Recent content by Bluetractorman

Jeff, I did remove the caged Q after 7 days. She's in a backup nuc for now. There was zero sign of any swarm impulse. I don't think they could have used anything other than the eggs in the frame I put in given the 7 day laying break. Unless they used a 4 day old larvae. Surely not...

A colony was unpleasantly defensive, I therefore made them hopelessly Q- by confining the Q to a cage for a week and then put in a frame of eggs from another colony. They'll of course build EQ cells. Leave'em to it or reduce to one or two QC's?

https://www.mattridley.co.uk/blog/bad-for-bees/

Breezy on the pussy willow. 12 degrees in west sussex

there's a really excellent film of it here... Volucella zonaria - Wikipedia

There's also now the Apple air tag. One off payment rather than subscription, about £30. Slight question over effectiveness in very rural or remote places. AirTag

Excellent job! I expect the suit needed a wash. I've heard that scrubbing with Jeyes fluid discourages returning swarms. Do you have a view on that?

if they were for issuing they'd have been called issues, not stores...

stores are for storing - brings back some memories

18mm structural ply £50 a sheet phew. Helped a bit though by some excellent lengths of timber (+cut offs of insulation) being chucked at a barn conversion building project nearby. I do get great pleasure from the making process too.

it certainly is. Wish I'd had this earlier. Great resource, thank you.

Thanks very much all. I've got going, rain clattering on my shed roof. One further question; I'm making them top bee space. How much space do you suggest underneath the bottom of the frame? In Roger Pattersons diagram (based on a national brood frame side bar below the lug measurement of...

Has anyone got some measurements for plywood/any wood nuc construction? Dave Cushman/Roger Patterson has some here.. Nuc Box Plans Designed by Roger Patterson although I'd be interested to see others. I've searched the site without finding anything but that doesn't mean it's not on here...

Just searched for HM Sentinel online but reckon I found a successor vessel. The one I found didn't have sails.