzerland describe how locally adapted, dark, varroa-tolerant bees have been replaced by hybrid stock, with chemical treatment often seen as essential and wild colonies rare. The worry is that similar trends in the UK—especially imported queens and online trading—could threaten native bees.

If you didn’t have a bountiful crop of honey this year, don’t be too disappointed — join the club! Our harvest has been moderate, which is puzzling after long spells of hot, sunny weather that should have suited the bees perfectly. The colonies are in great shape, with heavy frames of sealed honey in the brood boxes, so why no big surplus? Our management may play a part: we make starter colonies and split some hives early to breed from our best stock.

Septembers Beelines shares reflections on the privilege of meeting German beekeeper Bernd Zimmermann, the risks posed by imported queens, and their ongoing exploration of autumn feeding—supported by hive weight data from recent LLEBKA winters.

August Beelines is an interesting article about summer nectar and pollen, and summer hive inspections.

What an interesting meeting we had with Vicky—and seeing her flow hive in action. We’ll always remember the suspense as she cranked the lever and we watched the clear plastic tubes at the back of the hive… and waited. Then a single drop of honey appeared and I think we all cheered! Despite drizzly weather and only 14°C, the bees were calm. We opened hives, found a queen and even marked her. Thanks, Vicky, for a brilliant, well-hosted meeting.

“If only the bees would read the same books as the beekeepers!” Two things have baffled us this spring: no swarm has moved into our bait hives, and a strong colony we split made no queen cells. After three weeks of near-unbroken sunshine and a strong nectar flow, the queenless half stayed busy—packing cells with nectar—but showed not a single queen cell. Had we split without eggs? We added a frame with eggs and queen cells soon appeared. Now we’re left wondering: does a good

If you have plans to split a hive—now may be the time. With continued high pressure bringing sunshine, drones emerging, and bramble blossom about to join May hawthorn, conditions are lining up well for honey bees. Whether you use the Pagden method (if you can find the queen) or a simple 50:50 split, early “pre-emptive” splitting can help reduce swarming. The post also shares two memorable mistakes—and the surprising lesson they taught us about colony resilience.

April 1st wasn’t just Fool’s Day—it was our final hive weigh-in, revealing how much weight colonies changed over winter (from 1st October to 1st April). Most hives lost weight after October, with losses ranging from -1.86kg to -5.15kg, while one hive ended with a tiny gain of +0.03kg—evidence, perhaps, that our local bees are frugal. We also share spring prep prompts, two queen-failure losses, and a timely reminder: once you see drone brood, you’ve got about four weeks before

The BIBBA conference we attended on 15th February—“Varroa Resistance through Bee Improvement”—felt like a sign of rapidly growing UK interest in varroa-resistant (VR) bees and treatment-free (TF) beekeeping. With 170 attendees and talks ranging from the science of resistance to free-living bees, the atmosphere was buzzing. A show of hands suggested around a third (or a quarter) of beekeepers were already TF. The big question we kept hearing: “Can you supply a VR queen?”—and w

“It’s the sun wot done it!” On 25th January, bright sunshine coaxed bees out at 5°C to work winter-flowering purple heather—some even carrying pollen. Could that hint at early brood rearing? Last year our monitored hive’s queen began laying around 28th January, so we’re watching closely to see if insulation shifts that date. We also share February hive weight losses, notes on the growing UK move toward treatment-free, varroa-resistant bees, and a fascinating report of a 1,300

Happy New Year—how are your plans for the season ahead? It might only be 100 days until the first swarm! After Storm Darragh battered the area in early December, we checked both apiaries (thankfully, the hives survived). We also look ahead to what could be a turning point year for varroa-resistant (VR) bees and treatment-free (TF) beekeeping, with BIBBA endorsing TF and hosting a VR conference on 15th February. Plus: January hive weight losses and a remarkable “worker’s Chris

Renovating a shed beneath an old oak, the morning sun brings the quiet hum of bees working ivy—perhaps their last shared forage before winter. But do bees truly “cluster”, or is that a stress response? A lively LLEBKA meeting with Derek Mitchell’s temperature research has sparked debate about super-insulated hives (and the ethics, practicality and plastics questions they raise). We’ll be insulating our monitored hive to see what happens. Plus: a brilliant torch gift idea, INS