Bee colonies

Bee hives are a great way to enjoy your honey, while helping out with pollination and the local food economy.

One of the biggest tips is to keep your bees healthy.

The simplest way to see if your bees are doing well is to inspect them on a regular basis (once a month is okay).

A healthy hive should be three-fourths full of wax combs (the strips of hexagonal cells that make up the comb) and brood (the eggs, larvae, and pupae that grow into adult bees).

A queen bee is the one who lays all the eggs in a hive, so it's important that she's healthy.

If you don't see her, which can be difficult as she's about twice as long as a worker bee and looks like one, check for eggs.

If there are eggs then there is definitely a queen and she hasn't been gone longer than three weeks.

Takeaway: Keeping bees is fun and they will help you with your garden too!