Recent content by bustergrimes

1 - Queens are more readily accepted into nucs aren't they? That's what I keep reading anyway... Besides, I've tried to introduce a new mated queen to an aggressive (queenless) colony in the past and they have on both occasions not accepted her. Anyway - this is all sorted now thanks. 2 - I use...

Hello everyone. I have 2 questions which I'm after some advice on please: 1 - I had an aggressive colony which I wanted to requeen. I killed the old queen, split into 2 nucs and introduced a mated queen into one of them. The mated queen appears to be laying fine after a week and I'd like to...

Diolch yn fawr

Excellent. That's that sorted. Thanks

Has anyone had experience with this and if so any tips? Cheers.

Hi all. What's the erratic bee towards the bottom of the screen up to? http://tinypic.com/player.php?v=2h2ksbd%3E&s=8#.U8pC_41dXU4 Anyone seen this kind of behaviour before?

Hello all. Looks like I missed an entire conversation! In the end I let the queen out on the same I posted. She didn't cook and she was free to mate as nature intended. What was weird was that when I looked inside that day almost every single bee had left and taken residence on the front of...

jenkinsbrynmair: I don't mind losing a swarm but I don't want to upset the neighbours and I don't want to have to go and retrieve it. I am trying to get all my beekeeping done today as I'm moving house over the next couple of days. In your experience: - do you think it's the oxalic that's...

alldigging: The polynuc has a mesh floor and the entrance is open albeit with a queen includer. The nuc is partially shaded. None of the other colonies in the apiary are bearding.

jenkinsbrynmair: That's my dilemma. I realise she needs to mate but if I remove the queen includer I'm worried the whole swarm will abscond because of the oxalic treatment. My plan was to open it up tomorrow once (hopefully) the bees had calmed down. - Should I let her fly now and risk losing...

Hiya. I'm after a bit of advice for another swarm I collected recently. These are the facts: - Swarm picked up 4 days ago in a polynuc - Dribbled oxalic after day 3 - Day 4 lots of bearding - Temperature today 26 degrees I'm pretty sure she's a virgin queen but I don't want to open the...

Just thought I'd post an update on the situation with this hive... I checked it the other day and although didn't see the queen there was eggs on 5 frames and the bees seemed to be pretty settled. They've even filled a super, so I'm a happy beekeeper again. Thanks again to all that contributed...

In case you're interested fellas, it worked a treat. Saw the queen and she'd already laid up 4 frames a week ago. Moved another newly hived swarm the same way and that seems to have worked too. Thanks again for the advise.

Thanks Enrico & Ratcatcher. They were already doing their orientation flying at 7:30 this morning, so I'm going to block them in tonight and move them tomorrow. Will leave a polynuc at the current temporary site in case too many fly back there. I have read about this twig blocking entrance...

I picked up a swarm earlier and want to put it in a hive that it probably came from. I going to struggle to find time to do it tonight or tomorrow morning but don't want to miss the chance to move it 20 metres down the road. So my question is... How long can I leave it before the flying bees...