Recent content by Hebeegeebee

From my experience, chalk brood follows the queen - I've tried it by putting one in a chalkbrood-free hive. And if a chalk-brood frame goes into a good hive, the chalkbrood goes and it does not contaminate the remainder of the good hive. It might not always be the case and I would not reccomend...

August can be a bad foraging month - I tend to feed colonies gently over the month to encourage laying to ensure a good sized colony going into winter. My girls generally have plenty of pollen at this time of year but bring in little nectar after the blackberry finishes. Loads of pollen and...

Easiest to leave them in two brood boxes. Job done. However if you want to clear some old frames and get the bees to move honey from them into a super above, then you could set up the hive as follows:- This can be done in summer or spring with any frames you want to clear. From bottom to...

Chinese stuff won't be approved. Don't use it.

I have gotten Swibine mini nucs through a mild winter. So you can have a go for a bit of fun. Assuming the queen isn't mated, she should mate in good weather in the next couple of weeks - it's not to late in the season. You might then be able to add some more young bees (the ones left after a...

A resurrection of an old thread! Hi Eric, The odd thing with my colony was that the queen continued to lay in the hive for the rest of the season, with no queencells so why she went out for a walk is unknown to me.

It seems to be a NO from this lot! Seems like you've opened a hive and a sh***y colony leaps out at you from the frames! Beware of the little bu***rs who try to go into your boots and into your cuffs!

HMF develops as a product of time and temperature. You can get honey quite warm 50C - but not for too long. A large bucket takes a long time for the honey in the middle to become runny again - so it's not necessarily an exact science.

Tangential or radial extractor?

I would be inclined to get a queen in for a few days time and check thoroughly that there are no queencells remaining before putting her in. I have had a little sac brood on occasions but I'm not too bothered about it. It can be disconcerting to find it as a new beekeeper and you were right to...

I was going to suggest that if there are hives at the old site, any bees that return can find their way into those. Problem solved. Factors will include the location of any forage compared to their old and new location. And I am pleased that you did not shut them in for a day - not a good idea.

What does 'a split' mean? Are you talking of a honey producing part or not? Note that a broodless period - which you will probably have with a new queen - tends to reduce mite infestation. And when broodless you can always use oxalic acid. Do you have a varroa problem that you are aware of?

Bees sometimes throw up queencells after the books say they should. An option (and there's no right and wrong answer in this case) would be to 1) use minimal smoke and have a careful look for a virgin running around. 2) Toss a coin and decide whether to remove the queencells or not 3) If you...

I would be inclined to remove the queencells - virgins can be difficult to find. If, in the process of removing them, you find a viable virgin, then you might like to cage her until the mated queens arrive. Depending on the amount of brood in the nucs which you have not said, you would not want...

Bees can be feisty after the OSR has finished, even if they were all fine before-hand - not all colonies exhibit this trait though. It's part of the selection process for me.