Recent content by Digestive

So by way of update, checked the hive again this morning and there are now 5 sealed queen cells, few larvae and no eggs. I’m hoping that a queen will emerge soon and that the hive becomes queenright. Would you leave all 5 QC’s? In addition there is no super on this hive at the moment, but 6...

Thanks for the advice…at the moment there are no sealed queen cells in the hive

Since I posted, the colony has now swarmed :(….luckily only a few metres away and at low level so being enticed into a nuc. The question remains this now leave a weakened queen less hive….what’s the best approach to deal with this?

Yes, there doesn’t seem to to be a lot of eggs visible, but a higher proportion of capped brood and larvae

Thanks, there is lots of space on the frames so no obvious sense of being packed….

A quick check on one on my hives this morning and it appears that 3 queen cells with royal jelly have appeared in the past 7 days (2 on lower edge of frame and one in the middle of the comb). All unsealed, but one particularly elongated in the classic peanut shape. Lots of capped brood, larvae...

Hi, does anybody have a nuc on national frames around the West Midlands area?

Thanks for all the advice…most appreciated. Happily sold on the idea of a kitchen/chef’s blow torch…..seems way less faff than fumbling around with a lighter, off to Amazon I go……

Thanks, given the new colony, we want to give them as good start as possible this year so wasn’t sure if we need to give them room for brood by adding the super

Having received a nuc (4 frames) a few weeks ago…we added these to a brood box with an additional 6 frames of foundation. Having kept an eye on the colony, there is now lots of capped brood, eggs and larvae on the 4 frames and comb being drawn on the frames on either side of these…but we’ve...

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Having decided matches /lighter is a lot of faff for lighting a smoker…..does anybody use a mini/kitchen blow torch to light their smoker, and if so are any that you can recommend?

Anyone with a couple of spare Apivar strips (before I buy a pack) I can use? (Nothing received from the forum so far still on the hunt)

By way of update...used the jacket for the 1st time this evening when inspecting my mentor’s ‘more boisterous’ hive.....comfortable and easy to work in (and the 1st time using marigolds instead of leather gloves) and more importantly no stings (unlike the 5 my mentor received in his BJ Sherriff...

Thanks for all the advice....having had a look around and in need of one quite quickly...I went for one on flea bay.... Ordered last night and arrived this morning...1st impression is it feels quite ‘premium’ and comfortable but let’s see how it performs in the next few weeks....