It's the forshortning of the camera lens. There is room to stand to the side. I started out with langstroth and then inherited national gear when I took over the bees after the death of the farmer. The son hasn't time for the bees. Its been a tough couple of years. Most of the gear was mothed...
I use straps in the winter to stop the wind. I have 30 hives and don't have the time to unstrap on every inspection. In this case they would have tipped the lot in if it was tied together. Besides why should I live my life working to the lowest common denominator. They are in the wrong not me...
I have used hot air gun before. It only works if there is air under the capping. Little discs of wax ping in all directions. It annoys she who must be obeyed. It's banned in my kitchen!
Why? Are they so bored, knocking beehives into streams with apples is their only form of entertainment? Fortunately the brood box didn't go in and the queen is OK. I hope they got stung but I let the grandkids open this lot. Wouldn't say boo to a goose.
Willow for early pollon, Lime, sweet chestnut, horse chestnut, linden, acacia are all excellent pollon and nectar providers. All however take a while to mature. Fruit trees give more instant results.
Over wintering wooden nucs outside is a no no for me unless they are in a shed flying outside via a tube. Poly nucs however work great. Just pay more attention to food levels as there is obviously less room for stores
The 3 frames in an apidea can be wired to a frame top bar and placed in a nuc. I give them drawn frames and usually bolster numbers with a slab of brood from a doner hive.
If you can not find the queen when doing a AS set up the new brood box on original site and shake/ brush all bees into it. Place queen excluder then brood box with all the original frames on top. Leave for an hour or so. Nurse bees will return upstairs and queen will be in lower box with flying...
I hope this will work. I have extracted bees with a chainsaw from trees and it gets very messy no matter how careful you are. I have done one way cone extractions that bleeds off adult workers from buildings but you have to provide eggs for a new queen as she never seems to leave the nest. Once...
So I made a board to convert tree to national. Brood box with some drawn comb and a super with drawn comb and some honey. Bees where already in the boxes when I put the lid on. Hopefully Queen will migrate upward and lay in nice new wax. Once she is up there I can use a queen excluder to keep...
It weighs about 100kg. Nearly broke me getting it in and out the van. The entrance hole is near the bottom so could coax them up but I like the idea of them moving up on their own
Got a call from a local school who had felled a large pine tree. It contained a wild nest which I have cut out as a 4 foot log that contains comb top to bottom. They seem of good temper and a large colony. My question is what next?
Do I break it open and transfer, tieing into brood frames as in...