Recent content by OldFarm

Someone near me found it in one of their hives last week, confirmed by SBI this week. Berkshire. We've had awful weather, temperatures up and down, some colonies are really low on stores, some showing chilled brood. All very stressful for the bees.

Fair, didn't realise he had that many. I cleared 4 frames a day last year, almost zero effort and nice clean wax. It cleaned some frames last week, I was surprised to be honest, didn't realise it was warm enough.

I use a solar wax extractor, it takes up to 2 brood frames at a time. I put a silicon baking sheet on the bottom of the pan, it gets more wax out and the slumgun is easier to remove afterwards. Frames come out pretty clean, a good dunk in an old tea urn and they come out looking great.

As an example of when it goes horribly wrong.... A bee taster session was being run at an apiary in Australia. One of the attendees took off his suit hood before he was told to, was stung in the face, had an anaphylactic response and died. I know, extreme and an unlikely situation, but it...

It was a BBKA briefing on 17 February 2024, I thought it was on Youtube, but can't see it. Other points:

warsaw_hive said: Just to add, why haven't we had the DNA results from last year's nests yet? From the February briefing

BBKA says we're at 3 confirmed insects and 1 credible sighting, there had been none at this point last year. It was a good year for AHs in France last year, so the number of new arrivals this year is likely to be greater than last year. The Facebook scaremongering, profiteering and...

Given that there have been several confirmed sightings of Asian hornets already this year, I wonder at what point the NBU would hold their hands up and say that they can't deal with it any more? How many nests are we talking? I sincerely hope that it doesn't ever reach that point, I'm just...

Because it simply isn't possible to design a trap that is specific to Asian Hornets, other insects will always find a way in, some will find a way out, but not all. The sizes stated for the insects are averages, there will always be bigger or smaller - in Jersey they found one AH nest where all...

Chris Issacs in Jersey has a hornet observation hive in his conservatory. Chris is quiet about his discoveries, but John De Carteret shares the information.

The advise on bycatch escape holes changes from time to time. To keep in workers it needs to be 5.5mm; to keep in queens Jersey are going with 7mm this year, though some people seem to think the hole should be 6.5mm. Guess we'll have a better idea in a few months.

Like I said, it was the only research I've found. It explored one use of fipronil, that's all. The system brings some relief from predation for a short period. It's not a complete solution, it's probably a stepping stone to finding a better solution.

We should be using monitors, that way no bycatch is harmed. If AHs are found to be in the area, set traps, and inspect regularly. If you have a trap with bycatch only, release it. If you have a trap with AHs and bycatch, put it in the freezer for 10 minutes, check the insects are not moving...

Two completely different systems. There isn't much research on fipronil and Asian Hornets, the pellet system was the only one I found. There is no research on FC.

Workers start emerging in May. Queens continue to forage, but for how long seems variable. The latest they caught a queen foraging in Jersey was mid July.