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Agree with all above. The bees will be fine. You say you made them. I would just check that the mating surfaces top and bottom of any box are flat and level. The gap between well made boxes is soon sealed by the bees

Sewn up many a DIY injury when I worked in A&E. My brother was a carpenter life long. As an apprentice he did saw into a finger, but no injuries for the rest of his career. The worst case I can recall was a chap who walked In with tea towels wrapped round his hands, only he had amputated both...

Yes, a Bailey board, for a " Bailey comb exchange". I rotate old combs out each spring. I do not go by age, although I mark them up with year they had fresh foundation. I go by how dark or manky combs are. For a Bailey I use an eke with a QE just slipped on. My ekes all have entry holes...

Welcome to this wonderful craft. As suggested above, learn all you can about looking after the bees. Well kept bees will give you honey. You can then learn about honey processing ( which is much easier than the bees) .

I too have macula problems and was a GP before retirement. I would never put home made drops into my eye. Totally idiotic. Risk of infection and damage to conjunctiva and cornea. Topical treatment would never reach the retina where the problem lies. Tell them a firm "no"

Discovered a dead out a few weeks ago. Today I was relieved to see my 2 remaining colonies flying strongly. Orientation flights, and also cleansing flights, as evidenced by the spots on my jacket

I can see a fair bit of mite excrement on the mouth of some of the brood cells. Giles has already chucked that old brood comb. I would re use the supers

I think of a dummy board as a movable hive wall. There are no spacers on a wall. I did similar to curly a few years ago but using DN 1 frames, as I had a few lying about and would not have used them otherwise

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2019.00079/full This may cast some light on curly's question, but I see no mention of peroxide

As to our "obsession with scrubbing and cleaning". Having a medical degree and therefore being familiar with asepsis and sterilisation, I find it peculiar that people go to such lengths, then dump a load of dirty bees back in. My only nod to this is changing brood combs which are too dark ( but...

The bees only keep the brood at 35 degrees. The heat in the rest of the hive is what spills out from that. The temp you record will all depend on the position of brood or winter cluster and position of the sensor

Book by Rex Sawyer from Northern bee books is probably the standard text for beekeepers. However, it is not just a case of bunging a blob of honey on a slide. It can be difficult to distinguish some pollens, one from another. Practical microscopy for beekeepers by Maurer is a good place to...

When I started I used Rowse as seed for my soft set. I now always keep some of my own soft set back each yet for seeding this year's crop. I also use my own design stainless steel paddle in a cordless drill to stir it. Result is smooth and creamy

The goodwill of my association got me started, and then going on swarm collection list built up numbers. Like most, during the season my problem is usually having too many colonies. Never had to buy bees in my life. I appreciate it can be a good source of income, but personally think prices are...

Proper soft set will have no discernible crystal texture on the tongue

The nature of the honey will vary from year to year and box to box. How soon it crystallises depends on the ratio of sugars in it, mainly glucose and fructose. When I extract I run it into food grade buckets and let it sit for a few weeks. If it remains clear and runny I process as runny, if it...

Mild and first sunshine for weeks, so went and hefted my 3 hives. 2 flying, 1 nothing. Had a look through clear crownboards. 2 had moderate number of bees milling around. The dead one, plenty of stores, no brood, no bees on comb, about 20 dead on the floor. Queen not amongst them. Abscond, or...

A horizontal long hive and a top bar hive can be totally different things. If anything I found outcomes in horizontal hives not as good as in standard vertical. I would look at type of bee and my management before changing boxes

Read " fat bees, skinny bees", available to download as free pdf

Top bar beekeeping is a whole new ball game. After a few years handling Nationals I built a TBH. Taught me a lot extra about bees and management that I would not otherwise have acquired. I started it off using " chop and crop" of National frames. It was an interesting few years, but produced...