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Interesting one. Last year the hawthorn went absolutely bonkers, never seen so much flowering. This year however the prolonged cold weather has put it to sleep with lots of it not flowering or even producing blossoms.

Bought one of those couple of years back, used it once and straight to the bin! Parts didn't fit properly and I couldn't get the cell holders off the base without yanking and risking to damage Qcells. I guess you prefer to make the wax cells but the brown nicot cells are exactly 9mm diameter...

How do you restrict her to that frame and is a queen inclined to go onto a wooden frame like that to lay in a few cells in the middle of it?

How long is a piece of string? Spring flow started 2 weeks late here but the weather is good and warm which helps. 2 years ago I didn't have a spring crop and the main summer crop was really good. Last year I had a really good spring crop and an average summer one. You just can't tell!

Put them in the nuc within 72h after emergence.

Which in the case of controlled mating of the F0 should give good traits and the same level of purity.

In simple terms, if I raise F1s from my F0 (95%> Amm) and these F1s are open mated, drones of these F1s will retain their mothers genetics. As the F0 is II, can I assume that the F1 drones will be 95%> Amm with the same traits as the F0 or am I getting this wrong?

Yes, I can't seem to get a queen to do more than 2 years as I use the demaree and always have them laying like clappers! Quite difficult for me to be selective and choose any breeder queen!

Didn't notice any difference, my feisty ones are still feisty and the placid ones still placid! Some of mine tend to be grumpier if you stop them from swarming but never to the scale of a full blown attack and 20 stings!

Yes, agreed with others. A strong colony will normaly produce more drones, nothing unusual with this.

brood. I will ask admin if I can put a message out this autumn to see if any beeks from South-Wales want to join for a big order (pallet worth).

It might be but I live near Swansea and would cost me more in diesel there and back than the cost of shipping!!

Not a pallet load that's for sure! With the local club I am likely to get people ordering 11 at most 😂

Just had a quote from Helen. Assembled frames come in at £3.04 incl P&P and VAT each. That's £1.30 cheaper than Gwenyn (looking at price for 11 frames) and £1.60 compared to standard assembled hofmann.

Just put a message out for a bulk order via the local beekeepers' club.. . unlikely to get much interest from the mostly 2 hives owners!

It's the pallet price which stings you. I was all excited when Helen quoted me for 500 frames and some wax dipped brood boxes but by the time you added VAT and £95 p&p there wasn't much in it. I would have had to dble my order to make it worthwhile. I will have to say that I am now sick of...

Double brood and 2 supers for 5-7 Frames of brood? That's a bit excessive and I wouldn't call this very busy. I run my hives on single brood and will demaree when I have at least 9 frames of brood and have done a bit of frame swap to give my queens room to lay. By then my BB and at least a...

Yes. I think there is a consensus that Amm may prefer vicinity mating while carnies and buckies will travel longer distances. Let's be honest though, with 1 hive of each type any virgin from these hives is unlikely to mate with the other drones. Even when you flood an area with selected drones...

I use the back of my Citroen Picasso, bit of a tight space but works well. Frame resting on the table and the cell bars on my knees. I don't do 1000s of graft mind you, just 30 at the time twice in the season.

Agreed, they will have used what you give them. Emergency impulse is sometimes desperation and they use both older larvae and younger larvae. Its not a must do but I like to do it to try and get a better fed queen.