Recent content by Polymorph

I was listening to Radio 4 this morning and heard this news clip on varroa mites “Despite an abundance of Varroa studies, very little is known about mite gait, but we have now identified that it has a vibratory signature that is highly different to that of the other invertebrates tested in our...

Taking it a step further, you can use a push in cage over the emerging brood and allows more gradual introduction with ability to start laying.

Managed to find and mark 3 queens and 3 not seen. A bit more smoke required as the weather wasn't brilliant.

I've got a couple of honey berries which went in last year. I understand that you need two different plants for good pollination. Looking forward to getting some fruit this year. Hope the idea is as good as the reality.

I have five colonies on a sheltered meadow which were supered on the 4th April and following inspection today, have not started on swarm cells. I have one other colony about 1.5miles away from the meadow on a farm at the top of a hill which is far more exposed to the wind/weather. This one has...

Inspected today and found I had one drone layer, one a bit slower the rest on 7 frames and store bound. The rest (4) on 11frames already and drones already emerged. Feels like the season is now rapidly gathering pace.

Interesting note, though it doesn't reflect my experience. I've had hives overwinter on just ivy with no adverse effect. What I did find this last winter was that the hive weights were lower by end December than previous winters. This could have been perhaps due to more activity with little...

The ivy honey stores are generally white and crystallised for me. With fresh nectar coming in they won't use it now. I remove and use with nucs and free up some brood space with drawn or foundation. You can't use honey after treatment for human consumption. There are differing views on oxalic...

I have seen a rather crude but effective approach of using secateurs to simply cut the bottoms off the 14x12 frames and then drop them into the standard deep. Not to my liking but it dig the job.

Plans are 1. Modest increase in numbers 2. Trying to be more selective on queens 3. Being better prepared for swarming. 4. Keeping better records

They are just a bit chunky. No drones present in any of them yet.

All three home reared nucs from last year flying well

good idea for a thread and I think most people try to follow a number of the principles. Though I am surprised by some of the elements, such as hives made mainly of natural materials which I assume rules out poly. As I have all the nucs in poly, I guess it's not a good start.

Interesting pic of a skep that a relative recently found in the attic of a French House near limoge. Quite a work of art.

The National Honey Show have also just published Grace McCormack and 'What we can learn from wild living bees'. Interesting video and well worth a look. She also covers the Blenheim bees and the results of both genetic and morphometrics. It does show that the bees are heavily hybridised from...