Recent content by sansai

Exactly one month ago I picked up 2 cast swarms from the top of the village. 2 weeks ago I transferred them both into national brood boxes. Today, despite being only 3 frames of bees, both had multiple swarm cells. obviously a very swarmy genetic line. Added to that both swarms have a very...

Sad to hear. which side of CM are you ? My property is about 25 K North of CM, and while we also experienced the heavy rain in early January, the Longon still had a pretty fair flowering season, with a good fruit set. Perhaps it also depends on how your local farmers are "feeding" their trees !.

Overwintered Nuc ( standard national) with 6 frames BIAS , 2013 Queen. Ready for immediate transfer to a hive . East Oxfordshire area

First full inspection. All the girls very busy. Very pleased with the amount of brood. OSR just coming into flower in this area, lets hope the weather holds for a while.

Guys, should this go ahead, your missing the most IMPORTANT point. DEFRA is most likely to be the ""licensing "" authority and they ALWAYS charge a fee !

Personal I would rather requeen with good locally bred queen NOW rather than be forced to requeen with an imported queen next May. Just my two pence worth.

The 4 feral colonies in this neighbourhood (east of Oxford) that I'm aware of, and have gone through the winter apparently well. One colony that's been in the wall of an old barn for several years threw a large swarm earlier this week. There are those around that declare that there are "no more...

Certainly appears to be quite a shortage of Nuc's in South Central England. I'm aware of several beks currently looking for stock but unable to locate anything, even from established suppliers. Possibly the high-profile that bees and their predicament have had on TV in recent months has...

Always re-hive them into a hive with old-style wooden floor, then they will stay. If you give them a wire mesh floor, you can just watch those critters walk right out of there the next day !! Possibly too much daylight coming up through the wire floor in Midsummer ? ??? So not deemed a suitable...

Are you using a QE ? Maybe discouraging busy foragers from going up !

Quick report from Gloucester BKA auction. Plenty of lots, and in my opinion an above average number of new items made specially for the sale-which sold mostly at knockdown prices. Honey also sold ridiculously cheaply if you wanted a 50 kg tub ! Some 19 lots of live bees in great demand and...

I have done similar, it's not ideal but the bees will soon find the small super frames and clean them up !! Should be all clean by the end of a week.

Here on the heavy Oxford clays the rape is now just coming into flower, but the crops are very thin, so I don't think we can expect much of a bonanza this year

Nuc's for sale Hi. Yes I'm interested . I'm kitted out for 12 x14 frames. Full details please Cant PM Thanks Sansai - Oxford area