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With runny honey (not crystallised) I've had several super combs collapse during extraction, even with the extractor running at low speed. It was hot so the wax was soft, but there was no collapse with my foundationless frames which have a vertical central wooden stick. The problem is that the...

1 week after the split I found 2 rather small sealed QCs and 1 larger open charged QC with a larva. Destroyed one the of sealed ones. Is it safe to leave the poorer sealed one and the open one as insurance and risk a swarm, or do I keep only the larger unsealed one?

The heat gun works well for me. Very little wax spatter and using a plastic tray beneath the frame while uncapping catches most honey droplets etc.

I'm concerned I'll lose a lot of honey crop by leaving the main hive queenless for a while.

2 days ago I made a split from a strong hive to create another queen by taking a couple of frames of eggs and brood with food etc. into a nucleus. I carefully inspected these frames to ensure the queen wasn't there. Today I inspected the nucleus only to see the old queen there! Given that I...

Clear as mud!

Are you sure you only left one QC in the old hive?

I use the workshop towels as per the original articles. Kitchen towels would be almost as good if not as robust.

Put a request on Freegle. Often get people with spare sheets willing to give them away. Recycling is better for everybody. Square miles of the stuff have been thrown away after Covid.

They never noticed the bees flying in and out?!!!

The same is probably true for gas boilers, at least because they are not operated in a fully condensing mode.

See the pictures for the stores and their position next to dead bees. No QEs. No supers on. Remaining 2 hives, one poly one wood, were stronger and just as well insulated.

Varroa levels had been monitored continuously since August and were OK. All hives have OMFs with varroa boards in during colder weather. The hives are in sheltered place well away from houses. The temperature, like everywhere else, was below freezing all day for 10 days from 8th Dec, no snow...

First OA vap was on 10 Dec. All were treated with OA towels in Sept/Oct. The 3 dead colonies were smaller than the other 2 but had done OK during the season.

3 of my 5 hives have died during the recent cold spell, as I discovered today. 2 are poly, the other wood all with plenty of insulation above the crown boards. There were no signs of life at the entrances so looked in at the transparent crown boards to find them dead. Plenty of stores on the...

Don't dipose of it, there's nothing wrong with it. Oxalic acid won't degrade under normal conditions just absorb 10% water, but that won't affect anything. When vaping you only need enough to allow vapour to escape from a crack under the crown board.

Why not use one of these? Simpler and cheaper. Range of power outputs. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124612733483?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=_8dlp1ceq4g&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=wMJm7QphR36&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I use a 14W heating mat which includes a thermostat, to fit underneath a honey bucket, all inside a box made of Celotex (which is in fact also a insulated hive cover). £9 from Ebay

Plastic gate valves are fine and work well. They seal against the thin curved bucket sides with a silicone O-ring; nothing else is needed. Another silicone O-ring seals the valve. As with all gate valves, the gate needs to be kept fairly tight to seal and applying sealing pressure with a finger...

Soap and hot water alone doesn't work for our windows and car; the stuff sticks quite hard and needs a lot of elbow grease to get it off, and even scraping which does the car paintwork no good at all. The widowcleaner does a second round to scrape the spots off.