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16/03/2026

I often see recommendations to burn old frames because they're 'so cheap' to replace. This must be the mantra of beekeepers who've never spent hours wiring their own frames. Here we boil old frames and reuse them until they're broken. A well wired frame is a valuable asset to be looked after.

01/03/2026

An old video from 2023, the aftermath of a badger attack on a warre hive in a bee yard on the isle of Portland. We had serious problems with a pair of badgers that winter. Week after week we had hives attacked. But I still like badgers in a broad sense and console myself that they're only trying to make a living like the rest of us.

22/02/2026

The tall smoker at the back is a dadant which we've had in use for 26 years. The 'etna' smoker on the left has been in regular use since I bought it in 1991/2. The smoker at the front was a couple of years old when this video was taken, donated to someone else who promptly lost inner trivet and then left the whole thing to rot at the back of a shed . Bee kit lasts a long time so long as we take care of it.

19/02/2026

A modified dadant super made from an old reclaimed floorboard. Rebated joints, far better for hive bodies than the usual finger joints which most manufacturers supply.
Free wood, maybe (being generous) a hour to build -but at scale much quicker than that, capacity ~40lb of honey, every year for.....

11/02/2026

More home made equipment, mating nucs built entirely out of scrap materials, we have other units now but these little boxes were integral to our queen rearing for several years and still, occasionally get pulled out of storage if we need extra kit on the ground. They work amazingly well at no real expense to the beekeeper. As the Australian queen breeder Norman Rice wrote in his book Queensland, we should never allow the lack of proper equipment get in the way of a good idea.

10/02/2026

Following on the theme of homemade equipment, we're strong believers in using push-in introduction cages. Not to say that's the only method we use, differing circumstances require flexibility, but we don't know of a more guaranteed cage introduction method. Of the two kinds of push in cage, the simplest to make is the kind in the attached video and it works very well, the second type, the 'Manley' cage is a little more complex to make but has a tunnel escape which requires no return visit to manually release the queen. Whether you raise your own or purchase one of our selected queens, safe introduction is all important.

05/02/2026

Home produced queen cages, lots of benefits with plastic ones but instinct still tells me that wood is better

03/02/2026

I can't even estimate the number of wax cups I've hand dipped go or our queen rearing program through the years, although it's a satisfying thing to see a fully drawn and sealed queen cell knowing that it was built on a base wed made ourselves I've finally started using silicone moulds for the job. Things are now much faster! Of course we could use plastic cups like most people these days but to be honest that would be a step too far....

Don't forget, mid June onwards, depending on the weather our quality queens will be available for purchase in the United Kingdom.

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