Author Archives: Emily Scott

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About Emily Scott

I am a UK beekeeper who has recently moved from London to windswept, wet Cornwall. I first started keeping bees in the Ealing Beekeepers Association’s local apiary in 2008, when I created this blog as a record for myself of my various beekeeping related disasters and - hopefully! - future successes.

Preparing honey bee colonies for winter & anti-varroa bees

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Emily Scott

I found out about these two links from Andy Pedley’s Ealing and District Beekeepers email newsletter, which I always enjoy reading… Fera’s National Bee Unit have put together a leaflet on preparing your colony for winter. Essential reading. I always … Continue reading →

Posted in Colony management, Disease prevention | Tagged , | 4 Comments

A September day – 25/09

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Emily Scott

Went down to the bees today, but first I mixed up an autumn sugar syrup feed for them. This has a ratio of 2 pounds of sugar to 1 pint of water. It is important that the sugar is white … Continue reading →

Posted in Honey | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Allotment adventure

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Emily Scott

I was down at the apiary on Saturday when one of the other beekeepers, John Chapple, mentioned that he had been left an answering phone message telling him that the roof of a hive on an allotment in Perivale had … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

21/09/10 – not much going on here

Posted on August 22, 2010 by Emily Scott

Yesterday was a easy beekeeping day. We all checked our varroa boards following our Apiguard treatment last week. The Apiguard kills off a large percentage (but not all) of your hive’s varroa mites, causing them to fall through the wire … Continue reading →

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Even more FAQs

Posted on August 19, 2010 by Emily Scott

Continuing my answering of beekeeping questions on the Innocent Smoothie website (see previous FAQs post)… Q: What kind of relationship do bees in a hive have with each other? and how do they have rules? An interesting question this. Each … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged | 4 Comments

FAQs

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Emily Scott

I subscribe to the Innocent Smoothie newsletter, and noticed that they had a blog competition recently to win an afternoon cream tea and look in a hive with a beekeeper, Tim. To enter the contest, members of the public were … Continue reading →

Posted in FAQs | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Another year without honey – 7th August

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Emily Scott

Felt quite depressed at the apiary today. Quite a few people were talking about how big the honey crop was this year, and how many jars they had, and me and Emily (my hive partner) have…nothing. Zero jars. A super … Continue reading →

Posted in Colony management, Honey | Tagged | 2 Comments

Basic Beekeeping Assessment exam – learning under the trees

Posted on July 28, 2010 by Emily Scott

Today, at 6pm in the slightly dim light under the Apiary’s many trees, I took my Basic Assessment in Beekeeping exam, a practical and oral exam which is sort of equivalent to taking your driving test. It is run by … Continue reading →

Posted in Bee behaviour, Exams, Uncategorized | Tagged | 10 Comments

Entrance pic

Posted on July 12, 2010 by Emily Scott

Our bees coming in and out, we have the wrong size entrance board in and it leaves a little gap at the end.

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11 July 2010

Posted on July 11, 2010 by Emily Scott

Went down to the bees today. As it’s a Sunday, no-one was down the apiary (people usually meet on Saturdays, 2-5), which always makes me a little nervous. I lit the smoker, which promptly went out within five minutes. Luckily … Continue reading →

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