Paynes Bee Farm Ltd

@SheffieldHoney Ah, thank you! 🙏 some of us will still be in the bee world so no doubt see you around at some point to catch up.

Our last ever delivery from @PaynesBeefarm thanks for all the fun times guys ❤️

It is with much sadness that we announce the passing of Paul Payne on Tuesday 21st May 2024, a much loved husband, father, father in law, grandfather and cousin as well as a smiling friendly face to all our customers and all that knew him. He will be very much missed by us all.

@ElmTreeBees @beesinbrittany Yep same here. Got 5 sites left to get supered up. Been told it’s too early and not right. Feels perfect timing for us here.

@beesinbrittany I pick up a fair bit of flack from various quarters about supering early but we're about a week behind you and it takes 2 weeks (at least) to get around them all.

Found loads like this today!! Holy Crap!! “Houston we have a problem” Get the ladders ready!! 😝😏🤣🤣🤣💥🐝

@SheffieldHoney Ha, doesn’t feel like it. Getting maybe an average crop if we are lucky thanks to some monster hives but let too much slip through the net this year while we focused on nuc production. It all ended too soon.

@SheffieldHoney No thanks.

Praying tomorrows storm, rain and wind stays to the south of us 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

@SheffieldHoney Not yet, but doesn’t look good beekeeping weather for the next few days 🐝☔️🌩️

Is it wet @PaynesBeefarm ?

Been a slower start to the spring honey season, so far we aren’t finding much honey in the hives. However there’s a couple of apiaries where the stronger hives have made a good start though #bees #honey #beekeeping #spring #nectarflow #honeybees

Bees have really expanded at this nursery apiary over last 2 weeks! Half the apiary are on triple boxes. These queens are from our first batch of grafts last year. Several splits from them last summer, overwintered brilliantly. Happy days. #bees #polyhives #beekeeping #honeybees

@SheffieldHoney Same here, they can’t seem to get the forecast right! It changes every 5 minutes.

Raining all day and 100% never forecast 🙁

A quick peek in a few colonies today, first time this year as finally stopped raining and 14C. Really happy with what we’ve seen. Most of our main hives are now on double brood boxes. #beekeeping #bees #honeybees #queenbee

Bees making the most of the break in between the rain showers. The pussy willow is out in flower and the bees are on it, loads of pollen going in the nucs this morning. #Pollen #bees #spring #beekeeping

Not much snow here and what there was is fast melting. But it made everything look picturesque for a time #snowday #freezingcold #crocus #feelslikewinter

This apiary is going to look pretty as a picture when all these bluebells flower! Bluebells are a great early spring food source for honey bees and other pollinators. This apiary is next to some woodland which is full of bluebells so plenty of forage for the bees #bluebells #bees

New sign for the bee farm! Many thanks to @sussexsignco #beefarm #beekeeping #localhoney #honey #bees #beekeepingequipment #beekeepingsupplies #FamilyBusiness

Started to move supers to outer apiaries to save time later on. Once it warms up and spring is properly here time is of an essence so any time saving we can do now is a big help. No need for the gym today! #beekeeping #beefarmers #bees #keepingbusy #noneedforthegym #work

The consumption of stores seems to have increased since our last checks in certain apiaries whilst in others hives are still really heavy and need no additional feeding. This is more noticeable in those colonies that already had fondant on as the packs are almost empty. #bees

Our wooden supers are getting a new lick of wood paint which will also provide them with another 4 year’s protection. Once painted the apiary code is then stencilled on and what a difference it makes! I can’t believe how fantastic they’ve turned out. One happy beefarmer!

Back to our normal routine of prepping for the coming season. Out checking hives for weight today and moving lots of newly painted and prepared nucs. These will be used for early splits and for queen rearing. We are putting them into locations to hopefully save us time later.

Fantastic show today at Telford, many thanks to @thebeekeepingshow for hosting such a great show. A big thank you to all our customers. It was great to meet old friends, see new faces and meet up with fellow beefarmers for a good chin wag.

Anticipation is building as we prepare for @beekeepingshow all preorders are packed so now loading the vans and filling the remaining space up with stock.