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When I was swapping out frames two of mine had virtually no capped brood but a frame and a half of eggs and larvae .. I wondered about this situation - but that makes sense.

You can upscale yours when you need to ... https://beekeepingforum.co.uk/threads/cappings-bucket.48558/

They just love remodelling wax .. I put some broken bits of comb with honey in it in rapid feeder - they cleaned the honey out and then went berserk joining up the comb and building it into something extraordinary.

Because that's what the BBKA seem to recommend !! Good job they don't look at my hives - I've just rotated out some brood frames that had 2015 written on them .. I think they had got to the stage where the even the bees didn't want to use them as they were at the outer edges of the hive and...

If there has been no disease in the colonies then you would be fairly safe giving the comb back to the bees to clean out. You could cut the honey filled comb out and put it in a rapid feeder with the cone removed - they will clean it out very quickly but - beware - as soon as they have taken...

There's not much information available about the distribution of Amitraz resistant varroa in the UK ...most of the studies have been abroad or local ones in the UK but there is evidence that mites are becoming resistant to it where there are concentrations of beekeepers and the treatment strips...

Probably is working - Apivar is Amitraz based so it's not temperature dependent and you leave the strips in for 10 weeks in an autumn treatment. There should be a fairly consistent drop for the first couple of weeks after you put the strips in and it should then tail off as the brood cycles go...

Just curious ... why would queen age have anything to do with influencing the Drone Eviction Committee ? I would think the bigger the colony the more chance of drones being evicted .. more mouths to feed and more workers to assist with the evictionn orders ..

Beautiful .. probably a queen looking for a winter home ... it's a wonder he didn't wack it and kill it - clearly the bloke was a DFFL... Down from ...F ... London ! Perhaps Somerset Live might have taken the opportunity to post one of the identification posters available ?

I hadn't taken my all honey off at that stage so there were lots of stores .. more likely to be the availabiity of forage than stores.

Yes ... they were being kicked out of my colonies in that cold snap second week of September .. I can't decide whether it's weather or lack of forage that prompts them to dump the drones .. probably a bit of both.

Just looked at at Freeman & Harding jars for collection at the NHS. 12oz Hex jars £15.50 for 33 - 47p per jar. Same price as I paid last year for the BBKA Beekeeper packs. 8oz Hex jars £17.75 for 41 - 43p per jar. 12oz (300ml) squat round £13.28 for 28 - 47p per jar BBKA Member show prices...

I agree ... indeed, I agreed at Post#4 !! I can't see any point in just letting them dwindle away.

Nice bike ....what sort of range do you get from the battery with a trailer attached ?

We don't know ... all we have is the original post - but it makes no difference if there is or isn't any brood in there .. if the doom mongers are to be believed there will either be brood in there that is affected by goodness only knows what sort of disease or there will be the remains of dead...

No ... it was 18 degrees here in the sun today, I was adding empty brood frames to hives today to get them drawn whilst I am feeding them ... I wasn't dragging every frame out and I was quick but it's not mid-winter by any stretch. If the colony is weak then what difference will having a look...

It's not necessary to pallet wrap ... what you need to do is treat them for wax moth (sulphur burn/Dipel) before you store them then stack them with a board on the top and bottom of the stack cinched down with a hive strap. That will keep the moths out - but, unless you treat them before...

Goodness ... you are all so pessimistic ... bees can dwindle without any disease being involved - yes, be aware of it but it's not every colony that has some varroa in it that is disease ridden ! We don't know any more than in the first post where the OP was talking about trying to rescue them...

If they were sick I would agree with you but it sounds from the OP that they have been queenless and not treated for varroa early enough - they may not be sick .. just low in numbers. I'd be having a good look at the frames before I waste them. They will get robbed out if he just leaves them to...

So ... you leave them to dwindle ? The odds are that, if they are truly queenless, they will drift to the other strong hive or worse still the strong hive will rob them out with an equal chance of disease spreading (if there is any disease). As I said originally - AFTER treating for varroa...