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Wow that’s amazing - like a piece of art 😍

Can’t get underneath as it’s all too heavy…and was frozen to the stand anyway…but today I saw a bee, just one, come out and spiral up into the weak sunshine (all 5 degrees of it) so that has allayed the worry for a bit, and hopefully there will be more out and about later in the week as it’s due...

Yay we have sunshine … roughly what temperature does it need to be to tempt the ladies out for a cleansing flight please? It’s cold today so I doubt I’ll see them, but until I do I’m going to be worrying about whether they’re ok …I tried to listen for them earlier but the beck is too loud !

I had no idea that would be a relevant bee-keeping toy 😁

That’s very sad I am keeping my fingers crossed mine won’t be the same…just need a day dry enough so I can have a proper (quick) look…or even a day sunny enough for the girls to venture out, that’d do …

Thank you I will try that if it ever stops raining, there is a beck not far from the hive and it’s running too fast and loud to hear anything else at the moment!

In a momentary break in the clouds I gave the nuc bees some more fondant as they’d scoffed the previous offering. Only to discover that the plastic carton I had carefully put it in was 0.5cm too deep and I couldn’t get the nuc lid back on tight…cue hacked off 🐝 waiting whilst I hacked off the...

So I would add a layer of Kingspan to a poly hive, and then the fondant on top of the frames? Also can you have too much insulation? I also have some wool packaging- like thick felt totally encased in plastic- but I wondered if that might cause condensation?

Think I need to gain some confidence with power tools before I go much further 😀

I’ve bought a cedar eke and it came with galvanised nails - do I need to drill the holes first, or is nailing it ok? Or could I use wood glue instead…or maybe the bees wouldn’t like that? I’ve bought it to use with fondant, so do I put it on now ready, or just add it when/if I need to feed...

Hello from the fells on the other side of the county 😊

The difference between feeding syrup and inverted syrup - is it mostly a date/temperature issue (I know the chemistry is slightly different) and assuming it is, when would you switch from one to the other pls? In case it’s important I’m up north and feeding a nuc…flow is just about holding but...

Thanks everyone and no problem Frosty it all helps us new bees to learn! What is the significance of hairless and greasy bees please, I don’t think I have any of those but I’ve got plenty of super-fluffy ones atm…

I moved colony into new hive (BB+new super) 3 weeks ago; BB frames now mostly full of honey - capped and uncapped - with areas of pollen, some brood, and a small amount of comb being made on top of central frames, just touching the super frames, which aren’t yet drawn at all. I had thought I’d...

Another question if I may? How do I reduce the entrance in a Swienty hive, or does the design mean I don’t need to do that? It doesn’t look high enough to let a mouse in…so I’m not sure what else I need to keep out? Poly nuc I have a metal guard for - the entrance on that is definitely...

as my colonies are only small (I have one in a nuc and one in a BB + super), how do I work out how much feed they need please?

Thank you - am half way down the second bottle of Prosecco whilst two dear friends cook dinner 💜

An update - thanks everyone for your advice, have left them to it until a quick inspection just now, and yay we have sealed brood and grubs…didn’t bother to look for eggs after that, just shut them back down (they were feisty!) and I’ll transfer the frames into my new hive on Sunday and then...

In the garden we have…buddleia, elecampane, hydrangea, crocosmia, globe thistle, eryngium and geum…and then on the fellside there is heather, but not sure whether that’s within flying distance or not?