Bee Sustainable

07/06/2026

Sometimes it is nice to stop and watch...
This young bee is just 'emerging' from a cell, breaking through the capping that has kept her safe in pupation, and squeezing herself out of the cell.
One might think of it as being born, but that is just an anthropomorphism: that is, trying to fit the amazing world of bees into our human idea of what should happen.

31/05/2026

2025 honey!

22/05/2026

Early Morning Beekeeping.
Whilst it was a struggle to motivate myself to get up at 5.15am this morning and head out to move some bees, I was rewarded with this view!

20/05/2026

This is a virgin queen I videoed a couple of weeks ago. Her abdomen had not yet started to grow - which it will once she has mated and she will produce a 'retinue' pheromone which will attract workers to look after her, but here we see her being ignored by those same workers. Look in the comments where I show a clip of her now, just two weeks later and see if you can spot the differences.

19/05/2026

Now that the wax has hardened a bit, I was able to lift away the crown board and carefully turn over the wild comb. I showed a photo of this before - the swarm had arrived in some spare boxes of supers - except that they had ignored the comb already there - and filled a gap. Swarms are designed to build comb and seemingly they will do so, even if they have comb already there. The colony is only now starting to expand into two of the old combs as there is no space left. Looking through the boxes, there was also a surprise - see in comments, but in the meantime, just enjoy the wonderful sculpture made by the bees!

10/05/2026

Swarm season - this was just a pile of supers with 'some' frames of comb at one of the apiaries. The swarm of bees must have found a small gap in what is an old homemade ply box and in they went. Swarms are ready to build comb and they clearly decided to fill the gap before using the old comb. Free bees, but a bit of a mess to tidy up at a later date.

19/04/2026

Sometimes, when a comb is on the outside of a box overwinter, it can become stale and brittle. The bees here have actually ripped out part of it and are just starting to rebuild with fresh wax.

08/04/2026

This queen (marked blue, for 2025) was charging around the comb, laying eggs and suddenly stopped. Time for her attendants to do their bit. Once mated, a queen bee develops a retinue pheromone which encourages workers to feed and groom the queen and acquire and distribute her pheromone messages to other workers throughout the colony. This is what we are seeing in this clip.

06/04/2026

My local association - Bishop's Stortford Bee Keeper's Association (BSBKA) has just set up a page. 🐝

🐝 Welcome to the BSBKA page! 🐝

We’re excited to have you here!

At BSBKA (Bishop’s Stortford Beekeepers’ Association), we support honey bee lovers of every level — whether you’re simply curious about them, starting your first hive, or have years of experience.

We’ll be posting weekly, and you can expect:
🌼 Tips and advice on beekeeping, swarms, and more
🍯 Updates on events, courses, workshops, and where to buy local honey
🐝 News from our association apiary, including updates on honey bees and threats such as the Yellow-Legged Hornet
🤝 A friendly community ready to share knowledge and help

Honey bees play a vital role in our environment, and together we can help protect and support them.

To find out more about who we are, visit:
🌐 www.stortfordbees.org.uk⁠

Spread the word — give this a like and share if you think others would enjoy it!

From our hive to yours, BSBKA 🐝

06/04/2026