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Thanks to everyone for their opinion, really useful. I have ordered 10 buckets today. It would have been a shame after all the work not to be able to extract it.

I have more honey than buckets.

I would have thought that it will crystallise in the buckets and it will then be difficult to jar it when they become available. My thinking is that some the honey I take in Autumn is already several months old spring honey and that spins ok. So what is the difference in storing the honey in the...

Like many members this has been a good honey year. This is coupled with a shortage of honey jars. So I am considering storing my supers and extracting through the winter as demand requires. So my question is will the honey still spin ok in a few months time. The honey is general country...

Seems like they are good for bees https://www.beverlybees.com/blue-pollen-honeybees-siberian-squill/

To further emphasise the value placed on bees at 24 pence the following items were also given values in the same law system. Calf in December 16 pence Whetted sword 12 pence Coracle 8 pence Goose 2 pence Hen 1 pence

Update I checked the nuc today. Eggs still not hatched. Number of eggs reduced slightly but not significantly. Frame of grafts 50% drawn out and filled with royal jelly. My usual acceptance level. I have attached an image that I hope shows that the nuc was well supplied with pollen. There...

Thank you very useful input. I understood that diploid drones lead to pepper-potting and thought this may be an extreme case. I will read further into the breeding genetics. I do intend to move the queen to a queenless colony ( a split I made 5 days ago) but this is a fair distance away...

I understand those that are arguing that I should quickly correct the situation but just having another colony is of less interest to me than learning from the situation as I believe we learn more from the unusual aspects of bee-keeping over the routine problems. Enough has been said on the...

Thanks for the responses. I believe she was a virgin queen on arrival. Hence the delay in starting to lay. I think that even with an imbalanced colony and even if it was much smaller than it is, some of the eggs would have hatched and been fed. What seems to be happening is that the queen is...

Average size swarm in a poly nuc both. They have drawn out all the foundation and have a good amount of stores at top of frames so this gives an idea that they are not too small for the box. Not a single egg has hatched. Not 1 instance of larva in the box. The weather here has been good during...

Definitely eggs. Perfect shape in a dry cell. Queen moving well on comb.

Swarm caught. Queen seen. No eggs for about 2 weeks. Then plenty of eggs. The problem is they are just not hatching. I have monitored them for over 10 days and they seem in pristine condition. Only one egg in each cell. I have searched the web and cannot find reports of this happening...

Given that it is dark in the hive how does the queen know that a cell is empty and ready for her to lay an egg into?

Thanks to this wonderful new invention; the Bee Guardian. No chemicals, no batteries, no disturbing the bees and no clearing away the dead Varroa. Not allowed to post links yet but go to e-bay and search for Bee Guardian.

They are definitely Q+ just checked. Thanks pargyle for some constructive ideas I will get to work and will be interested to see how well they work.

I am having problem with lots of wasps at the moment. 4 hives in the same apiary are being defended successfully by the guard bees. However, one hive is just letting in hoards of wasps even though the entrance was reduced. At first I though that there was not enough bees in the hive but when...

Unlikely. If this is the reason for the lack of the mark then why have they all decided to go in upside down this year for the first time. It seems clear from the responses that they are ignoring the Balsam this year but no reason why given as yet.

Also seeing lots of fawn coloured pollen coming in but none of the bearers have the Balsam stamp on their backs. Watching the bumbles going in and out of the Balsam and they clearly have the mark. What has changed? I always thought that Balsam was the first choice for bees but it seems not...

Every year I watch for the first bee with the tell tale sign that she has been to the Balsam. Then in a few weeks see that the majority of bees are showing the Balsam mark. This year the first was at least 3 weeks ago. So far no bees seem to be bothering with Balsam. At first I thought it...