Recent content by Anduril

It could be a dead queen, either the queenless wasn't queenless or the old queen ejected/dead after supercedure.

I do Peter Little's nuc method on defensive colonies. It makes it easier to find the queen, in order to replace her, I've also used the German method mentioned for defensive hives, it just depends on the equipment I have to hand, I very rarely euthanise a colony. There are other methods I've...

Around a billion years ago we were as far south as Australia. Scotland and the North of England were in Laurentia and the South of England in Gondwana. Before we had the Great Union.

That's the reverse effect for winter. Hot air rises south to north spring/summer. Cold air descends north to south autumn/winter. :cool:

Wait a while for the tectonic plates to move and Scotland could be in the west or the east, or even further and we are in the southern hemisphere 🤣

Travelling to other people's apiaries 30 minutes away there are variations, also a beekeeper who keeps bees in Gwent on higher ground than me, his flow has a tendency dry up before mine. Should we take elevation into account as well? The advice we offer is guidance, which may or may not fit at...

From the website: INGREDIENTS: Ingredients: Pure honey, Ginseng Extract (2%), Vitamin B Complex Booster (B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7,B9, B12), Lemon Extract (1.2%) Nutrition: (Typical values per 100g) Typical values per 100g: Energy 1,392kJ / 328 Kcal, Carbohydrate 82g, of which is Sugar 78g...

Just looked at the website, it's a kickstarter, for a supernatural hive. Not the best name for it.

Before I posted I looked at the different temperatures. This week depending on where in Cumbria, temperatures are down to single figures and bees will naturally move downwards.

The OP is in Cumbria, why place a cold void above when cold weather is still around. The better solution would be to place the new brood box below the existing one. You will maintain temperature by not breaking the seal of the crownboard and the box below causes minimal disturbance. I've done...

That is my best configuration, but in a Paynes poly hive, set up as a 14x12 with DN4's. I've also had swarms in wooden nationals with 11 old frames and OMF. The bees don't seem to care about the amount of light entering the bottom of the hive. Also I know of a beekeeper who open feeds his bees...

Give us more info on the inside configuration. The bees appear to be scouts taking measurements. In the bottom video, I saw a bee enter and then reverse out and go back in. I would say the frames are empty. If it was robbing I'd expect the bees to come out heavier than they went in and it would...

While clear crownboards have their uses, they are not a good indicator of how many bees you have in a hive. How many seams of bees, how many frames of brood? The latter is the best indicator. One thing you could do, is lift the back of the brood box so that you have an angle to look at the seams...

From Bryncethin. The beekeeper is going to live in the US, he was a complete novice and the Langstroth hive wasn't even nailed together. The frame design should have housed plastic foundation, instead, coated garden wire was used horizontally across the frame, supporting unwired foundation.

I much prefer: