Recent content by Andy Fotheringham

Just thought you might like to hear my experience on the desensitisation course. I had done the weekly build up and was about 6 months into the monthly injections. Throughout the injections I had had no local reaction or any hint of the anaphalaxis. I went and had my injection as normal, went...

MA and the rest of you have all missed the real business opportunity here. As usual we cottage industries naturally think small. What you really need to do is develop your clearer board on a much larger scale so it can be placed in a city centre with prison vans at the exits. The additional use...

Half way through my second year of beekeeping and I am completely absorbed by it all. However, I was tidying up in the garden on Monday at about 5.30pm when I had a lone bee start to buzz around my head which was very persistent as I tried to move away and ignore it. Eventually it seized the...

Last year I was fortunate to be given a strong colony in a national brood. All the kit I had built was commercial so we put a commercial brood on top with foundation. By the end of last season we had got 8 frames of capped honey/syrup and a couple of drawn frames, all ready for this season. Now...

Try K.Basterfield & Son. All their beekeeping is done using commercial hives. I believe they can supply nucs on commercial frames if required. I know they are slightly in the opposite direction but this may be an option for you.

When my sister came to visit last summer she was captivated by the bees and would love to get involved herself. She lives in Barnsley and we would like to know if there is a local group/association she could get involved with prior to taking the plunge. Being 300 miles away its a bit...

I bought 2 huge rolls of the stuff when I was restoring my cottage. Had to render the outside with lime and used the hessian to hang over the render so I could keep it damp while the lime set. You could try specialist suppliers of traditional building materials as I bought mine with all the...

With all Finman's stories about OA sending us mad I think a video showing the symptoms of OA induced insanity would be welcome. This would allow our other halfs to be able to recognise the condition. From his post I would suggest that Hombre is suffering from quite an advanced case already. All...

Did my OA treatment today on my double brood commercial setup. When I took off the crown board there were a few bees wandering around on top of the frames but I could not see any cluster. I ran the OA down between the frames of the top box anyway. Afterwards I had some doubts about what I had...

Stiffy, I am in the Tamar valley. I have had a walk around my local area and couldn't find where they are getting the HB from. I have found it locally along some streams but outside foraging range of my bees. Andy

I was talking to another beek and mentioned how active my bees still were. I then mentioned that there was still a bit of drone activity although somewhat reduced. They replied that they had heard that drone activity at this time of year could be an indicator of all not being well in the hive...

Sorry Clare, got carried away with the n's. The web address is www.amazonails.org.uk

Don't know how much info you have on straw bale construction but I was considering it a few years ago and found www.amazonnails.org.uk was a good source of info. Problem with small straw bale buildings is you have a large footprint in relation to the space inside owing to the thickness of the...

Thanks RAB. I was wondering how long it would take to get a " not as good as my Swiss Schneurlberger Super Optic 72 " post. Just teasing.:smilielol5:

For those of you who might be interested Lidl will be doing a microscope for £39.99 from 6th Sept. We got one of these for our son a couple of Christmas's ago and thought it was really good value and solidly made. It came with a USB camera which allows you to hook it up to a PC. He has had...