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Yes, my observations are in Tas., but the Heidinger et. al. study (showing with the flights at 14 degrees) was in Germany. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4592583/

Excellent. Of course, oranges in the Valencian region.(y) Google earth shows lots of crops and fruits around that town.

Do you know that area down there at all Fian? Would there be much forage?

Just looking at the climate there. I reckon you'd have to feed them all year. It doesn't really rain there! Only 300mm for the whole year. Perhaps that's a bigger issue as in with keeping bees at all in such a place?

Yes, of course you would feed then wouldn't you? It's not that hard to feed bees. Beginner stuff. We are right in the middle of winter here and there are so many things flowering now. It's too cold for the bees to get out, but I'm not in Alicante and it's particularly cold here at the moment...

Yes. Queens will successfully mate with daytime maximums as low as 14 degrees C. I've witnessed it here myself and I have seen a study where it was confirmed.

I've seen a colony in a blocked off chimney if there are holes right through the mortar for entrance and exit, so the success of blocking it off at the top depends on the state of the chimney to some extent. Preemtively, blocking the top completely is usually a good idea in an unused chimney...

You sometimes get daytime temperatures in winter above 20 degrees. No frosts but some cold spells. You could almost get queens mated all year there I would have thought. I'd just keep trying and get them when you can.

Tim mentions nadiring as if he is doing it, hope you can access the comments on this link..... https://malfroysgold.com.au/pages/warre-hives-and-honey

Definitely not. They'll cap it at 19 percent or even higher here. I find it's more likely in the outermost frames and on a good flow in high humidity areas. When uncapping, (as per Bontbee above) that stuff just runs out of the frames....,quite a bit before it gets to the extractor. :eek...

Here, most just use boxes the size of a national super- both for brood and honey. It's a pretty good OSB system to be fair. You can see them here.... https://guide.michelin.com/en/article/features/tasmanian-leatherwood-honey

With a langstroth telescoping lid (I presume you are using lanngys there?), 50mm I wouldn't think would fit well within the telescoping lid recess. Do you put anything on top of your frames like a piece of Reflectix or a crownboard? Do you have a photo of your lid showing its depth perhaps?

Perhaps all hive tools eventually get permanently lost? Very few antique ones about. Smokers and uncapping knives...seem to be plenty. Do any second, or third (or more) generation beekeepers have the original one? https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/402509285432706941/

I got one from the same height once (7.5m) because the landowner had an extremely long wooden pole with a hook on it that he had ready for firefighting...to pull down flaming branches from gum trees in a bushfire. I didn't understood quite how that would work, but a frame of brood (I only use...

They do tend to go back up to where they were - unfortunately :(

That's only because they haven't tasted mine :)

Fabulous. I don't have any antique beekeeping stuff but I was wondering, does anyone else have any photos of old beekeeping equipment? Old hive tools or smokers? Love to see some please.

Is it a marked queen?

Thanks for the update. Looks good.

Well done. Sometimes things don't work with bees, even though they have before. I'd say follow the advice in post #4. Balling generally seems to damage them, but not always. Did the one with the bad legs recover? I wouldn't do your second option, but try perhaps the third, with the youngest of...