Recent content by mychale

I started with Hooper and went through a number of other texts (dummies, etc) but the simplicity of the Waring’s Haynes manual is unbeatable.

The problem with an Apple air tag is that if the thief has an Apple phone it will tell them that they are being tracked as my wife found out when she went off with my tagged car keys.

It probably arrived in the UK on infected plants from Europe (around 2012, maybe earlier) into tree nurseries but may have crossed the over into Norfolk as airborne ascospores. It was first detected in Poland in the 1990s but probably arrived into a neighbouring state from Asia on stock of a...

Above someone mentioned Dutch elm disease and it was the import of logs containing an effective insect vector and a strain of the fungal pathogen which was the problem, not soil. However the global trade in animals and plants has caused immense problems. Where did ash dieback originate from?

Wind can cause problems with tall stacks. I have been called out to right tall stacks in the past.

My thoughts too, but you could improve it by planing off the bump.

Thanks. Simple question, simple answer.

I’ve looked at various recently released virgin queens recently and was surprised how small the abdomen can be when compared to those of mated, laying queens. The abdomen appears not only to be longer but also wider in the laying queen. So my question is simple, can virgin queens get through a...

One potential way of reducing the issue of crossing Bf with local blacks could be to put some drone brood foundation into your Bf hives, so there are a large number of Bf drones to mate with your virgin queens. I have seen large drone populations on such frames. However your Bf drones would...

Requeen unless a highly productive colony.

Over a number of years the only decay failure I’ve had is in the bottom rail of one deep brood box, made from Western red cedar. This was presumably home grown (UK) cedar not Canadian and it was probably sapwood with little or no durability above pine sapwood. The natural preservative in Western...

I add honey when the marmalade is cool, otherwise it goes dark and I would suggest that the HMF content would be high. I also add sucrose in the form of white granulated sugar.

Yes, I’d agree the vaporisation methods are very effective and I suspect they aren’t included for potential safety reasons.

You may also find this useful: https://nationalbeeunit.com/downloadDocument.cfm?id=1389

There was some discussion about live Varroa wandering off. This is one of the reasons for putting the hive up on blocks or on a stand. It is estimated that 20% of hatching Varroa may drop out of the hive this way and the further they fall after passing through the open floor mesh the lower the...