Recent content by Andy Coleman

I love my poly hives, three full size colonies & one nuc overwintered, all out and about over the last couple of weeks in some force, and they seem to be at it earlier and much more vigorously than my neighbour on the next allotment who has wooden nationals. But sterilising isnt easy - I've...

I've been running a couple of poly hives for the last two seasons, and very pleased with results, so can recommend. But on one site the roof seems to have been attacked by a woodpecker, several pits hacked a couple of centimetres into the, thankfully thick, polystyrene. What ever it was seems...

Any views on the other question I asked, which is about the way the queen seems to have failed. She was a virgin last summer, so quite possibly didn't mate very well. But there are quite a lot of bees in the hive now, so it seems likely she had done some laying this year, but must have stopped...

thanks for the quick answers, will get on with that! And good luck to all for the new season - this will take me from four colonies starting the winter down to two now, but at least they look strong, regards

I have a colony with no eggs or brood of any stage, there is a good looking queen in there who was new last summer, but I'm assuming she has stopped laying because not mated properly. There a quite a lot of bees in the hive, more than I would have expected to have survived the winter, so looks...

Thanks for taking the time to post this Finman, interesting background.

Thanks guys, good job I asked, regards Andy

I have some oxalic mixture left over from last year (the Italian stuff bought from Paignes), worked fine last winter, and I was planning to use up this month, until I read somewhere this shouldn't be done because it degrades and produces substances which are harmful to the bees. More harmful...

Do you mean the one that swarmed was the colony on the original site, with the old Q in it (I.e. the artificial swarm)?

I came across this ... "Virgin queens appear to have little queen*pheromone*and often do not appear to be recognized as queens by the workers. A virgin queen in her first few hours after emergence can be placed into the entrance of any queenless hive or*nuc*and acceptance is usually very good...

I use sacking cut into strips as a basis, but also fir cones which I pick up round the apiary - I get a bit of tar, but not too difficult to knock off, maybe the for cones burn a bit hotter?

Hi - that's my worry with the two swarms, which I didn't collect, and which seem to have been gathered in a bit chaotically and might have missed the queen(s)! Don't want to disturb them too much, so I think I'll just wait for a couple of weeks then do a quick inspection. I don't remember...

If a swarm starts drawing comb, is that a sign that a queen, whether virgin or mated, is present? Or might they stay in their new home and draw wax even without a queen? I've picked up three nice size swarms, one of which I am pretty certain is prime from a known source. But the other two...

I moved mine in late Feb, about 1 mile, with no problems. Pretty much as you say - took off the lifts, used gaffer tape to seal up entrance and brood boxes, crown board. And straps round the whole lot and under the floor. The foam pieces I use for nucs/ national were no use for WBC floor, tape...

I use Lavender prunings roughly chopped, mixed up with cut up hessian sacking (free from the pet shop) and crunched up pine cones. Not that I use much smoke, but the bees don't seem to mind it, and it smells nice - unless there's too much sacking!