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It's only a firebreak Pargyle if everyone in the locality's doing it and as you may have noticed beekeepers are an independent minded sort!! (understatement of the millenium there)

You've cheered me right up there Hivemaker.:( Not sure I can take another summer like last years!

An admirable intention but the practicalities are that in southern England you've taken your honey off and are treating for varroa whilst here in Scotland our bees are still working the heather and no-one has started treatment yet. Plus what would you do about the non-treatment lot? I think in...

The knife slicing through the brood pretty much says it all about double standards, hypocrisy etc etc.

On the contrary I find most local associations are populated by genuine beekeeping enthusiasts whose only desire is to do the best they can for their bees. Never come across this "one true faith" brigade you describe. If asked about TBHs I'll describe what I perceive to be their problems...

Ok Rab - I'm going to keep this polite and I hope you can do likewise. Just trying to clarify - are you saying that varying levels of frame spacing has an influence on bee size? That is the depth of the cells from midrib to capping? That's not something I've heard about before and I'd be...

Nice to see another Scot on the board Paul. All the best, Gerry

The most obvious work done on hygienic bees is that carried out in Minnesota by Marla Spivak. A quick Google shows they've been working on it since 1994 - not sure if that pre or post-dates what Ron Hoskins has been doing

I never said that races of bee adapt their cell size when moved by us about the planet. What I did refer to was Ruttner's description of AMM as a bee with "among the largest [body size] and definitely the broadest of all known sub-species of A. Mellifera". And my point was that "regressing"...

I think I already referred to larger rather than smaller being a cold weather adaptation. And Rab - still waiting for that substance.

Interested to hear what facts are missing Finman. And Rab - obviously working within the scenario of moveable framed hives we're in a non-natural situation. But I thought we were talking about what the bees do to create their comb when given frames with starter strips or in foundationless frames

And what you're saying is that in a foundationless frame the pitch of the cells has been artificially set? That simply defies logic. And from my personal experience bees create a range of cell sizes in the comb they draw when given a starter strip. So again your "artificially set" premise...

Not sure how you get to "the pitch has been artificially set" when we're talking about naturally drawn comb - ie comb drawn by the bees with a starter strip or in foundationless frames.

Interestingly Ruttner describes one of the traits of AMM as having larger bodies - I think as an adaptation to colder climates. So probably not a good idea to try to "regress" native-type bees to small cell foundation. Giving them starter strips and letting them get on with it is another...

Good advice if we're talking about a commercial supplier. But if it's a local experienced beekeeper selling you're unlikely to get a website or online reviews! And what they're supplying might be streets ahead of what you can get from a commercial operation. An ordinary beekeeper should be...

It's not even that the association I mentioned is "in it for the money". It's just that it's easier to source bees from a commercial supplier than to raise them themselves. My take on it is they should be putting more effort into that and less into firing squads of new beekeepers through their...

Would it be fair to say that most of the sideliners - ie people selling nucs as a by-product of making increase - are generally honest and trying to do their best by their customers? I would say from my own experience of buying nucs in the past that yes they are. I've not seen many amateurs...

Chris - Not that DEFRA applies to me here in Scotland but I think some sort of governance of nuc selling would be a great idea. Give the buyer some recourse if the seller passes on a nuc with something obviously wrong with it that the seller should reasonably have spotted.

Unfortunately Pargyle just because the association says they're suitable bees doesn't always mean they are. I know of one instance of bees being bought from an entirely unsuitable source to be sold to beginners on an association's intro to beekeeping course.

I don't think anyone quite described selling bees like that. But the OP was asking about the cost of an overwintered nuc. Which necessitates the vulgar mention of pounds and pence I'm afraid. I'd have thought "proven" was also a given - we're talking about an overwintered nuc here - so the...