Recent content by protheroe

because there wouldn't have been enough bees to get through winter.They were seriously dwindling,one hive especially and the queen wasn't kicking in with pollen and nectar going in.Its also a complete pain with health and safety there so its best to keep these alive and not have to go through...

I have a couple of hives in work and where i normally wouldn't check later in the season, i was still checking these.Both queens in their second year and both stopped laying in September until bees really started to dwindle with queens hardly laying.Probably wouldn't have got through winter so...

Happy new year everyone

Merry Christmas everyone.,

Thank you dani.

Have a look at the Ben harden method if you dont need large amounts of queens.

I had a few supers of balsam at 20% capped.Started uncapping first frame and instantly knew as it squirted out of the frame so i put them back on hives. If you have a few buckets with low water content then mix some into each bucket.

we'll be in winter before you know it and they wont be bothering anyone.Feed them and leave them alone until spring.Find the earliest queens for sale and requeen.

I would imagine a single zip tab to be a right pain,especially in the truck trying to remove the hood once the bees have calmed down.

I bought a couple of stbk professional suits and they do have the velcro where the zips join.Great suit for the price when they were in the sale.

It was looking quite a nice colour driving home from work last night through cwmgors looking over at the mountain but nothing on the hills from ponty to cwmgors yet.

I haven't done an autumn treatment for a few years now.Vape in late december or early january without problems.Haven't seen any dwv of late.I do think my bees are dealing with varroa much better these days,i just need to watch the hives with purchased queens next year.

I haven't seen EH since 2015 and i didn't get a food rating then.Letter received after visit stated everything was fine and they haven't been in touch since.

It has been an amazing spring flow for a change.Running out of supers so had to take a week off work to extract.Taken half a ton from four sites with another four to do.Majority is hawthorn.Im going to be in a pickle if we get a good summer flow.

there's lots of stories of cbpv infecting whole apiaries.I've seen it many times over the years but have only ever had individual hives affected with no spread to other colonies.