Recent content by bobh1969

I Double up on the latex gloves, I have never been stung through them, you can re-use the "under" pair. I have used marigolds with latex on top, but they are difficult to get on and tend to rip. Need to be careful around the cuff though.

I had the same response with a couple of colonies on Saturday evening, Weather was overcast and humid so putting it down to that, I only opened the hives because they were low on stores on my last inspection, I wanted to feed them because weather forecast is for wind and rain for the rest of the...

As per the other posts above, After a couple of seasons in constant panic at this time of year the best advice I would have is to plan and be ready for the inevitable. I'm from the same part of the world as you, I generally take heed of the BBC NI weather forecast rather than RTE, Try and...

I have used on of these for the past two seasons and have found it OK, I just have 3-4 colonies so its fine for me, Made of food grade plastic so its easy to clean etc. I was fed up with the hassle of the "waiting list " for the association extractor.

Thanks All, stored them wet last year and it left a bit of a mess, I ended up discarding some because I was unsure about putting fermented honey back on, I have checked a few frames and no evidence of wax moth ( so far )

Hi, Do I need to clean last years drawn super frames before re-using ? I put them back on the hives after extraction for the bees to clean out, and overwintered them in a reasonably clean part of the garage, but will I need to do anything else before putting them back on ?

As a matter of course I feed 2:1 syrup after removing supers in mid- August, I use gallon contact feeders and they usually take it down in a couple of days, I then re-fill and leave it on for 3-4 days before applying apiguard, they will generally take most of the second gallon. As a precaution I...

Shes still in hand !!! probably pass her on to somebody in my assoc, Just the two hives in the garden and not confident that either is strong enough to split. If no takers in the next day or so, i'll split one and keep fingers crossed. I'm not a million miles from you if have a home for her.

I posted something similar a couple of weeks ago, no sign of brood in swarmed Hive after 3 weeks. One Swarmed on 22nd June - No Sign of New Queen laying until 26th July ( 33-34 days ) another swarmed on 25th June - First signs eggs / Brood last night ( 32 - 33 days ), So my lesson for this year...

I use rhombus escapes and would generally only leave them on for 6-8hrs, After that I've found that they make their way back up. I generally put clearers on in late morning / early pm and take them off in the evening. There's usually a couple of hangers on which can be brushed off.

Thanks All

Thanks, Very angry bees at weekend inspection so I presumed they were queenless.

Thanks.

I put one in on Saturday, fingers crossed. I had caught the swarm but went on 2 weeks holidays, it absconded while I was away.

Have a hive that swarmed 3 weeks ago, Still no sign of eggs / brood upon inspection at the weekend. I havn't been able to spot the new queen so I'm not sure that she is even present. One capped QC still in Hive. Should I re-queen or see if the QC produces anything. Thanks.