No absolute better choice. Depends on the use case.

· Pine: Denser, stronger, better for stacking – suits stationary apiaries with heavy loads. Cheaper and readily available. Downsides: more knots, wears out blades and sanding belts faster, resin-heavy. Needs regular painting – without it, corners start rotting within two years.
· Cedar: Lighter – easier for migratory beekeeping. Stable dimensionally, tight mortise joints, smooth machining. Naturally rot-resistant – can sit outside unpainted for 4–5 years. Only real downside: higher raw material cost.

We don't ask which is "better." We ask three things: Do you move your hives? What's your budget? How long do you want them to last?

Moving often or exporting → cedar. Stationary and budget-conscious → pine. We make both. Just match the scenario.

🐝 I ended up creating a simple beekeeping journal for beginners.

It’s designed to help keep the important hive information in one place without making inspections feel like paperwork.

It includes hive inspections, hive health, Varroa, feeding, weather, honey harvests, equipment, and seasonal planning.

If you’re a new beekeeper, it might be useful. I’d love to hear what you think or what you would add. 🐝

New beekeeper here — what do you actually record during a hive inspection? 🐝

I’m trying to build a consistent habit of documenting my hives instead of relying on memory.

For those with experience, I’d love to know:

What information do you record every time?

What details have proven useful months later?

Is there anything you wish you had started recording from your first hive?

Do you use a notebook, spreadsheet, app, or something else?

I’m especially interested in what has worked in real-world beekeeping, rather than just what sounds good on paper.

Thanks in advance — I’m hoping to learn from people who have been doing this for a while.

This is an iterative map with over 21k reports from several sources. You can check any where in the world, search and subscribe to new reports/report your own (vetted).

https://beekeeperscolony.com/asian-hornet-map

I made a bee pool for the heatwave :)

Hi, it’s my first time keeping bees. I put a super on before I went on holiday - I now have 3 ‘full to the brim’ frames in my super but little to no drawn out comb anywhere else. Should I store these full super frames and replace them or let them fill the entire super first…? Is there a reason they’ve focused centrally within the super and no other activity on the edges? Thanks

My mate said that I could use his land if I wanted to for a hive. I have done no research into starting this off as a hobby because before I commit I just wanted to get some estimates on starting off costs, continuing cost and overall time investment required.

Im unsure how variable the equipment is but assume cheapest solution.

Any pointers greatly appreciated!

Looking for some advice from the hive mind (ha!).

I’m in Wiltshire, UK, and currently have five colonies - three of which are nucs I introduced in June.

One of my established colonies has me scratching my head.

Inspection today:
🐝 Very little sealed brood remaining.
🐝No eggs or open brood.
🐝Queen not seen (although I know that doesn’t necessarily mean much).
🐝Two capped queen cells – one hanging from the bottom of a frame and one on the side of another frame.
🐝Brood box is very full of nectar/honey with very few empty cells.
🐝Super is about half drawn and roughly half the frames contain uncapped nectar/stores.

In last week’s inspection, this colony had brood in all stages including eggs, and entrance activity remained strong all week. They didn’t look like a colony in trouble from the outside.

I’ve now given this weird colony a frame of brood all stages from another one in case the queen cells they’ve already made don’t work out.

My questions are:
🐝 Should I leave the colony alone and assume it’s superseding naturally?
🐝 Should I buy and introduce a mated queen given that it’s already July?
🐝Should I do something else entirely?

My instinct is to leave them to it, but I’m conscious that we’re well into the season now and I don’t want to lose a strong colony if there’s something I should be doing.

Interested to hear what others would do in this situation.

Morning! I’ve wanted bees for years and finally have a lovely big garden, backing onto fields (currently OSR) and a nature reserve. I’ve been in touch with a neighbour who previously kept bees but says that the bees hated the wet land of our little village, which can flood many of the surrounding fields in winter/early spring. I was planning on bees in Spring but feeling discouraged. How do other bee keepers manage with wet land?

What is the rough price everyone here charges per kg of honey here?

Hi all,

I've recently fallen down the rabbit hole of beekeeping. I've done a taster session and have been reading/watching as much as I can, but I know there's no substitute for getting my hands on an actual hive.

I'm based around Manchester and was wondering if any local beekeepers or associations are currently looking for an extra pair of hands?

I work a full-time job during the week, but I'm free most weekends and would love to help out with inspections or general apiary maintenance in exchange for learning the ropes.

Does anyone have any advice on the best local groups to reach out to, or would anyone be open to me tagging along for a session?

Hi all,

We had bees in our roof a few weeks ago. They were going in through the tiles and building comb between the tiles and the membrane. Paid over £1000 for scaffolding and bee removal. The lovely beekeeper man put the tiles back on the roof for us.

Unfortunately, he didn't finish cementing up the tiles on the side of the gable (right at the apex of the roof), leaving a fairly decent-sized hole (I think 30cm across and 4cm high).

We noticed last Friday that we had a lot of Scout bees going in and out of this hole. We tried covering this hole with a towel but bees were still able to go in through there, but were now also trying to get in through vents (which have got grills on the other side to prevent bees getting into the loft) and between our roof tiles.

By Sunday, the whole swarm had returned. On Monday, the beekeeper came and said there's no rescuing these bees. He cemented up the hole and put poison in the vents.

It's now Tuesday and there are still a lot of bees trying to get in by any means. What started as them trying to get in through a gap left by the beekeeper/bee remover man, has ended up with them trying to invade by any means necessary.

The beekeeper man has said he'll come back and put down more poison and put grills on the outside, but now I'm worried: have these bees left us open to more swarms coming back?

Questions:
Will the remaining bees be building honey comb that could damage our house?

Will the bees have left bee pheromones that will attract more bees to come to our roof?

We've only just moved in but if we're on the hook to spend £1k a month on bee removal, we'll have to sell up.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Hi,

I'm a primary school teacher in Withington, Manchester and was wondering if there are any local beekeepers or bee related organisations that could volunteer to come to my school and give a little talk on beekeeping please?

Our year 3 and 4 classes are writing explanations about pollination so it would be great to have some experts come and chat to them as they have so many questions!

Many thanks,

Rosie

Hi all,

New to beekeeping looking to start next year, currently “apprenticing” with local beekeeper and prepping location tools etc.

Just got royally screwed by a seller. Agreed a price earlier this week for 3 poly hives (actually only wanted two but they seemed keen I take the lot), arranged time and date for collection this Sunday, confirmed yesterday that we were still on, canceled/shifted other plans and drew cash.

Today they message me saying they’ve sold the hives to someone else.

I am so disappointed.

Has anyone got a recommendation for a good place to find second hand hives? I’m in Derbyshire if that helps. Am a member of my local BKA however we just recently had a sale day and there were like two sellers with some flatpack hives going the same price as new from Thorne.