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Talk at a WI… make yourself familiar with the words to Jerusalem, just in case!

Over the past couple of years my bees have been finding heather from somewhere. Never had it before, so I am guessing you have the same, as everyone is saying!

I scraped down to the midrib of the frames and made a vacuum filter (heath robinson style) which worked much better than a press. The resultant wax was still quite wet, which I have fed back to the bees. The process wasn’t actually that bad, and I no longer fear the bees bringing in heather :-)...

i was wondering how your 2022 extraction has gone on. Did you make a vacuum filter or plump for the cappings spinner?

Around about this time of year, my hives with high varroa counts have lots of varroasis evident, deformed wings etc. and I am looking to get the supers off to treat as soon as I can. This year, whilst I haven’t done a count for a while (my boards are out in the hot weather) i haven’t seen much...

I had a European hornet starting to nest in an empty nuc this year. After relocating some distance from the apiary I saw one of these, which is a hornet mimic hover fly. Not having seen either before I thought it was a remarkable coincidence that the hoverfly is in the same location as the real...

Bitter Almond oil, not the stuff you can get for cooking, but the essential oil, which makes your eyes water. If you put a few drops on a rag on top of a super, they will clear the super in a number of seconds. Whilst I did try it once, I much prefer the physical methods for clearing supers. The...

I didn’t buy them, so wouldn’t like to trash the reputation of a company (that might well have been mentioned above) I mentioned this as a word of warning to folk buying cheap frames, might not be 100% and worth a check before you put them away until you need them.

They were assembled correctly with the foundation in the groove. I am annoyed with myself that I didn’t take a pic, I was so baffled by them.

I saw a thing today that baffled me. I thought Hoffman frames were standard, that is the flat side of the vertical bar met with the pointed side of the next frame from all suppliers. I have had them from Thornes, Maismores, etc, etc. over the years. Today at a fellow BK‘s he showed me that...

Can you see these pics, one has the dimensions on. I had the pieces cut from a full sheet of ply at the timber merchant

Do Drone Congregation Areas, which are mentioned in many reference books actually exist? Is there anyone out there that has practical experience of hunting for and finding one?

Slowly is the only way. I once turned a hive, and they clustered where the entrance was :-(

I think the F&H advance warning is curious. in a way I appreciate it if that is what their suppliers are telling them. But we will shop around and will find the cheapest quality supplier. I just hope they don’t price themselves out of the market as I have used them for years now.

I too have stopped using the valve, reverting to using a jug from the bucket, it feels so much simpler, efficient and drip free

Balsam is characteristically very pale, with almost white capping. I have the same experience as you this year, with honey that is that dark I can enter into a honey show class other than “light” and expect the DNA analysis to say less than 95% balsam! Had a lot of heather in the supers for the...

I have got my hands on a whole frame queen introduction cage, and I was intending to use it to replace a queen in a double brood aggressive hive. Something similar to this https://www.abelo.co.uk/shop/national-hive/poly-hives-national/national-queen-cage-introducer/ Not to be confused with QE...

Henry’s lime

After seeing Ralph’s video a while ago we did the frame trapping trial one club hive (after all what are club apiaries for?) and I have to admit it was very successful. Zero varroa drop. We placed the trapped frames into a nuc, and vaped with a gas vap. The hive did well through the winter, the...

Sherriff honey rustler jackets are brilliant, and last forever. if you are not in a hurry, keep an eye on eBay, quite often see almost new ones, going for considerably less than a new one. Fencing veils are much better, imho.