Recent content by dpround

My daughter is doing a piece of homework on bee inspectors and would like some pictures of hives in unsuitable locations (and unsuitable hives) for her presentation on Monday. Unfortunately, our local inspector doesn't have a collection of horror pictures. Can anyone help. Thanks in advance David

An alternative explanation for the fire may be dry grass/hay etc trapped around the exhaust. Petrol cars exhausts are certainly hot enough, particularly around the cat. Diesels are much safer from that point of view, which is perhaps something worth considering given the types of places bee...

I'd say take advantage of the warm weather and inspect. The local bee inspector persuaded me to do just that and it turned out that the frames were chock full of brood and stores. There is no way they would have got the amount of winter feed in that I had planned in. We put the super back on...

I went for a MB langstroth jumbo. It is not a decision that I regret, though it does make some things more complicated. I was lucky to get a swarm, which both saved money, grew faster and saved the grief with frame converters. If I were doing it again I might have chosen Swienty, but they are...

Registering as a small trader is probably essential if you want to stay sqweeky clean. The problem comes I think when you decide after 10 years that you really should register as you are now the largest keeper in the county and then HMRC pop round and ask about last year, and while you are at...

Well I put the super on and the contact feeder on top, to get them started. The bees seem to be ignoring the super, which I am not too worried about, but they are also not going to the feeder any more at all. Should I take the queen excluder off to encourage them to have a look upstairs. If I...

Thanks for all the responses. I think on balance I'll put the super on. I made up the frames with foundation earlier as the bees were going so fast I was sure they would need it and now the foundation will go stale if I don't do something with it. All the best David

I should ahve said that I am going away for three weeks from the middle of next week. David

I am a rookie, so don't have many opinions of my own yet. I have one colony in a poly langstroth jumbo which was hived from a swarm about a fortnight ago. The bees have drawn all the frames and seem well set. I have made up a super which I was going to put on. I'm not really expecting much, but...

M*dern managed to get me a poly hive by the next day! So far I am not regretting going poly at all. M*dern carry all the bits you need to do a poly national, just for some reason they don't offer it as a package. I am sure thay would be happy to help you with a shopping list. I chose to go with...

M*dern sell a widget that lets you close the main enterance of their hive and open another above the queen excluder. This aparently means that the bees will not swarm as the queen cannot leave. You can't use it all the time, but it seems like an option for covering critical time periods and...

I use jbidwatch free sniping software. It does what is needed, costs nothing and takes all the effort out. The trouble with bidding in advance is that whatever you chose as your maximum, your maximum + 1 bid inc is probably still a price you would pay.

Pretty much all hives are modular, so you should never outgrow the equipment regardless of weather you choose National or Langstroth etc. On the whole sensible advice would be to take a good look at what your local bee keepers are using and buy that. Of course I ignored my own advice and got a...

What does everyone think of M*dern's queen trap swarm prevention widget? (Under Langstroth hive components.) The idea seems almost comically simple - the swam is headed by the old queen leaving, so put the entrance above the queen excluder; the old queen can't leave so no swarm. Of course it...

I needed to buy a hive quickly. Mod*rn Beekeeping claim to be able to deliver next dayish, but only ordered it yesterday so we shall see. Tho*ns and M**smore are quoting a three weeks for a hive IIRC.