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  1. Kaz

    Bespoke label for retailer

    Am I right in thinking that your Local Authority requires you to register as a food business if you white label your honey? We are just exploring this with our own LA and they say that white labeling counts as wholesaling and the exemption from the food hygiene regulations that exists for...
  2. Kaz

    Wingless queen

    I must admit I may have been overthinking it but I like to speculate on what might have caused it. My first thoughts were that HM was *behaving* like a mated queen, walking calmly about the comb and not bustling around like virgins normally do. She's also quite a good size (is that a way...
  3. Kaz

    Wingless queen

    I was working my way through some of my hives yesterday and found an unmarked queen with no wings (I seem to have had more autumn supercedures than usual, from last years queens- is this a pattern anyone else is seeing?) Anyway, when I went to pick her up to mark her, I realised she didn't...
  4. Kaz

    First swarm call of the year.

    That's what I'll be doing in future! 😊
  5. Kaz

    First swarm call of the year.

    I got my first callout of the year yesterday ( having picked up 2 swarms I stumbled across at the weekend), the swarm was mahoussive and there were still a lot of bees flying around after i had them in my skep, so I dutifully left them to settle and went back to collect them in the evening -...
  6. Kaz

    MAQS - Formic Pro

    Thanks @ericbeaumont , good idea! 😊 I've just emailed the VMD investigator to ask for any update/ findings they can share. I'll update if I hear anything
  7. Kaz

    MAQS - Formic Pro

    I lost 3 queens last year after using MAQs, and unfortunately the emergency QCs were also unviable due to the larvae also being damaged (a lot of larvae seemed to be damaged as they were removed by the bees and left outside the entrance or fell through the OMF) . I had read, very carefully...
  8. Kaz

    Spotty brood pattern

    I'm gutted for you. It's heartbreaking having to destroy a colony but you're doing the right thing. Sending virtual hugs 🤗
  9. Kaz

    Spring broodless colony

    Update to my update: QCs have been torn down and there is a queen up and laying, eggs and v young larvae present. She must have been there all the time - maybe a very early supercedure? 🤷‍♀️
  10. Kaz

    Spring broodless colony

    Update: happily QC's have been built (the young larvae were from a colony with a GREAT queen), so fingers crossed they can recover 🤞🙂
  11. Kaz

    Spring broodless colony

    I've just completed my second inspection of a colony which has no brood and I can't find the queen. However, there are young bees in the colony, there are large areas of polished cells in the frames ready for laying, and no laying workers. So it seems the colony think they have a queen? I've...
  12. Kaz

    NBU Job

    **ears prick up** That sounds interesting - can you expand on what you mean by a Beekeeping company? Are you offering services or "just" selling honey? Any other hive products? How many colonies? Finding myself in the position of considering taking early retirement but needing a plan to...
  13. Kaz

    What did you do in the Apiary today?

    Popped open the roof on "Baby Swarm" (collected on 11th October and they were *tiny*). Hand fed them a few pieces of fondant (they are sooooo gentle 🥰), then loaded them up with a kilo of the stuff. Good to see they have survived so far, there were barely enough bees to cover 2 frames when i...
  14. Kaz

    We get everywhere...

    Me too 😊
  15. Kaz

    What did you do in the 'workshop' today

    This made me laugh as it resonated. Mine is scattered all over the spare bedroom and I can't face trying to find a home for it all. Seemed like a good idea at the time but was very stressful and not convinced it was worth the effort 😉
  16. Kaz

    Recommendations for sourcing food grade essential oils?

    I'm just exploring options for making lip balm to sell locally, and I'm struggling to find a source of food grade essential oils in "nice" flavours. The edible options seem to be pretty limited, does anyone have a source they can recommend please? I would like some fruity flavours as well...
  17. Kaz

    Dead Out - what to do next?

    That's too little, too late. The varroa treatment needs to be completed to reduce the varroa load before the winter bees are produced, so ideally August. If you remove the treatment before the time indicated in the instructions, a) the treatment will not be effective and b) the mites can...
  18. Kaz

    Cold torpor - how long until terminal ?

    Our association used to run a nosema day where members could bring bee samples for testing. Often a proportion of the samples would "wake up" at the event, meaning crushing them was no longer a humane option 😅
  19. Kaz

    Surprising dead-out

    Such a shame, I really liked the idea of a treatment that's done and dusted in a week. I guess it's just too aggressive. A post mortem read of the instructions found the small print stating that heavily infested colonies are more likely to result in queen losses. Not ideal then, those are...
  20. Kaz

    Surprising dead-out

    I used MAQS for the first time last August (never again!) and lost 4 queens as a result (out of 15) Of course the colonies tried to make emergency queens but the MAQS had also damaged the brood so they failed. Could be the cause?
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