Search results

Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum

Help Support Beekeeping & Apiculture Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
  1. E

    Cell starters: Q+ or Q-??

    Q+ system can take a round or 2 to get up to speed but can then work well. I now use a Q- starter which uses the brood from 'congested colonies'. I only have 41 mini nucs so need to leave a 3-4 week gap between rounds of grafting so I don't mind setting up a fresh starter each round. The Q- has...
  2. E

    Dealing with hell

    Not sure what method you used to introduce your new queen ? I would alway use a push in cage in this situation, need to recheck after releasing the queen from the cage as they can raise QC's from her brood so those will need knocking down.
  3. E

    Shaking bees from frames - question

    Usually do 'thorough disease check for foul brood twice, early then late season. That's when I'd make sure I can see all the brood
  4. E

    Feeding

    A 1kg block of fondant will tied my 3 & 6 frame nucs over for 2-3 weeks allowing me to 'ignore' them are concentrate on other problems!
  5. E

    Shaking bees from frames - question

    Foul brood is initially is seen in a couple of cells so if your not exposing them all your going to miss the early signs. Basic beginners mistake.
  6. E

    Poor year so far

    I get as much if not more enjoyment from raising my own queens and testing them out than from processing all that honey. Fortunately for me beekeeping is a hobby, but trying to make a bit of a profit adds immensely to the fun.
  7. E

    Shaking bees from frames - question

    The trick is to not use the brush as a brush as this will simply roll the bees and get them agitated. The brush can be used to gently 'push' the bees off the frames without rolling, that's why other methods ie. feathers work equally well.
  8. E

    Poor year so far

    My first round of queen cells went into mating nucs on the 8th May and was lucky to catch a nice warm window as out of the 24 nucs only 2 were queenless- operator error as I had forgot to put a queen cell in the mini mating nuc. This second round, 40 QC's went in on the 2nd June and have another...
  9. E

    Feeding

    Do bees draw foundation faster when given syrup? I use swarms as new comb drawing factories mainly for foundationless frames which I try and get drawn out ASAP so that they can be used in nucs etc. You can get a few rounds of frame drawing before you see any significant drone brood. I have...
  10. E

    Feeding

    If you always have some fondant (as insurance) on the nucs when they are building up then they never get to point of starvation. I no longer mess around with small bits of fondant but use good chunks ontop of the crown board which I replace before they run dry. Lost too many nucs in the past...
  11. E

    Feeding

    I've got colonies chucking out drone larvae and queens have been shut down. A prolonged brood break at this time of the year will affect the numbers 'when or if' the main summer flow starts. in approx 4 weeks time. I can definitely see a role for pollen during this dearth in both nucs which are...
  12. E

    if one unites..does the 3 mile rule

    Within a minute! Blimey they must be missing their mother. Depends a bit on how calm the bees are to start with and how much one's already upset them trying to find the queen.
  13. E

    Feeding

    With syrup avSlow feed or rapid feed when encouraging them to draw foundation. I like to restrict the size of the feeder hole in the crown board when getting foundation drawn to reduce the amount of syrup that gets stored. Seems sensible but haven't a clue if it works or does it just simply...
  14. E

    Feeding

    Fondant is often a life saver to nucs when they are building up at this time of year. I can put a slab of fondant on my 3 and 6 frame nucs and feel confident they will be fine for a couple of weeks. Topping up syrup feeders on nucs is time consuming and time is in short supply this time of year...
  15. E

    24 hrs later after using air freshener .

    Always a balancing act between strong colonies in spring for the early flow and reducing them wanting to swarm.
  16. E

    NUC wanted in Manchester

    Hi I've one which you can pickup tomorrow evening 8pm, Give us a ring 07740929304
  17. E

    Queen cells destroyed in finisher

    Supposedly less chance of the bees reducing the number of grafts/QC's if you run separate starters and finishers.
  18. E

    How do I know if my bees are antsy and need requeening?

    Not sure that Finman produces his own queens? I produce approx 100 per year but run all of them in my many nucs repeatedly requeening any that are below par.
  19. E

    Can anyone ID this plant, please?

    What a great app- just trolling through my photo collection to identify that flower I never quite got round to looking up. Thanks for the tip
  20. E

    How do I know if my bees are antsy and need requeening?

    Cricky I'm starting to sound like Finman!!
Back
Top