Recent content by CarolW

Yes I'm sure you're right, thank you. A friend tells me there's a field near her full of multi-coloured amaranthus, grown for seed I suppose. You can buy the stuff (to eat) in Waitrose.

Any idea what this monster is? Growing on our scrapheap, where the remains of the pet hamster's food is thrown. No bee interest noticed but I haven't visited it on a sunny afternoon yet. seen it in the afternoon yet.

There were six frames, both the outer ones had stores. All were covered with bees on this chilly drizzly afternoon. There were more empty cells than ones with eggs in and the laying pattern was erratic, little patches here and there. Other options might be for me to leave the qc in place and...

Thoughts please: I was kindly given a nuke by a friend but on transferring it to a hive today I found an unsealed queen cell almost full-length, amongst very few eggs. Some cells had two in. There were also a few larvae and a good amount of sealed brood. I saw the queen. Should I leave them to...

Thanks for the reply. I added the 10% as usual but the rest hadn't properly liquified, it was still a bit sludgy at the bottom and that's where I went wrong I think. Incidentally, I stir the whole lot for 6 minutes+ with a big Thornes stirrer in my drill and jar it up asap. Then overnight to...

Yes you're right I think, it's the only difference I can think of compared to all the other times. Thank you.

I agree. After I'd moved it into a warmish room out of the cold cupboard it was scoopy not gougey. So I've started a second batch now which is late summer and will be nice and runny, so my loyal customers can choose.

Thank you - that's prior to reseeding which I'd hoped I wouldn't have to do. In fact when I reseed and am successful, I only ever warm it to 40 degrees as I'm fussy about killing off pollen yeasts etc. I guess I'll have to melt the whole lot down in the jars and start again.

I'm quite successful in making my OSR honey creamy by adding 10% set-but-warmish honey to a bucket of warmed OSR honey that's all but lost its granulation. Hoever my last batch, after jarring it, soon set again, not quite as solid as its original state, but certainly not creamy. I think I'd...

They don't get sompletely gummed up but just enough so I need to jerk the lifts apart with my hive tool. Thee are generally a few bees loitering around in the inner space . Maybe they realise that if the lifts let in a bit too much draft the inner area could get too cold, same as us humans if we...

Thank you - this is the best reply I've had. Definitely worth a try I think, - at least I can always cut the boxes down a bit if they don't fit.

Disagree! Except yes, the boxes are a bit flimsy and after a mere six years of beekeeping I have to do some basic repairs this winter ... which is one of the reasons why I wanted to take some of the supers off pre-feeding! - I adjust the size of the 'front' door according to the weather and...

Just the thought of a 14 x 12 makes my back go all grindy! Thank you for the advice though.

I've left empty supers on to give them room - having slimmed them down a bit three days ago, I popped in for a look today and every frame is covered + lots on crown board too.