Recent content by Salkeela

I haven't been here in a while, but OH did his bee keeping exam and practical assessment today. We overwintered 2 hives. One which was thriving and split about 3 weeks ago and the other which didn't do at all. The split hives are both going great now and we are optimistic for honey this...

Might just do this.... these are way worse than any other year here. What do you recommend as the best way for a novice wasp destroyer to carry out the deed? At least we can wear bee suits. A work friend had a wasp nest in his garden. He placed something at the entrance for the wasps and it...

:lol: brilliant mental image of your entertainment! :) I'll try the tropicana thing and the white holes.... now where is that tippex

Thanks for the info in this thread. I'm having a terrible time with wasps. I was away for a few days and the raspberries & redcurrants over-ripened and were heaving with wasps for a few days (now stripped bare!) Now they are around the hives and really being a nuisance. I've put up some...

Our family always makes a hot drink by adding boiling water to: Honey Lemon Juice & Apple Cider Vinegar Heavy on the honey of course! ;) It's good for coughs especially

Okay I'll set up some traps and see what happens. Perhaps we could squish some against the hive before the big opening.......:ack2:

I guess I should add that both hives seem very active at present. Loads of activity as bees fly in and out. The bottom box has slightly more activity but that is to be expected I suppose. I have never seen a wasp get into either hive - they just sit on the outside and take what sugar has...

History: We started beekeeping with a large swarm which had been kept in a Nuc box for a while before we got it. We think it sent out another swarm, because it had capped queen cells when we got it. It was split into two hives (put on top of each other) and the lower hive got a virgin queen...

As I see it (being a new beek and all - but also a biologist with some understanding of evolution) there are two schools of thought on this: 1. Treat varroa chemically in all colonies in the hope of eradicating the problem by wiping the varroa mite out. Feral colonies are BAD in this case as...

I have been told (by my beekeeping mentor) that there are NO surviving wild colonies of bees in the UK or Ireland. I'm told there are none that survive year in year out & that this is due to varroa. This shocked me. Perhaps that should have been 'very few' or 'almost none' rather than an...

I opened this thread thinking it was about uses for wax..... Well we found one, so I'll say it anyway.... My daughter had trouble with her "train track" braces on her teeth. The dentist had given her clear stuff to put over the sharp edges but she had used it all. So we gave her a little wax...

Thanks jezd. My OH said he saw pollen going in yesterday - so I take that as a good sign. Also when we opened the hive at the weekend they were really calm and cool. Chilled out relaxed bees which our mentor says is also positive. I mentioned the test frame thing..... and he agreed it would...

AH! Light dawns.... sounds like a plan to me. My mentor is a friend in work..... must try to bump into him in the canteen tomorrow.... :) His initial plan (before this swarm appeared) was to split a hive for us, so maybe he'd be happy enough to supply a frame...... How would a frame like...

What do you mean? Sorry - I'm probably being dim. Right now the bees are in our mentor's broodbox with a couple of his frames and a couple of ours and a feeder. All in our garden.

:nature-smiley-011: Okay Polyhive thanks ...... they are doing no harm where they are. Indeed they do seem quite content. So we'll wait and see..... Our mentor is trying to raise some more queen cells too....