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If you're worried re space for the bees you could put the already cleared and emptied box under the clearer board to give space to move into. Re varroa, if you know anyone with an oa sublimator you could ask them to vape one "varroa free" hive as an experiment - the resultant drop could either...

I'm planning similar for cut comb next year. I've seen bees harvesting second hand propolis from kit left outdoors, maybe worth leaving some of the debris out and see if they use it.

Nice photos which demonstrate it perfectly!

I don't want to alarm you Curly, but it's September now! 😂

I'm used to lots of residue (slumgum) when rendering old brood combs. Recently I've been rendering 2 seasons worth of cappings wax, the cappings are nice and clean however there's still lots of debris left behind after melting in hot water. What is it and where does it come from? Is it propolis...

I think someone on here previously suggested the mesh bags supermarkets sell to put vegetables in. A fruit press would be another alternative.

I was thinking the basket might have a top and be good for wood pellets - I tried some a few years ago, they burnt ok but the odd one would come out of the nozzle!

I like the sound of that, can't see it on Thorne's website though.

Bees will chew and remove low density expanded polystyrene, they will also chew at kingspan foam (more slowly) they leave the higher density polystyrene used for hives alone.

I use the blower from a paint sprayer to blow out the few stragglers, it doesn't harm them at all.

I looks a bit weird blowing the bees out and then leaving the boxes available to be re-occupied and robbed.

Because the move back will take them around 30m away from the original location, and moving in small hops would be difficult (from a height)

To clarify, it's a very small colony from a trap-out with a new queen who's just started laying. I've put it in place of a strong nuc (still a flow on here) to gain its foragers, and can add some stores and emerging brood to strengthen it, and maybe shake in some super bees before moving back...

Move is plenty of distance, over 10 miles as the crow/bee flies i suspect. The question is how long they need to be in the new location before returning to near the old location. Any experience - please advise, I seem to remember 3 weeks is good.

I'm not too far away in Glossop, I've taken about half off so far and about to harvest the rest. However there is a lot of himalayan balsam in flower still, so may be more coming in, and likely followed by ivy which I'll leave on.

I've just put my price up for my local retailers to £6.50 per 340g hex jar, one sells at £8 (may have put it up as i did), the other at £10! (Though they sell a lot less). Plenty of demand at that price - the bigger seller says they will take as much as I've got. I'd quite like them to put up...

Or buy an instantvap and never look back! I have my old gas vap as backup though! I did find it a bit hot for poly, even with an extension. Draping a wet cloth over the extension sorted that.

I'm going to take a nuc to my garden for a while for someone to 1. Boost its numbers with some emerging brood ± super bees from my other hives, and then 2. move it back to around 30m from the original site rather than move in short hops. I've always understood 3 weeks is enough, any experience...

Hopefully no-one. Though it can potentially be moved from brood box to supers as the nest expands.

One of the reasons I try to overwinter on natural stores rather than feed, though I did put som fondant on some hives last winter (unnecessarily in some cases), as a result I still have one deep box I'll only use for winter feed if needed.