Recent content by Matty Brown

Here is a plan for a plywood national nuc.

Burn the Vevor hive!!! Or at least try to sell it on eBay or local classified website like gumtree and get your money back. Then invest your money into a decent well-made hive. I presume most people have langstroth hives in France so get 2 decent langstroth hives. Or any other hive that is...

Top bar hives are very good if you plan on taking no honey, which I doubt you are wanting to do. I would recommend you use 22 frame long hives instead. You can make these yourself as they are much simpler then standard national hives to make. The plus is that the frames are then compatible with...

Why don't some of you post pictures of some wooden beehive feeders you have made before. To act as some inspiration for someone who is wanting to make some wooden feeders. Let us know some hints and tricks when making some feeders. Tell us why you like these feeders or why you don't. This...

This is a candy feeder for a nuc.

This is a miller style feeder for a full hive.

Hi, I thought some of you would like to see some pictures of wooden beehive feeders, to act as a plan or inspiration if you you were planning on making some for yourselves. I did not make the feeders in these pictures a but a good friend of mine made these. He makes and sells these along with...

The Native Irish Honey Bee Society is trying to pass a law banning all imports of non-native queens. Imports of non-native bees have already been banned. But as far as I know there are very few queens being imported to Ireland each year due to the high cost of getting a health certificate for...

Hi, I have split 1 hive into 12 colonies before in 1 season, if it is done early enough in the season they can be moved into a national brood box, sometimes if the weather is good you can even get them to draw out a second brood box or super. (This is only possible if you add a mated queen and...

I will defiantly let you know how I get on. Thanks for the advice.

I will need around 25 queens.

I am thinking of making up nucs to overwinter and sell in 2025.

I have a bit of drawn comb but mostly foundation.

Hi, I am actually planning on becoming a beefarmer in the future. At the moment only part-time as I still have another job. Do you think I am on the right track of splitting my colonies into as many nucs as possible to sell. I am hoping I can sell some overwintered nucs in spring 2025 to cover...

I have been keeping about 10 full colonies + a few nucs for about 5years now.