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Keep the feed going little and often if you want them to build up nicely, also consider wether they're pegged back by varroa load, which can escalate quickly at this stage in the season.

I make two frame nucs up at this time, the trick is to make sure they've got more than enough bees to cover those two frames, quick feed and they'll be a four frame nuc next time you look in. They're given a mated queen and moved away from the parent site.

A lot to think about in that answer, great post, diolch jbm

Where's cgf with his big buds?

Crowd funding? Association's step up to the plate? Universities? Tricky to get central funding for anything thats seen as "anti-business" with current attitudes prevailing.

I'm also a fan of Randy's work on this, there are a few threads on the forum where the late great hivemaker shared some of his experiences experimenting with extended release oxalic acid strips

The boy wants to but I'm flagging a bit as the seasons been exhausting so far, he's only just started helping seriously since finishing his A levels so I've been running far too many hives for one man to reasonably do alone in expectation of paying his wages too. We may take one trailer load up...

I've not got around my rotation in time and many of my hives are totally plugged out, bramble nectar mostly from what I can make out, though that might change with this bit of warmth. I took off 19 rammed supers friday, national 9 frame, to spin out and return and got 15 x 30lb buckets of honey...

Yes, you're congesting them, I only do this with young queens though. Fairly small colonies can expand remarkably quickly in poly nuc formats, jobs like drawing foundations are very much easier for small colonies when cosy and insulated, probably ripening honey too

I find second boxes on nucs very handy. As already mentioned they're great for expanding nucs to to fill brood combs for use elsewhere, but I find the best use of them is with a qx for harvesting a quick crop. I keep native bees and generally an overwintered nuc wont be up to speed to promote to...

I've got a old castle farm jacket which I quite like, comes into its own in thr grueling heat when combined with a bib and brace trouser set up worn comando

They're very good usually with bio security, I don't think they allow any bee imports.

No amitraz maybe but plenty of wax soluble amitaz break down products, it doesn't disappear.

I agree with the jist of that, hopefully all will be well once the brambles start yielding and summer kicks in properly. I've gone through apiaries in the past fortnight where about half the colonies have been marked down for requeening due to them being spiteful, most of them colonies who'd...

I've always preferred to introduce cells to mini nucs, it gives a much longer window of opportunity to do the work if you're doing dozens. To set them up gor the first time its best to follow the instructions and have them closed up in a cool dark place for a few days until the virgins have...

I tried one which I sold on pdq as the the frame ends seemed pinched by the sides and difficult to slide, and the overlap on the boxes squish bees when reassembling.

As protheroe, find somewhere warm and cosy on your personage for limited numbers of cells, when wishing to transport more I have a 12v incubator which plugs into the *** lighter socket in the truck

Yup, dry graft into jzbz cups with a 5/0 brush

Swapping frame sizes is always a pita imho. I think in retrospect I'd have saved a lot of faff if each time I'd have bit the bullet and shook swarmed them onto the new equipment rather than a bit by bit approach or waiting for brood to hatch out etc.

The kiwis fly pallets of bees into areas of inaccessible manuka bush by helicopter.