Thank you for the correction! My brain was truly elsewhere as I know that and have been teaching it to beginners for years! Put it down to stress due to major heart surgery in a couple of week.
Nadiring a super may be a ‘fad’ at the moment, but I do it. Reasons for my situation and bees is that I want some honey, but am happy to leave them some then feed syrup or fondant if necessary. On all my colonies, the first super is always theirs, I only get the extra supers. Putting it below...
Given that my name is Fiona and that I am well known for ‘discarding clothes’, this was a great source of amusement in our household. Haven’t been able to work out how to get a laughing emoji rather than the like.
Small blowtorch from B&Q. Easy to get replacement gas cartridges. Self igniting a must. I use mine on the wooden hive parts for quick cleansing as well. Wouldn’t be without it
I have a poly hive which I love especially in damp conditions, but the faff in cleaning has put me off. So much easier to grab a blow torch and quickly cleanse whatever. I suppose if I was ultra good and managed to get all my equipment cleaned over the winter months it would help. Reading these...
Isn’t some research beginning to show something about colonies that are good at grooming correlate with healthier, less mite infested bees? So would icing sugar not encourage that trait? Just asking, don’t bite my head off please!
I also enjoy sitting and watching the bees fly in and out of their entrance and understand how you would feel about turning the entrance around to face the hedge. Would it be possible to compromise and turn them to the side so you can still see them but their flight path is along the side of...
I have joined only recently, but congratulations on getting back into beekeeping. Every day I think ‘I am not going to be able to this much longer’ and wonder whether I should fork out for even more equipment, but I don’t know what I’d do without it. The pleasure of just sitting on a bench...
I have an old, second/third hand tangential that is manual. I would dearly love an electric as it kills me having to manually spin (I always welcome beginners who want the experience, even had school children once!), but, as I am usually doing about 60lbs it is really not worth me forking out...