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I prefer not to actually answer these types of question, but when I extract x lbs of honey just say things like " I think that's about breakeven now". It's usually met with a raised eyebrow and some mention of the additional kit I've bought this year ( kinda nice to think he's actually noticed...

Oh yes, you will be on guard duty with them, killing wasps on their behalf before long. I'd move in with them if I could 😉😂😂

I would leave them another couple of days and see what happens now the wasp out is in place. If you open them now, the robbers will smell the honey and be straight back. See how things settle, I've stuffed an entrance with grass before and left for a couple of hours. It goes crazy for a...

I got stung on my septum last year, it's the only time a sting has made me cry 😢

Remember the timings for queen development, 3 days as an egg, 5 as a larva, 8/9 sealed. So if the bees used a 3 day old larva to create a new queen, it would be capped in 2/3 days?

So true.... it's not just beginners that struggle to keep ahead of what the bees are up to ... nearly 10 years into the craft and I still struggle to stay ahead of their antics, more often than not I'm playing catchup ! As mental exercise it's better than the times cryptic crossword .... with...

I have a sneaking suspicion that what I collected wasn't actually a swarm but may have been the remnants of another Beekeeper's laying workers colony which had been shaken out. It was a small cluster of bees, they didn't really go into the collection box as I would have expected a swarm with...

Absolutely. I didn't think they could either 😕

My Samsung s10 phone. It's great and really handy for just such an opportunity 😏

I've just had exactly the same thing with a swarm rescued from a hedge, first inspection found laying workers caught in the act! There were 8 or so on this frame, all sitting around up to their armpits as if they were in the hot tub at a spa day. Some of the eggs, as with yours...

I feel your pain, I have a colony where to inspect I now wear double trousers, double long sleeves, double gloves and a woolly hat under my beesuit, even in the heatwave we've just had, just because I got stung so badly a few weeks ago through a single layer and my beesuit. Not fun at...

Full? Or capped? If it's capped the bees will have checked the water content for you. If it's not fully capped I check some of the bottom cells before extracting. If its not ready I don't extract. I hardly had any spring honey, the supers were full but it had already granulated 😒

Worth having a closer look at the frames? The bees know whether they have a queen and I usually check the place on the frames where the queen would lay first, if there is a queen the bees will have nicely cleaned and polished the rugby ball shape cluster of cells ready for laying. If they're...

I prefer "almost 100% pure Bee vomit, with most of the legs and wings scraped out"?

I agree, there needs to be more education. That said, as a relatively new beek, there is so much to take in on a course ( the one I attended was actually very good and did cover dealing with this challenge), I found that I didn't retain that information. And so newbees trundle along for...

Gave up. For the first time ever. Took the first super off what had always been a tetchy colony and they went for the kill. Even with long sleeves and trousers under my beesuit they managed to make contact and I just couldn't face going any further. Some of my stings have actually come...

Yep, surrounded by OSR and having to feed colonies. Rubbish!

First use of my white pen yesterday, very satisfying 😌

If your aim is to ultimately have 2 colonies, I would simply split the colony when they are strong enough. Share the brood and stores between the 2 brood boxes, one will have the queen and the other will have the resources to make a new one? Move the second one (carefully) to wherever you...