Recent content by summo

Wouldn't get too celebratory, our long range forecast has another storm on the horizon for next Weds, but things can easily change.

yes, on mesh, open the whole year round. Cold feet, warm heads is the adage here.

last of the winter covers over my hives. Some are insulated permanently, but this was a national, so I needed to build one. All covered, mouse guards on, waiting to see if winter will rush in, or Autumn keep rolling on.

better to find a local farmer who needs to a good crop pollination to guarantee their crop and come to a bit of deal. I had an allotment for years in the UK, their committee and old guard members were nightmares. I wish you luck, but don't build up your hopes. Remember that in their eyes...

I would feed when their natural food supply runs out. Simple economics. Perhaps if you have a colony that split/swarmed etc and you have a hive full of none flying bees, give a little, but very soon they would mature and be flying workers collecting their own stores. Last I feed one of my...

it would appear his data "suggests", which in science speak means there are no obvious conclusions at all, but I need to make it have a bit of a point, as somebody has funded my work and I don't want to make it look like I wasted time and money on research for a whole summer. I farm here, we...

thanks for the quick replies. It is actually on a national hive, as I brought a few over with me. But the rest of my hives are 'lag normal', which is only a tiny bit wider internally than a standard national, but the overall design is somewhat different. Imagine the standard polystyrene brood...

I've just been checking my hives and noticed a few larva on the wrong side of the QE. Only on the very bottom part of the frames, but clearly she must have been in there to lay. I checked my two BB below and there are masses of young brood in there and it's a week since I last looked, so she is...

I'm pretty sure Ling Heather is a heather, it's just in a different family to Cross Leaved and Bell in the Erica family. Ling is starting to flower here, so I see no reason why it can't be over there.

One of my split hives was filling rapidly, despite 2 BB , just added another. :) clearly plenty food out there, but also cut about 2 hectares of hay meadow this morning, which may reduce the easiest and nearest forage a little.

here leaving insulation on the top, or even all sides in summer is normal. As it is thought to help keep them cooler when it's really hot. Certainly never any ventilation from above. It might not cause any harm though, but it probably doesn't benefit them either and creates extra work or management.

Normally for us, at about 300m above sea level, winter will kick in Nov, sometimes early, sometimes late, meaning that it will be permanently below zero for the next 4-5 mths, you might occasionally get a day(perhaps only 2 or 3 all winter) where it reaches zero, but it's not a given. So...

I can only relate it to here, where my bees will be inside for pretty much 4,5,6mths and get no flights out. So I suspect condensation and a messy floor could be greater problem here. They have enough work to do in spring anyway, clearing out all the dead bees in a big pile in front of the hive...

who knows, you would need to test with and without etc. perhaps over a dozen hives, over say 5 years.. to establish any results worth referencing? Climate probably plays a massive part in it. I have mesh floors on all my hives, probably a similar climate to yourself, despite splitting hives...

well, here regardless of how cold, windy etc.. it is, everyone advocates an open mesh bottom. Cold feet, warm heads is the moto. So plenty of insulation on the top and sides in winter, but the bottom is always left open. I've been led to believe that apart from the cleanliness aspect year round...