Recent content by straightman21

For what it's worth, I've introduced a number of queens over a number of years and have had only one failure. I have always left the colony queenless for at least 6 hours [you can hear them become agitated by then!] [on this note, I have noticed that when you drop a swarm into a Nuc, it takes...

With all due respect, if one sold 100 sheep, cows or other livestock to someone with no prior knowledge of animal husbandry, then one could rightfully be criticised (and the buyer end up in Court on animal cruelty charges). Why then should providing some 1000's of bees to a complete novice, with...

Absolutely no scientific basis but children's windmills stuck in the ground, with half of one blade cut off to produce a vibration worked for me.

I put three hives in the middle of about 100 acres of OSR that has been in flower for the last three weeks. Plenty of stores put in the brood boxes but nothing put in the supers. I've tried supers with new foundation, supers with drawn comb, tried putting a couple of frames of uncapped OSR in...

Methinks I should have posted this as a standalone post so sorry for any inconvenience! (Moral: don't drink and post!)

Loadsa OSR - No Honey? I put three hives in the middle of about 100 acres of OSR that has been in flower for the last three weeks. Plenty of stores put in the brood boxes but nothing put in the supers. I've tried supers with new foundation, supers with drawn comb, tried putting a couple of...

Francis Huber: 'New Observations on the Natural History of Bees', Chapter: 'On the combats of queens; the massacre of the males; and what succeeds in a hive where a stranger queen is substituted for the natural one'. Fascinating reading. The book is free on Kindle and the above chapter starts at...

We all made that mistake - Once!! :willy_nilly:

Beekake - I'm planning to do the same albeit a little later than you folks in the sunny east! Put the brood and a halfs on to OSR, let 'em get going well then either wait for QC's to appear or just when there's a good flow coming in and they are strong and do an AS. I'm hoping for an improvement...

and if we weren't optimists then we wouldn't be keeping bees anyway!!

Now then! No one likes a show off - swarms indeed - where do you think you are, France? Oh! We had one good day here in the last week and I managed to combine one very weak and Q- colony with another that was not much stronger but at least the Q was laying. It's back to mist and drizzle here and...

The BEST bit of advice I have ever had, from a beekeeper of 50 years standing was: "give it a week" It has done me more good, and saved me from making mistakes more than anything else I've ever been told in beekeeping!

If using saw dust then be careful to keep smoker reasonably upright for fear of spraying glowing dust embers across bees with over enthusiastic puffing. I use shavings rather than dust [free supply from planer thicknesser] that don't cause this problem.

Google 'Bailey Frame Change' = sorted

:iagree: