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Rough price is £16-18 but delivery for such a heavy item makes it a poor deal at £27-30. I managed to get it down to £16.40 at a 40-box rate. Company is a national bakers' supplier with a min. charge of £250. Twenty minutes drive from an apiary, so I can collect.

If Rob would like a disease check he'd better contact South East RBI Tom Bickerdike, because the Seasonals have finished for the year. https://www.nationalbeeunit.com/contact-us

Pot, kettle?

Mix it with another, or several.

John makes a blunt yet valuable point, Wilfred, and explains why I asked you five easy questions which would have led you to an independent decision. That you chose not to respond suggests that you prefer to settle for quick textbook answers, but the plain fact is that straightforward and...

Yes, and though beefarmers will travel travel halfway across England for it, I have permananent hives in a regular borage area. Sweet chestnut is another good source if you can find decent mature plantings (rare in the UK), and lime. UK has the advantage (esp. in urban and semi-rural areas) of...

Unless the extraction service is very local another tiresome chore would appear: the labour, time and fuel to shift 100+ supers any significant distance and back. Better to spend the time & money to train a local youngster willing to learn a skill (though that also may not be so easy to find).

Tried Maisemore equivalent? Ten or more years ago I found that Maisemore seconds were easier to pin as the wood is softer and without grain; Thorne is yellower, with grain and can be quite hard to hammer. I asked the opinion of my technical teenage frame-maker (he makes hundreds) and he chose...

You'd think so, but the basic regs don't determine height except when claiming from the the B3 enviro fund. I should have asked the farmer this morning, but I'll try and remember to do so when I take him honey next week.

Oops. Similar damage to human skin?

Drawback of this option is the risk of disease transmission, so you would have to satisfy yourself that the cleaning regime in-between customers was exacting. Electric or manual?

Thanks for the info, Mr Poot; you notice that it fails to regulate final hedge height or width. Were it to do so, an increase in hedge wildlife would result. As it is, some I have seen have been reduced to a metre. Don't farmers want to reduce wind erosion and trespass? I've just had a chat with...

If I was minded to attack another with an acid, I'd go for the easy option and drop into a corner shop to buy bleach.

Are you a farmer, Philip? For a long while I've wanted to know why farmers flail hedges to that suburban height. Can understand it if a hedge affects access or road safety, but they savage them everywhere. Think of the labour, the fuel, the machinery! Why do it?

Used to be the case that beekeepers outside the UK were allowed to use OA, but the US has fallen in line and allows only ApiBioxal, although (sensibly) does not restrict multiple treatments or when supers are on hives...

So far the voting is even: no super, nadired super and top super score one vote each. That is not much use for a beekeeper who wants to be told what to do, but Graeme strikes me as a beekeeper interested in exploring the reasons behind the options. What are your thoughts so far, Graeme?

Yes, but early spring conditions are unpredictable. Could put a sheet of newspaper under the box, an old trick to retain heat below yet allow bees to go through when they need the space.

The idea has been examined here for years but the body that ought to have agitated and organised an OA license did the opposite, supported the VMD and the commercial interest to help authorise the clag we have: ApiBioxal (same stuff as Mr Poot bought, no doubt, but with added clag and tick-boxes).

No 'should' about it, Graeme, because depending on variable factors, either will work: 1 What is your instinctive reaction to the weight when you heft at the back with one hand? 2 Is ivy flowering and are bees foraging? 3 How many frames of brood does each colony have? 4 Did you run them on...

No. As mbc said, the colony has a very high varroa load and is unlikely to survive. The strange open brood are those chewed by bees attempting to remove compromised larvae.