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[Warre discussion alert - for those that are allergic - please leave now] 1. Ventilation There seems to be strongly conflicting views on ventilation. Do the bees need a hive with sauna-like conditions or chimney-like conditions? On helping me to set up a hive for new bees, a longtime Dadant...

Hello James, I'd be very interested to follow your beekeeping progress. I know well part of the Marina Alta region of Costa Blanca, but I've never seen a hive there. In the gardens of urban areas there are hardly any bees and how fruit trees get pollinated is a mystery. The lack of bees I...

I have wrapped the cork partitions in vapour control sheets left over from a roof insulating project. They present a plasticy/waxy surface, and all joins with tap would be away from the bees against the walls of the hive. These are in Dadant 10 hives now set out as traps for swarms, but I would...

Update. I left the bees undisturbed for three weeks, now they are at day 35 since inhabiting the Dadant "feeding chamber". Today, I checked the frames in the brood box, and they have only drawn about one side of a frame. No eggs visible in here (but remember there were eggs and larvae in the new...

Searched and found: Cork has a thermal resistance of R-3.6 to R-4.2 per inch; Polyurothane has an R-value of about 3.6 per inch. Both are therefore excellent insulators. Actually, my house is insulated with blown cork and it worked out quite well. There is 20 cm of blown cork in granules...

OK. Thanks. I have revised my understanding of the life of bees [beekeeper since 3 weeks only but studying as much as I can].

Presented graphically very nicely here: https://www.ctbees.org/post/beehive-inspection-checklist Adult bee emerges at day 21, works as a hive bee for around 20 days, then becomes a field bee for the rest of her days.

I didn't disturb the bees this weekend as they are approaching a difficult period for their survival. They are at day 22 after swarming and inhabiting this hive. The flying bees will be dying off soon and the new junior bees have 20 days to go before they start flying. Your suggestion is...

I saw in the free ads someone selling thick insulating panels that each replace two frames in a Dadant hive (professionals typically use 10 or 12 frame Dadants). The panels on sale are probably polyurethane wrapped in moisture control sheets, which would typically be placed between a...

Nice story @GarryR @emoclewbee Finding the queen is the problem. The bees pack tightly between the combs (after smoking) making it impossible to spot her. I think I can only expose her by breaking the sheets of comb off the inner cover unless I can use something else to get them out from these...

Update: Still no solution to the problem, but a better understanding. I opened the hive again, but I could not find the queen. Definitely not in the brood box, where there were just pockets of bees making comb. The bulk of the bees was in the feeder chamber. I guess the queen had dived deep...

Thanks @Erichalfbee and @Sutty. Thanks to your comments, I'm thinking about how to do this with least disruption to the bees. Getting the queen to the right place should be my priority. If she is already in the brood chamber, then she would be undisturbed by the following. Next, I should...

Thank you Erichalfbee. Probably not a solution I would try because the comb is attached to the hive top board, which has a central hole covered below in plastic mesh with its one way bee passages. This plastic "bee gate" would have to be cut or removed for bees to climb upwards, and doing that...

Long story short: new beekeeper, I caught a swam 16 days ago using a secondhand hive, and the bees are now very active foraging and bringing back nectar and pollen. The hive consists of a brood box, wooden in-hive feeder layer, hive top board and metal roof. Today I took a first look inside the...

Located in a small village in an agricultural area between Lyon and Grenoble, France. My garden has many fruit trees, including some UK traditional cookers and some modern French eating apples. When I was a teenager in the UK, my family had a beehive and I was occasionally my father’s...