Search results

Thanks for the links to those :)

I'd find a wax forum/thread useful at the moment too. I have a fair amount several pounds to be rendered (cappings, burr and old comb that I've collected this year). I don't (yet) have a solar melter, and it requires the sun which is generally an ever diminishing resource in Oct... I've seen...

Third gassing this evening just as it was getting dark. Will see if we need a 4th depending on drops - quite a good drop from the second one in all.

Second dose from the vaporiser. Lots of discarded wax bits on the tray from the hive with the nadired super so clearly moving the remnants around as expected :)

Inspection over lunchtime - bees still piling in the ivy pollen. Nadired extracted super in largest hive. Topped up feeders - nuc and smaller hive will probably need more feed. Have had decent drop of varroa after vape on Sat. Treat again on Thurs.

Oxalic vapourization on all hives today. Bees are whacking in the ivy pollen at the moment - one hive had literally a pile of it in the inspection tray when I cleaned those out.

Put wet cappings back in for clean up this evening. Didn't fully kit up as only adding them quickly and of course a sting as a result for my troubles. Need to make some more thymolated syrup tonight.

To deal with any loitering wax moth egg/larva that might be in the comb before I put it back in the hive.

Converted an old 10l homebrew bucket into a settling tank and then extracted my first year honey harvest. Despite splitting the hive twice, and losing a couple of casts, I got one imperial gallon of honey. V happy with that result, and I have three colonies to try and get through the winter as...

Most of the local ivy I've looked at is still shut, with only the odd flower open, but the bees know otherwise - at 11am they were piling in dirty yellow ivy pollen (and a bit of balsam too). Big clouds of bees all around the hives!

Topped up with thymolated syrup. Quite busy girls this morning (probably red up with being cooped up yesterday with the rain) - ivy starting to open up all round from looks.

Made up more syrup to feed and some Hivemaker Thymol potion... More feed going in the rapid feeders tomorrow if it'll stop raining (though a bit of ivy now coming in too).

Started feeding 2:1 in small and nuc on Sun. Largest colony will have supers removed tonight (need to see whether I can extract the part frames, or if I just nadir them). New queen in biggest hive appears to be laying well with freshly laid eggs and two supercedure cells are nowhere to be seen...

That and it's a bit more fussy about where it grows...

Inspection this evening. Found my new large dark queen in hive no 1 (swarmed previously), and marked her, only to then find 2 charged supersedure cells in top box. Suppose I'll have to let them get on with it... Nuc and Hive 2 will need feeding up more, but doing well. Reduced entrances a...

Hard to tell, but it's possibly Woody Nightshade (or Bittersweet). It *could* be Deadly Nightshade, though it's nowhere near as common. Bittersweet has red berries when ripe (Deadly Nightshade's are black) - but still poisonous if ingested! It's a climber and member of the Solanaceae - if you...

Think the balsam flow has hit us here with the great weather today - both hives going bananas apparently. Time yet for big hive to complete the part filled super prior to the ivy flowering...

Not in the apiary, but had to try and dispatch a wasp nest in the dormer above youngest's bedroom window this evening. They were not best pleased. Fun...

Interesting about the timings, thanks - and yes, would definitely have gone back into the box in the next 2 days to check, but timings (and weather the previous week) completely scuppered me, and another friend who was going to check for me. I'll keep an eye out for any attempts to supercede in...

I'd removed the marked queen 7 days prior to thinning out the QCs - at this point, I'd assume there wouldn't be anything young enough to make any EQC... (hence assumption I had missed them). Bad timing for me in general. Ho hum.