Recent content by Queen B

Re cold way versus warm way. One year I experimented with comparable colonies by putting half warm way and half cold way for the winter. The ones which were warm way round all, without exception, strarted to build up a month earlier than the cold ones, and maintained their advantage all...

So you were just placing the comb in the nuc box, not wiring it somehow into frames? Doesn't it all end up in a mangled pile? Look forward to seeing the photos - will they appear in this thread?

How do you go about moving a feral colony with wild comb? (Without damaging brood.) Would really appreciate advice, just in case ...

My advice would be to join your local association, enjoy the winter meetings, get involved in apiary visits in the spring, to get used to being around bees, get your first bees in May. Nowt wrong with WBCs if you have only one or two colonies and don't want to move your hives around.

Spacing super frames by eye is all very well, until you have to lift off the super to do an inspection, when the frames can end up at all sorts of funny spacings and angles. My newer frames are Hoffman but all the old stuff relys on metal ends or castellations (which I don't like particularly)...

Maybe I'm not charging enough, then - have just put price up from £3 to £4 for nicely-packaged 8oz hex jars. Do you think folk would pay £5?

Frame feeder is frame-sized and you put it in the hive in place of an ordinary frame. I've tried it but got too many drowned bees. You can use a drop-in feeder (according to Thornes catalogue) for cleaning up cappings but it's cheaper to use a small baking tin or even a margarine box or...

Lucky you, seeing one of those. I've yet to see adult or caterpillar.

A couple of days ago there was an afternoon play on radio 4 called 'telling the bees' in which a deceased beekeeper had left a note for his wife reminding her to do so. May be available on Listen Again.

Ha! Brilliant idea. Why didn't I think of that?

Oops! Must dash! There's a man in a white coat giving me funny looks.

Oh, goody! Another nutty beekeeper like me! I talk to my lot all the time, too - even when they're out and about on the flowers. Once had to explain to a passer-by why I was talking to a roadside shrub. (I wasn't - I was talking to the bee on the flower ...)! If they're building 'textbook'...

I'm one of those 'wimps' who wear leather gloves because I have no particular desire to get stung too often. I have, of course, been stung through the gloves, and once on my head (when not actually anywhere near the apiary). Our first bees came from someone who'd been stung once too often...

I have one wire QE which I only use when I've run out of the slotted ones. We had a queen that always managed to get through the wire one - christened her Twiggy! Tried a plastic QE once. The bees built brace comb and gradually managed to warp it (in combination with hot summer?) until it...

Fascinating stuff. I guess the multiple matings with assorted drones explains why in one colony there can be workers of different colours. As for UK weather not being suitable for queen mating, that's rubbish. Mine never have any problems!