Recent content by JG_7oaks

Pink! & yes.

thanks Dani, that is helpful. Just to respond to the questions - QX was removed. There were many dead bees on the frames that fell off before I took the pictures, and many more on the floor. Not very many with heads stuck in cells, but of course it is clear they did starve, in spite of same...

I took advantage of the warm temperature to do a quick inspection of my two hives. One colony has survived the winter well - they are continuing to tuck into the fondant but they were also sending workers out to forrage for pollen going on. All the stores in the super has been eaten but there...

Thanks Nige - that worked and gave me a glimpse of the blighter moving about. So not curled up asleep.

@ Brian ["Too early to be feeding syrup, too cold , bees will have to evaporate water content, it is to cold for them to do that now."] Does it do any harm? Or do they just not touch the stuff until it's warm enough? The day I did my visit it was 12 C. and a few bees were venturing out. Now its...

thanks for these helpful comments - particularly re the syrup and listening for the intruder. I hadn't thought it might still be there!

As it was a reasonably sunny day today and not too chilly I thought I'd do a quick check on my hive to see whether my bees have survived the winter. The great news was that they have - but two things I found have me very worried. First there is a pile of debris in front of the hive entrance -...

thanks sbisme - that's what I did. Just got my fingers twisted (or I could claim I was thinking water to sugar, but the truth is I wasn't thinking when I typed ...)

thanks for these very helpful comments. I have put a gallon of 1:2 syrup in a Miller feeder on top and I'll hope for a couple of weeks of good weather! And next year I'll try to make more time for visits to my local BKA apiary so that I have more input as I go along ...

I am worried that my bees will be seriously short of stores for the winter. I have ten fames in a WBC brood chamber; no super. The colony has developed from a nuc I got locally in May. There was plenty of healthy brood developing in June/July. In July, even though the bees had apparently run out...

Hi Brian, I am just a raw beginner myself. My Nuc is developing into a nice colony after about six weeks. BUT, like you, not long after getting the Nuc, a queen cell started to develop. Panic! So I asked my friendly supplier of the Nuc and his advice in a nutshell was 'just let the bees decide'...

Hi, I've been a member of the local Association for a year or so and attended a course over the winter, but now I have a colony, or at any rate a nuc which I hope is rapidly building up to become a well established colony. Having now had a few weeks of keeping an eye on them I am beginning to...