Recent content by ijcooper

Not at all. It was a surprising slip, given that you are usually so very precise and pedantic - which is why I mentioned it at all. I was never on the fence. I with you agree about the strength of the colony, and that that is the pertinent issue. My "Dunno" was part of the questions that...

Not worth the effort, RAB, but since you're explicitly and somewhat condescendingly wondering why I didn't reply, I'll enlighten you. Your inference that brood is not part of the colony seemed pretty ludicrous. My post was merely pointing out your slip. Next post, however, you changed it to...

Careful - we have at least one beekeeper on here from Eastleigh.

And he was stung approximately 2000 times! I think I'd have stopped counting long before then...

Dunno. Does the definition of "colony" only encompass adult bees? Doesn't brood count as part of the colony?

They will store feed given as thin syrup for the winter; or they will use thick if they need to draw comb - but it's more work for them to either dry it out, or dilute it to their needs. Feeding the appropriate strength syrup reduces their workload.

Maybe they've superseded already, and there are 2 queens in the hive, the new one being a bit inexperienced and responsible for what you are seeing?

Yes, Ron Brown's Seasonal Guide mentions this. He says recommends it for out-apiaries, and says you can put 3 supers on at a time like this, with newspaper in between each one. He says he had thought he'd invented the system, but later found out that some beekeepers did the same during the war...

I've just been doing that very thing today. Midday sunshine, lots of flying bees. I wore my bee suit and veil. I'm pretty sure I would have been fine if I hadn't, but decided I might as well play it safe.

Pagden method.

She means last Thursday.

Your test frames seem to have indicated the presence of a queen...

Dandelion maybe, if it's orangey-red.

Good advice: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/queenfinding.html

You hear tales of both mother and daughter supersedure queens together in the same hive for months. Never seen it myself.