March Hare Apiary

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March Hare Apiary We are both 'Master Beekeepers' . All the honey we sell is produced by our bees local to Wortley.

28/09/2026

Ivy bees in the garden of the Roman Villa in Newport, Isle of Wight.

The males emerge in the autumn from burrows in the soil and wait for the females. Then there Is a mating frenzy.

Hornets do try to steal honey or the odd larvae but our guard bees are up to the task. This hornet is dead.
19/09/2026

Hornets do try to steal honey or the odd larvae but our guard bees are up to the task.

This hornet is dead.

30/07/2026

Wash boarding.

I've read about it but until today I had never seen it in action.

I have never read a good explanation as to what or why the bees do this.

Bees... Fascinating insects, so full of surprises.

I can't believe we are hoping for rain. With out a bit of rain we will not get a great crop of Heather Honey.
27/07/2026

I can't believe we are hoping for rain. With out a bit of rain we will not get a great crop of Heather Honey.

24/07/2026

Having completed most of our summer honey extraction, we are now at the stage of taking a sample for the National Honey Monitoring Scheme.

We do this every year. The lab analyses the pollen content of our sample to give us an idea of what flowers our bees have been foraging on.

These hives in our woods have given us a bucket of spring honey each and three nucs of bees each and still they have at ...
21/07/2026

These hives in our woods have given us a bucket of spring honey each and three nucs of bees each and still they have at least four supers of honey and a broad box super of honey for our summer from.

Except one. It just goes to show how being queenless for while affects the honey crop. That one is the one we found qc's in so put the original queen in a nuc.

Two of the others we performed remedial Demarees on, when we saw qc's, to prevent swarming which worked. This kept the workforce together.

Our queen rearing season is coming to an end. The little Apidea mating boxes have been successful and most of the queens...
30/06/2026

Our queen rearing season is coming to an end. The little Apidea mating boxes have been successful and most of the queens have been housed in full sizes colonies. However, that leaves us with the brood from each of these queens and the bees.

Rather than lose all these bees that have worked so hard for us we have a solution.

Mount all the comb into large frames, put into a box and add one of our queens.

In conjunction with Jo from Mrs T's Bees, we have jumped through the hoops to be able to sell cosmetics. Sweet Orange Li...
26/06/2026

In conjunction with Jo from Mrs T's Bees, we have jumped through the hoops to be able to sell cosmetics. Sweet Orange Lip balm 15g tins now available for £5 each.

Soap and moisturiser will be coming soon. We are really enjoying making cosmetics with our lovely beeswax and natural oils. The plan is to produce gentle products with no synthetic fragrances, colours or flavours.

I went up to the apiary early today to transfer a couple of swarms in to their permanent home. What do I find? Another s...
19/05/2026

I went up to the apiary early today to transfer a couple of swarms in to their permanent home. What do I find? Another swarm, not our bees either. Bees really do attract bees.

The next batch of mating boxes have gone out to the walled garden. These each have around 600 nurse bees and a ripe quee...
15/05/2026

The next batch of mating boxes have gone out to the walled garden.

These each have around 600 nurse bees and a ripe queen cell.

These cells should each produce a virgin queen today or tomorrow. These will go off on mating flights over the next couple of weeks 🤞.

They have a spectacular guardian .

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Sheffield
S357DH

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