Hi Tom,

I learnt this trick for the first time last year in Ireland.

I used it regularly during the hot summer period and it worked extremely
well - no need for sugar added to it.

My instinct is that in the sort of wet spring/summer we are experiencing
here in the UK this year it would not be such a good idea to add even more
moisture to the hive.


As others have already said I do not spray directly onto the combs but only
on the top bars.

If the bees are very agitated it works wonders at quietening them down.

Some people may remember me enthusing about this last summer after
Gormanston - the Irish beekeeping residential - where I was shown this
method by an old-timer who recommended I try it when I had to examine a
colony of bees that were being used for examination purposes and had been
open and constantly pulled apart for an hour thereabouts. The bees were all
up in the air and somewhat 'stressed' by the experience and beginning to
show it. In under a minute the combs were covered in bees again and the
colony was at peace.

Madeleine Pym, London, UK