As winter fades, our bees must rely on whatever is left of their stores before the first nectar flow begins. If the winter has been long and hard, as this one has been in many places, we may need to top up their stores, but we don't necessarily want to stimulate the queen to start laying in earnest just yet. The answer is to feed fondant - a semi-solid mix of sugar and water - that can be fed at any time of year, but is particularly useful now, as the bees will use it but it will not start the queen laying in earnest.

Here is a quick and easy way to feed fondant in top bar hives, with minimal disturbance to the bees.

Continuing the theme of 'natural beekeeping for beginners', this time I take a look at the various types of hive you can choose from, including the pros and cons of each. Also some thoughts about so-called 'stimulative feeding', and some words about women!

This podcast series is intended as an introduction to 'natural bee-keeping' for people who want to keep bees mainly for their own sake, rather than for maximum honey production.

If you have no idea who I am or what I am talking about, you will find more information on my web site at www.biobees.com and on the Natural Beekeeping Forum at www.naturalbeekeeping.org. You can download for free my Introduction to Natural Beekeeping in a number of different formats.

If you have questions that you would like me to address in future podcasts, please leave messages here (and please tell me what you thought of this one), or on my FaceBook page - search for BarefootBeekeeper - and follow me on Twitter, where I am BarefootBee.

Happy beekeeping!

Phil Chandler