Recent content by bobster

Bees have been claimed. Thank you. Bobster

Hi, I have a swarm tucked up in my wooden swarm box for offer. They came from my own hive, good bees, have been no problem in the past. I caught (or boxed?) them on Saturday (4th). If you have a good home for them then they are ready to collect. I live near Haslemere in Surrey. I have no...

Thanks for the replies, beeno : Fairly certain this was prime swarm as the eve before the hive still packed with bees. DaveJNeal : Same thing happened to me last year with a swarm. Lovely new home (tried to make it smell not too much of fresh wood so rubbed some old comb inside), attached some...

Hello all, Yesterday at about 1200 I get a call from home "your bees are swarming", eek, ok. So this was from a colony that I thought were Q-. But I'd recently done a split, they had a QC in there and I was letting nature take its course. Fortunately they settled on a nearby tree in the...

It looks to me like your bees are just making some extra larger comb for Drones. With nationals the foundation cell "size" is not conducive to making drone cells. So the bees may try and make them where they can. This time of year a colony will try and make drone cells for procreation. What...

As a general rule of beekeeping, if you have 'b' beekepers and 'q' questions you'll get 'a' answers, where a = ((b+1)*q) ! (Where b>0 and q>=0) Beekeping is sometimes not prescriptive, you have to make a decision and go for it. Sometimes you'll make mistakes or things wont work out as planned...

Quite frankly that was embarassing. What was Heide Hermann thinking!! Julia posted this picture of here eye a few hours later.. Bobster

I too have a colony with no eggs or brood. Up until about a month ago they were ticking along fine. Last weekend and this no eggs or brood. I can't find the queen either, she is not marked. No sign of emergency cells, no queen cells either, bees seem happy enough, bringing in pollen, looks like...

I think I remember reading somewhere (maybe here) that the theory is bees make QCs "just in case" there is a problem with the queen. Also sometimes in larger colonies if her scent or pheremone is not string then they get the idea that she may not be about and go for it. I have a number of...

I wouldn't go hunting for the queen until you have evidence that she is present and laying. You could be trying to search for something which doesn't exist! From you post this is not clear. Do you have eggs/larvae in all three hives? FWIW my virgin queen took four weeks to get going. I haven't...

I have two children, twelve and fourteen, they're quite sensible (their dad isn't!). They're generally interested, they go and watch the hives occasionally. I haven't persuaded them into a bee suit yet. But give it time. They've seen their dad get stung, but they haven't been stung yet, and...

From doing my split to eggs/larvae took four weeks. The queen would have emerged during the wet April weather we had. Wasn't until middle of May that she got going. Bobster

If you have bees on only three frames and eggs/larvae in only three frames then I'd suggest your bees are doing just fine. The queen will not lay more eggs if there are not enough bees to feed the larvae or keep brood to temperature. If you have more bees maybe you could strengthen colony by...

Just a thought, could it have been a mouse? Were there bits of bees in the hive at all, or chewed foundation?. Bobster

I don't think there is any reason to worry. I have OMFs as well, and my bees do the same. I think they tend to do this when the weather is hot. In my case I just double checked they had plenty of space inside and left them to it. When it gets colder they'll probably rock up back inside. Bobster