Good practical article, thank you.
Do you think mice might gnaw through these plastic mouse guards? Or is it a very hard plastic?

Glad to hear of more real honey entering the market; hopefully it will displace fake syrup based ones.

Thanks - great to have sensible advice from someone who has experience of Asian Hornets

I knew a committed recycler / environmentalist / engineer who installed a grey water system in his house. He found it built up mould + biofilms so needed bleach added every few weeks. He was gutted.

Argh! Try
oxnatbees.wordpress.com/2025/07/22/winter-losses-comparing-apples-and-oranges

Yes, just as you move around the train and can breathe OK etc as your local "reference frame". It's quite a deep thought actually and is said to be part of how Einstein got thinking about stuff like Special Relativity - so keep pondering!

As you're in Ireland, do you use Amm bees?

Thanks! I shalluse that as a jumping off point for experimenting...

Can you say what shutter speed, lens and other settings you used? I can't get fast shots that clear (most likely camera/lens limitations, but maybe I'm making a fundamental mistake)

I used to campaign on this so had to read the research. The companies that make them simply don't test them against bees etc. No data means they can tick the "no known effect" box.

I have seen a report by an American beekeeper about how street spraying for mosquitoes almost immediately killed the hives in his back yard. Insecticides are NOT species specific. They don't do the soil's worms, or water runoff streams' life any good either.

For many years our group's aim has been to replenish the area's varroa resistant 'survivor stock' by nurturing swarms from wild colonies. These are no longer rare (hurrah!) and we may need to adjust our methods. A good problem to have.

Stills --> video... that's very interesting, I don't grasp the significance yet but I am filing that away in my memory.
For comparison, my hives don't seem to react to my phone - doing nothing, taking stills or video. It's a black Android device too. Curious.

Were the bees ONLY going for the phone? Was it black? Were you livestreaming (emitting RF)?
I ask because their behaviour towards phones is inconsistent and I'd like to know what the trigger is.