In article , Sacha
writes
Will it help if I say that I know somebody who met Brother Adam? Only one
remove. ;-)

Our local Bee Inspector worked for Brother Adam for many years. He also
did the Radio 4 programme about the work of the bee inspector. He is
very helpful to our local beekeeping association. However even some of
his ideas are the subject of much debate at beekeeping meetings.

I'm sure all of us who have kept bees have read/heard the many particulars
of bees, their hives, moving them etc. etc. It's not exactly a secret
society though I suppose some would like to make it so.

Many of the rules of thumb come from experience, "less than three feet
or more than three miles" is a good rule if you want to keep all your
bees. Its also useful if you want to put a new hive on the site of the
existing one for swarm control, a frame of brood in the old hive will
keep the bees in there, and the flying bees will return to the new hive
and stay with the queen.

Beekeeping is moving on all the time. Open mesh floors are almost
standard in our area now, throughout the winter, though I'm hedging my
bets by keeping a colony on each....

John
--
John Rouse