Recent content by newbie

In what way does a mating flight differ from a swarm please ? I was just cleaning out the chicken house at 2.30pm when I heard buzzing overhead and lots of bees flew south - they seemed to know where they were going, and weren't heading upwards. So I assume this was a small swarm. They were...

sorry, I meant Drstitson ! -

I agree Drstiltson, and good idea, rockdoc. Did you just put your full super under the BB at the end of last season ? Daft question, but I presume they took the stores up when needed ok ?

Thanks all, last season I had the colonies on double brood boxes but found them rather heavy to handle on my own, so I might see how I get on with brood and a half this year. In 10 years time I might have decided what to do !

At the end of last season I left each of my 3 hives with a super to keep them going. They also had a block of fondant each later on. There are no Queen excluders on obviously. I did my first inspection recently, and all 3 colonies have laying queens which is great. However in the brood box...

Thanks all, I'll carry on as planned, if it ever stops raining and we get some frost. I might use the super for brood and a half next season anyway, so it won't matter (now .... I bet 5 of you don't agree about that !)

I would like to pick your collective brains ! I was intending to apply oxalic acid (bought trickle 2) after the next cold snap. I was just reading the instructions on the bottle (don't look so surprised !) and note that it says never to apply if there is a super on the hive. I have from the...

I have united Q- colony with queen right - but have confused myself ! I was not sure what to do with the supers which were full of bees as we actually had a nice day today ! also I will need to get the supers off soon to do my apiguard. So, I had a queenright colony on 1 brood box plus QX plus...

might be worth sending to the website wildaboutbritain - there are plenty of clever people there who may be able to help !

I have a similar situation. In the next few weeks I want to apply apiguard on the colonies that need it. Is it too late to start treatment in September ? They have 1 super on each at the moment and it is not ripe and sealed. I intend to keep this for the bees to have for the winter (no...

I shall try a test frame, thanks (O90O I "caught" the cast as it conveniently clustered 4' up in a hedge on 1 branch, which I cut off and simply put the whole cluster plus branch into the nuc. Then I shook the bees off the branch. The Q must have been there as they were quite happy to stay put.)

Thanks all, very interesting, I have never seen 2 eggs in a cell before and am quite pleased when I spot any without my glasses on !

I caught 2 casts on 17th June, and put each into separate nuc boxes. My poly nuc shows no sign of a queen, but my second wooden nuc now has a laying queen. The wood nuc has a solid floor If "poly" continues queenless I intend to unite it with the second nuc, and put them into a hive (my last...

I did an AS on 30th May. I made colony #3, with a sealed QC in it, stores etc. On 20th June I checked this new colony #3, and there was no sign of any Q, eggs or larvae or any QC On 27th June I checked it again and found lots of eggs and some big and small larvae....hurrah I thought ! On 5th...

thank for sharing those astounding photos... I've never seen anything like it ! well done