Recent content by Lee Smeaton

Thanks Davelin, I was thinking along the lines of a Bailey frame change but didnt realise it had a name. As the existing BB is so fused I will just inspect the new BB until I spot the queen laying in it, then swap top and bottom boxes over with the QE between the two and wait for brood in the...

just to clarify, After the first apiguard tray got chomped the second went in.... because the colony was small i fed the candipollen at the same time. If i am being 100% honest the weather worsened shortly after and the second tray (hopefully empty) is still sat in there as i didnt want to lift...

to be honest i left it in until it was all gone, which was much longer. Anyway roll the calender forward, and I appear to have a happy hive, very busy at the entrance and plenty of pollen coming in, I was worried because it was a small colony. We had very bad winds over winter so the hive is...

I am in a similar position, same size colony and stores situation. I still have a feeder on top and am feeding constantly. Even today in the wind they are still bringing in pollen. I am going to leave them to it rather than disturb them. As its a Poly hive I was thinking of leaving the feeder...

it probably is usual, I am still new to all this caper

just an observation..... lots of bees actively grooming each other on the landing board today - first time I have seen this

i originally started as a method of de-stressing. I left the military with PTSD and found that it took my mind away from some rather dark places, (also took up metal detecting which is also brilliant for diverting your mind from fripparys of modern day left)

ok, 6 days into my treatment - Half my bees appear to have disappeared, I now only have bees on 6 frames on the BB and they all seem a bit sluggish - very worrying. Witnessed a few drones getting kicked out. No dead bees around on the floor around the hive... maybe they were all out to lunch...

did we ever get to the bottom of how the damage occured? was the game keeper scenario just a guess, was there any previous "tensions" leading up to this that would give strength to the suspicions? if not it would be just as reasonable to surmise that a unicorn did it.

ok, here are my reasons for treating. 1. The colony was a cut-out rescue. As such I have no way of knowing if these are wild or a well kept colony that swarmed from someones apiary. 2. I am new to this and would rather err on the side of caution. I have tried to leave them to it as much as...

I will be treating in the next couple of days. It should still be warm enough, Its a poly hive sat in the entrance of an outbuilding (old bullock shed, roofed and walled on three sides), fully sheltered from wind / rain / draughts and gets the sun on the entrance all day (when we get any)

only that I will drink practically anything - regardless of whats in it or what it tastes like.:cheers2: what I am saying is - I wont be selling any honey so whatever goes in it will only be going in me

well, there is reported resistance 6 miles away so I guess thats answered that one, Any spare honey i get next season is going to become Mead, all for my own consumption (hopefully)

seeing as i dont have a super on and am just trying to build the colony for winter can i apply my varroa treatment now even with the bees still frantically foraging. Also, is there anyone near me (Gedney Lincolnshire) that can comment on any localised tolerance to any of the commercial varroa...

I have a slab of candipolline gold in the feeder at the moment (covered in happy bees) I might pull this out, remove an undrawn frame and wedge it in there, then fill the feeder with sugar syrup....