OV9

I took a picture of a strange looking bumblebee a few days ago as I wanted to research it further, turns out it was a tree bumblebee so thanks for that Mik.

Summer last year I managed to find a beekeeping mentor in London to show me the ropes. It is a difficult subject to get on top of as every question has 30 answers. You merely manage by the hive by manipulating it but each action has a set of permutations and then you have the random factor of the bees just doing whatever they want to do.
After much studying through into this year he called me up at the end of March and told me I can collect my bees.
This was the first day, the bees were in the styrofoam boxes and I placed them above their hives so they could learn their new location

The bees grew rapidly in population and both hives wanted to split into two so I ended up with 4 colonies.

And to bring this back to lawns, in preparation for the bees the grass hasn’t been treated for almost 2 years. And the lawn hasn’t bee cut since last year, so it’s turned into a meadow.

To think how much time I wasted scarifying it

That’s awesome Mito, you really are living a mini homestead dream. Kudos to you

I worked with a guy a few years ago who bought a small little wood and was raising 14 hives. His grandfather was form Tobago and thought him everything. The honey was beautiful. Very light with a very natural sweetness.

@Mito Man that's awesome

You should start a new thread. Would be(e) interested to know how much time you spend on it "steady state" and any peaks/troughs of attention.

I’m still mainly in London, but the bees are convenient and checking them once every 7-14 days is the normal timeframe during their active season. I wanted to move a hive to the woods but I’m spread too thin this year as I’m building a chicken coop and I’ve already got big chickens who don’t have a proper home so that’s the priority right now.
Haven’t got any honey from the bees so far this year, but the first year you don’t always get it and it’s more about building a healthy colony for next year. The bees have to produce a lot of wax from scratch to make up their frames and they consume 8kg of honey to make 1kg of wax so that’s where all their resources are going.
Maybe I’ll make a thread on it.

Mito Man wrote: Thu May 14, 2026 12:25 pm I’m still mainly in London, but the bees are convenient and checking them once every 7-14 days is the normal timeframe during their active season. I wanted to move a hive to the woods but I’m spread too thin this year as I’m building a chicken coop and I’ve already got big chickens who don’t have a proper home so that’s the priority right now.
Haven’t got any honey from the bees so far this year, but the first year you don’t always get it and it’s more about building a healthy colony for next year. The bees have to produce a lot of wax from scratch to make up their frames and they consume 8kg of honey to make 1kg of wax so that’s where all their resources are going.
Maybe I’ll make a thread on it.

Mito man- ov9’s harry metcalfe. Just missing a few acres and a few Ferraris