Recent content by Chris B

The quick trip is to see the line in use to validate the volume throughput. Or at least that's the original reason, but it's morphed into a weekend in Budapest with Mrs B. Glad to hear about stock here, should make delivery cheaper.

I'm about to. Planning a quick visit August or September and want to get the kit in good time before Brexit. I have a bee farmer contact in Hungary who also confirmed Konigin are highly regarded there.

Get the super off and feed. A basic question you need to ask at every inspection is "do they have enough stores to last until next inspection". Sounds like they don't. And flows are never reliable. Much better to err on the side of caution. Overfeeding is a mistake you can recover from. But if...

Thanks Rich, don't know why I didn't think of that.

Rhombus

Don't see it as a total failure. The swarm that came out is likely smaller than it would have been had you not done a split. Did you end up catching them?

A Warre would be ok if you have the strength or other means to build it tall enough.

Has anyone ever tried this? That is using a clearer board on a hive that is reversed, with honey supers put below, clearer board, then brood box (queenless split in my case) and an entrance at top. It might sound strange but I'm reviewing what we do at harvest from the point of view of reducing...

:iagree: Weather forecast for week ahead much more relevant than an article written weeks ago. March can vary hugely from year to year. But unless they are truly desperate, I would be inclined to wait a week and give them syrup when a little warmer again.

Yes probably they (BBKA) should. But more effective for everyone just to boycott the licenced product. Nothing has changed for anyone who only needs to treat the woodwork.

The advantage of fondant is you can place directly in contact with the bees which is important when tightly clustered and they can't move to take syrup. So if the hive is very light (or you aren't confident to make the judgement), then this is definitely best. However, if no imminent danger of...

For the queen I am certain it is not a fixed number, judging by the number of times things don't go quite as expected with queen rearing, and then the next time they do. If pushed I would say 8 and a bit.

Mike, I would not put more than about a dozen hives in an apiary on average. Depends how good the apiary is really. So for 50 hives you need 4 or 5 apiaries, at least a mile apart from each other I would suggest. If you overpopulate the foraging range they will underperform.

A bit late to this discussion, but I no longer try to prevent swarming (impossible), I just try to minimize it (very achievable) in a cost effective and simple way. For me that means: Breeding from best performers (and also buying quality queens from the likes of BHP mentioned earlier in the...

Reinfestation. Robbers will bring back mites as well as honey.