By coincidence i was shown the heat gun method of uncapping only today. I found it to be incredibly simple, mess free and very effective. Made short work of uncapping the undulating surface of the messy combs my bees had drawn out.
It definitely did not cause the honey to become tainted...
Right, a brood box. I haven't stuffed the entrance of the new brood box with grass. Should I and why? Is there any reason why I can't add another frame of bees to the new hive on my next visit?
So I am right in saying my queen is in the old hive as the bees were fanning. Good.
My immediate thoughts were borage and manuka. Prolific flowerers all through the summer including the June gap. I have both at the lotty and they're always smothered with bees. And they both look nice :)
Attempted my first artificial swarm today and as I feared I couldn't find the queen. The whole 14x12 brood box was full to the brim with bees and I couldn't find HRH despite looking through each frame several times. As I had several swarm cells with eggs and larvae as well as one capped...
:iagree:
The borage at my allotment has self seeded several years on the trot and is a magnet for honeybees throughout the summer and into autumn, only finally giving up the ghost with the first frost.
Hello. I live in a flat and am not allowed bees on my allotment, so I too was stuck for bee space (hee hee).
I didn't want to have to travel far everytime I wanted to visit the bees, so I approached the farmers nearest to me by knocking on doors and introducing myself. I also wrote a letter...
Apparently apple blossom nectar has quite low sugar content while OSR is very high sugar content. Bees will usually feed preferably at the nectar source that will require the least amount of evaporation to process it into honey.
I've just watched this program on BBC2 and it's got me feeling all militant about getting the local council to be a bit more bee friendly in their planting. For those that missed it the program pointed out that the vast majority of modern bedding plants are of no use at all to bees and other...
I'm a novice and like the op a bit nervous of my bees not making through their first winter. I went to check on them today and was surprised to see that there was no snow on the hive and a foot gap of no snow all the way around the hive. Is this normal?
Very surprised that the hive generated...