Recent content by Lisbanoe

I have been offered some planks that were used on shelves to hold second hand car parts. I'm a bit worried about using them as some have engine oil stains. I ran one through a thicknesser and there is nice clean wood inside and no smell of oil. Do you think it would be ok to use them to make...

Burkes Bee supplies, Armagh Road out of Portadown. They're reasonably price. Not a massive array but they stock poly/wood hives and nucs, treatments, tools, suits, extractors etc.

Wish I knew this before I stank out my kitchen sink washing mine out. That one's up there with using one of my good saucepans for melting wax..

Thank you, I'd already selected mostly emerging brood in case I needed to use the queen introduction cage thankfully. I'll definitely keep an eye on the queen cells, I've had a couple earlier in the year that were thinking of supercedure before the queen's first batch emerged. Give her a...

Perfect, thanks! I was going to move them to my out apiary. But I only set it up about 3 weeks ago and I’m not sure about it yet. Someone kept bees there years ago and I don’t know why they stopped. I was worried about foul brood. But there’s probably 100 reasons. The current owner doesn’t...

Ah that would have been really handy to know earlier 😂 I’ll pop them in tomorrow and knock down any emergency cells in a few days. Thanks for that.

I received two mated queens in the post yesterday. Because of the weather I could only make up the nucs they’re supposed to go in today. How soon can I introduce the queens. I have introduction cages.

I swear, sometimes I think I might be starting to know what I'm doing then immediately NO. I look forward to the day I can just automatically know what to do in a situation, instead of having to sit down and think real hard. I've started writing myself wee notes about what needs done in each...

She was a split from last July. At EVERY inspection they've been spicy. I have another split from the same Queen she's from and they're grand. The problem is, i could handle them when there was only a few frames. But, she's one of the biggest colonies I've got now. Brood and a half and...

Thanks for the tips. I have a good idea of what to do now, with a bit of luck her majesty will be sitting nice and calm on the first frame I pull! I really have to do it soon, so I'm not doing swarm control inspections on that behemoth every week!

Thanks for that, I wasn't sure about the foragers. My main problem is trying to find her. But if I separate it into 3 sections I'll know soon enough which one she's in I suppose.

I have an aggressive hive on brood and a half. I had to add a super at the weekend. They're very productive, but I dread opening them. I barely get the crown board cracked open and they rise up in a cloud, pinging off my veil. They're getting really big so I'm dreading having to go through...

Yes, it must have been the mesh floor, the divider slots into both walls and there's little to no space top or bottom. It may have worked because they'd only started laying. And I don't know if it would work if the laying worker hive was bigger than the Q+ one. But overall worth a go and I'll...

I checked the new neighbours yesterday. Queen on first side laying on 3 frames now. The previously laying workers on the other side had zero eggs again and bringing in lots of pollen and looking content. I crossed my fingers and pulled out the divider and they all seemed to get on swimmingly...

Thanks for the response Sorry, It is confusing I was trying to be thorough, I had a 6 frame nuc that had compacted down to bees on 3 frames. And the other full colony with the laying workers was down to 3 frames as well. They have now been put into the same nuc box with a divider. They...