Recent content by jamiep

If you have children/grandchildren there is an endless amount on toy packaging. The “see through” window of a cardboard box.

My concern with this is there are a lot of older, aggressive bees which will much less readily accept a caged non laying queen. I will want to move the original hive before finding the old queen as bees are boiling out of the entrance when the supers are gently cracked apart.

The hope would be that the most of the defensive bees would go to the younger queen and hive marked as “good for season” so the “new” aggressive hive would need little work until the foragers had been replaced. Is the “disaster and much dead” a personal experience or educated feeling/guess? The...

I have a highly aggressive hive which I want to requeen. They are full of bees. I also have a small hive (promoted nuc) with good stock, around 6-7 frames. Our summer flow will start here in a week or two. I plan on swapping the hive positions of the two hives to reduce the numbers before...

I could be wrong but I think she has multiple lines, some of which are more Buckfast and some more Carni. If this is the case, it would be nice rather than just Jolanta queens they where Jolanta type 1 and type 2 to distinguish. Maybe Murray will clarify here.

Look up PTC heater plates on eBay. Although they are self regulating in temperature, I’d recommend buying two and wiring them in parallel to the thermostat incase one fails and for a more reactive temperature increase. Go for slightly over your target temperature when selecting the plate and...