Recent content by asol

...that bees are wild and are not pets! One week mild mannered, the following week, nasty little buggers. Could never trust them to behave!

I suppose though looking inside is still prone to errors. An uncertain Kg per frame and estimations as to % of frames full. Surely the advantage with hefting (or weighing) is that you don't need to go inside, and its far quicker. Even if I went inside I reckon my errors will exceed hefting /...

When you say "big variation", how big?

No. I only measured my total hive by hefting. This is why I've multiplied it by 2 as the real weight is twice the heft weight, levers and all that stuff.... The super + frames is the only thing I've measured on a set of bathroom scales. Everything else is estimated. Andrew

Over the weekend I used a luggage scale to heft my hives to estimate the stores. The pickup point was on the rear of the hive via a screw into the floor and the fulcrum was the lower front edge. All my hives were between 17 and 20Kg. They are all brood and half Cedar National, Mesh floor +...

I'm sure it has a lot to do with the manager and his mood at the time.

Good point, and you're right! I'll have to continue to collect on a regular basis or I'll risk deflating their motivation. They've asked me to pop round in 3 weeks. That period is quite manageable but if regular I'll create quite a sugar mountain throughout the year. I suppose my local...

I needed to find land in spring. Although knocking on doors can be daunting I found it progressively easier as I spoke to more and more people. Within a couple of days I had 3 options of land. I'm now settled and as pleased as punch with my apiary site. My main targets were horses fields, find...

I'm not claiming anything new here as its been in the forum before but since the feeding season is nigh it may help those who want to keep their sugar costs low. At around 80p a kilo the bill for syrup or fondant soon mounts especially for those with a few hives. I wont bore you with how I got...

You have changed my mood theboynelson, I've just got in after 5 1/2 hours of sorting this one out and really it could have been a lot worse. On the whole it seems a success. I'd already split my only hive last Monday as it seemed very crowded and I'd seen charged QC (at the top of the frame...

Yes, it was my hive. Resorted to cutting down stems and grasping as many bees as possible and putting them in the box. After about 1 hour of this I saw the queen and managed to trap her in a plastic cage. I've now put that in the box and hopefully after a while the rest of the bees will follow...

I tried to send a picture to assist but failed. Not a good day!!

In fact will add that since the neighbours are not too happy I probably need to get rid as they are on my back garden so anyone in the Cannock area want to catch a swarm and keep the rewards?

My bees have swarmed and are on the ground amongst thick brambles. Ive got a carboard box and a 5 frame nuc near the bees, both have attractant wipe. As I try to brush or smoke them into the box they just seem to fall lower and lower through the stems and leaves of the bramble. I've tried...

Power is then the issue. Assuming a phone will last 6 hours on its battery. Battery is approx 3.8v and capacity of 1.4 AHrs. A car battery of 12v and 60AHr will therefore last 731 hrs assuming 90% conversion efficiency. This is a month. It wouldn't be too unreasonable to change the battery every...