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I have just come across this thread. I have had a Thomas settling tank for donkey’s years. It is the 100kg one with two strainers. I can’t remember the exact cost at the time but I think I paid less than half the price that they are charging now. Not sure of the specifications but the fine...

Thanks for that Antipodes. It seems to back up my theory. The same for you as well Curly. I think it’s great how some threads can meander off topic and we can still get great answers and have a good discussion. Sorry all but it’s my day off and I’m supposed to be feeding bees and then on to more...

After discovering some more data the survey was in 2018 but we only got the results the following year. The best samples from Orkney were sent to Denmark for DNA analysis. Out of the 15 samples 7 came back as pure / nearly pure AMM and the others were hybrids. It was only a small snapshot of...

I know this should be on a different thread but here’s an example of my dark bees.

Some of us are members of The Scottish Native Honey Bee Society and they tested samples from a number of colonies here in 2019 as part of a bigger survey which was funded. A lot of samples came back as having AMM traits but were hybrids and at the other end of the scale some were 93-94%pure AMM...

I can’t disagree with you on that and yes I know that bees prefer to work vertical rather than horizontal. But I am only saying what I would do. With the climate you have in the south of England there’s still plenty of time for the bees to sort themselves out. Let us know how you get on with...

Yes and they are a locally adapted dark bee. A number of our colonies were tested a few years ago and we had a few that were over 90% pure A M M

Well if you have the kit why not? The forecast for your location this week is for temperatures to reach 19-21c and if your bees are flying well and they are calm I would take advantage and transfer them. Isn’t a 4 box nuc a bit unwieldy? The temperature here in July rarely exceeds the high...

Yes that is correct.

I will be honest and say that I haven’t checked them yet. A lot of the frames are nearly full but due to the weather getting cooler and the chance that the bees would use up the honey, the supers had to come off. The supers have been stored in my garage for the last few weeks. As my dehumidifier...

Normally my extracting would be done and dusted by now but the combination of a bad cold and then being extremely busy means I’m only starting tomorrow. 28 supers to do but unfortunately a lot are only part filled. After watching far too many honey processing videos on You Tube here’s my small...

I went past a friend who’s into his 2nd year of beekeeping. He has just started extracting and was worried about some frames that had very runny honey. I tested them with my refractometer and some of his capped honey was reading as high 25% moisture content and it tasted pretty bland. It turned...

Very sorry for the very late reply Garry. It seems you enjoyed your time here despite the weather which lasted for about five to six weeks with an occasional bonnie day thrown in. Wild rough white clover is common all over Orkney and is supposedly different from some of the varieties grown in...

Sorry I haven’t been on the forum for a few months but the season I have had in Orkney had left me absolutely “scunnered” with beekeeping for a while. ( it’s got more than one meaning) On a positive note my bees have managed to get eight queens mated and laying this year. Something I had given...

This has just come into flower in the past week. The strip of phacelia is about 10m wide but runs the full length of three large fields. It was planted by a bee friendly farmer and it’s about 350m away from one of my apiaries. It was busy with bumbles and honey bees today. Every little helps...

This is out today on the BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c134621devzo

Funny how this forum, the Daily Mail and Jeremy Whine have all been commenting on “do you have a right to object to your neighbour’s keeping bees” in the last few days. Conspiracy theories welcome anyone! By the way I thought that beekeepers would be in for a mauling on Radio 2 but we came over...

Most of my hives are pretty docile apart from when the strimmer comes out. I didn’t bother with my foam strips early on Sunday morning and they all went berserk! Lesson learned, I will now do it in the evenings and the strips will be back in till I am finished the job.

“Don’t cast a cloot till May’s oot” in Orkney :)

I wouldn’t want to risk an established queen by uniting bees with just air freshener. If it was a new queen I still wouldn’t do it, even if I was pushed for time. I always use newspaper, what’s another day in the bigger picture.