Recent content by Mwsedgwick

It's more like 6 weeks. I'll leave it another week then make a decision

Hi They swarmed a few weeks ago i think. Yes i did have a number of queen cells but no sign of a queen now. I left if probably 4-6 weeks now but no sign of a new queen, eggs etc. Pretty sure there is no queen

Hi there Queen abandoned hive a few weeks ago and I've wait in the hope the hive will re queen itself but sadly not. No sign of new queen or eggs and bee population dwindling. What shall I do? Re queen now? Introduce frame of eggs in the hope the hive produces new queen? Would a new...

Hi Going to have a go at building a hive (full with floors, supers etc.) And wondered if anyone had any decent plans and drawings? I've had a quick look online and found some old National plans but wondered if anyone I hear has built them and could share plans. Thanks

Hi there I've inherited an Apairy that seems to have been abandoned for the last couple of years which is a shames. It has 7 hives 5 of which has strong colonys, 1 is very damaged but has a swarm building own comb give and the other 1 is empty. A number of the hives are it a bad state...

Yes I was feeding with supers on.

Hi Not fussed about the honey - just want to make sure they make it through the winter. I was advised to remove the super and place next to the hive for the bees to clean and transfer to brood box? If I remove the super now to leave just the brood box what's the likelihood of them making...

Hi What are people's thoughts on taking honey supers off now? I opened one of my hives up today and noticed the bees were storing more honey in the supers that the brood box - need them to move honey into brood box so they make it through winter. I have been feeding them and will continue to.

Hi Are open mesh floors acceptable in the winter months in the UK? We are based in the Midlands, pretty rural so have some decent cold spells. Thanks

Brood box has a full set of frames but some not drawn out yet. Hoping they will focus on drawing out brood box frames now I've restricted queen accessing super??

How do I get them to concentrate on drawing the brood frames out?

Thanks for the replies. Pleased to hear it shouldn't be an issue. Stupid question but what do people mean by 'enough space in the brood box'? I have 2/3 frames in there that haven't been formed yet plus 2 empty with no eggs. Queen has laid nice brood pattern in others with both fresh eggs and...

Hi Took possession of a hive recently that was a brood plus super colony with queen excluder above the super. Eggs and brood in both brood box and super with plenty of stores. I found the queen last night in the brood box so decided to put the queen excluder between brood and super as...

Ok thanks - I'll get on it now.

Hi Should you register your hives with DEFRA or similar? My local bee association is aware of my hives Probably been answered elsewhere but I couldn't find having searched forum. Thanks