Bee basics
Six short guides to how a honeybee colony works, written for curious people rather than beekeepers.
- 1 The colonyOne queen, tens of thousands of workers and a few hundred drones, all living in one box and working as a single living thing.
- 2 A year in the hiveFrom a winter huddle to 50,000 bees and back again. How a colony in Newton Abbot moves through the seasons, and what the beekeeper does along the way.
- 3 The waggle danceA forager who has found good flowers comes home and dances a map of where they are, using the sun as her compass.
- 4 From flower to jarHow watery nectar becomes thick honey inside the hive, and what happens on our extraction day.
- 5 Why honey setsRunny honey turning thick and cloudy is natural, and a sign it's real. Here's why it happens, and how to make it runny again.
- 6 SwarmsA swarm is how a colony reproduces. Half the bees leave with the old queen to start a new home. Here's what's happening, and why it's nothing to fear.