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Yep, but with the exception of the 2nd super which is almost exclusively stores

I put her back in the brood box but haven't added a QE yet. I'm just curious as to why she's doing it, seems odd

So 'Harriet' the second of my star queens is acting a bit weird.During inspection today I observed the following Brood box - 70 mixed brood, 10% stores, 20% empty 1st Super - 50% mixed brood, 30% stores, 20% empty 2nd Super - 80% stores, 20% empty 3rd super 10% stores, 80% drone brood, 10%...

So the first thing to look for is a very significant drop in the number of bees (forget the dead ones). If that's the case it may be that they've swarmed and hoovered up all the stored in doing so. If there isn't a decrease in bee numbers then it may be that they've just eaten their stores and...

Hi Apimama, welcome aboard. If I can offer you two nuggets of wisdom as a newbie, I would say 1. Make sure you have a protective suit that you feel confident in 2. Don't forget to temper your training and research with instinct. You'll come to know your bees better than anyone on these...

They seem a bit gimmicky. I'm not sure they do anything that a packet of mixed wildflowers seeds wouldn't do.....except cost a bit a more A few hundred wildflowers will have no impact on an apiary other than making it look nice and probably a good number of the flowers will be specifically for...

You can also buy bamboo ones. Nice round, soft edges.

moving away from the will she/won't she question. I'm interested in hearing how keeping a large colony that hasn't swarmed differs through May/June, compared with one that has been reduced through swarming or splitting

One of my hives shows no sign of swarming, the queen's laying well, it's teeming with bees and they're doing great work, I just whisked off the second full super. If they don't swarm this will be my first year with a colony that either hasn't swarmed or been split, and I'm curious as to how the...

That's what I would have done.

It does sound like a mix of orientation flights and busy foragers. If they swarm they'll start to gather fairly quickly (within 20 mins or so), probably a short distance from the hive, while the scouts go out to recce suitable sites.

I'm in my fourth year and I didn't attend a course. Youtube videos and the Haynes bee manual got me this far. I've had no over-winter losses and I've harvested honey each year, so it can be done

Your omnipotence is very impressive.

Yes they'll manage. You haven't done anything wrong, but at this stage of the year I'd take those queen excluders out. I doubt they're achieving much other than harming your bees wings.

So I think one of my hives has reached peak efficiency for the first time. The beginning of May and I've added two more supers than I usually would, I've gone QX free and I'm juggling brood frames. The result is a hive absolutely full of bees with frames being drawn and filled in record time...

Yes, a good post. Just because someone has 50 hives and they've been beekeeping for 20 years doesn't mean they're a font of all knowledge. Advice really needs to be tailored to circumstances. However, there are some posters on these forums that have been in the game for a long time and do post...

As long as there's more than one queen or QC in the hive there's a chance they will go again. Now it could be that a hatched queen will dispense of her rivals but it's not really a risk worth taking. On the plus side, even after a prime swarm and a number of casts, your hive can still pull...

Best thing to do is go through the old hive and check on the number of queens and QCs, stores and number of bees. If there are two queens or additional QCs you will probably get a cast swarm. If you do find 2 or more queens (it does happen, last year I had two hatched queens-sisters-...

Yep, I've noticed this very thing, three years running

If she's a decent queen just drop her in a nuc with a frame of brood and some stores, shake in some bees and you've got a new colony. I did this last year with a year old queen, gave her to a fellow forum member and I'm told she's doing great things. I'm not a squisher if I have another option