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No evidence of nosema (bee poo) but, again, I was advised to treat with Fumidil B as a precaution and have been feeding it to the bees in sugar syrup for the last eight days.

When you say, "the old queen will be dealt with" does that imply that she'll not be allowed to pose any threat to the new queen? One of my concerns is that the old queen could kill the new virgin queen.

Yes, I regretted tearing down the single queen cell almost as soon as I'd done it! I had Ted Hooper's words (have a plan before you go in) ringing in my ears. The varroa thing was always a long shot and you're quite right about testing first. Another lesson I learned the hard way. I treated with...

I'd welcome some advice from more experienced beekeepers. My question is what happens when an already weak colony creates queen cells while the old queen is still present and laying? When the new queen hatches will the old queen leave naturally, taking up to a third of the workers with her...

I'm a novice beekeeper (second year) and have just come in from performing an inspection. I've spotted half a dozen or so dead pupa on the floor of my hive, beneath a couple of the frames. No dead pupa outside the hive, or evidence of deformed wings, but might this also be a sign of varroa, or...

If anything this frame is one of the better ones. I really appreciate all the advice. The stores were built up by another (stronger) colony sited right next to the nuc (just to the right in the picture). The nuc and frames, as I say, were borrowed so I didn't want to risk offending the owner by...

I suspect there's a one-word answer to this question, but I'm a novice so please bear with me. When foundation is old and full of dead larvae and pollen and capped stores AND is a bit mouldy, is there any point in recycling the wax? Can it be used to make new foundation? And if so, is it a case...

Ah, well that rather brings us back to my reason for borrowing the nuc in the first place: I accidentally squashed my queen. The nuc was an insurance policy in case the new queen didn't take. So I can't combine the two. One of them doesn't belong to me. Because I'm a novice (and because I was...

I haven't tested for nosema but I believe there was a legitmate reason for the nuc to be weak; it was comparatively new and hadn't been fed when I received it (2-3 weeks ago). Since I began feeding it it has become noticeably stronger. So far the frames have only gone one way - from the main...

Many thanks for the reassurance and advice. It wasn't so much the cost of replacement as not wanting to throw away a frame that didn't belong to me and that its owner might have felt wasn't beyond repair. On the first point, am I right to be careful about the state of frames being swapped...

I have three questions that combine inter-colony infection, bee housekeeping and social etiquette! I’ve been adding frames of brood from my main colony to a borrowed mini-nuc, in an effort to build up the latter. The last time I did this I chose to swap a full frame of brood and stores (from the...