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Converted an old five frame nuc into a 2/3 frame mating nuc. Have some virgins coming from up north in a week or two so will be using these to get them mated.

On the way through the lanes to the apiary today Kim and I were looking about at what was in flower. And the answer was not a lot! The Hawthorne has finished in the hedgerows as has the Holly in the forest. The colonies had clearly slowed down when we arrived and looking in they seemed to...

Busy early morning to get everything done before visiting the parents. Hive 1 checked to see off the paper unite had worked all looked good with eggs seen in the bottom box. Bees were horrid tagging me three times can't wait for those to die off and the queen's genetics to take over. Hive 2...

Do you do the same for virgins?

Three swarms collected in under 24 hours. Two medium sized and one very small one. We're starting to run out of room and equipment.

Nice to finally be inspecting in the sunshine. Bees are starting to recover from the weather's set back. One split looks to have failed so added a test frame to be sure. Also did a paper unite on another colony that haven't accepted the new queen I gave them. Hopefully that colony will be...

This is a definite possibility. Good thinking.

Anyone got any experience of the maisemore poly nuc feeders? I hived a small swarm ten days ago in a maisemore commercial poly nuc. We added a feeder and pollen patties to give them a boost in the cold weather. The feeder is painted internally with exterior gloss. The only bit that we didn't...

A very frustrating day for me. Went up this evening as the forecast looks good for the. Next ten days so wanted to get the feeders off and supers on. Th Checked on the hive I introduced a mated queen to and found that they'd obviously killed her and had a QC raised. Second hive found the...

That's what all mine are becoming. Mostly because I make them out of free pallet wood and I'm too tight to buy mesh. :LOL:

My hives sit on pallets of four so I'm inspecting from the side. So I set mine up cold way. If I was looking from the back i'd set up warm way.

I do have a dowelling jig which could work. Would have to get a router to do the rebate.

My next step is a proper table saw and biscuit jointer to make the timber into planks big enough for boxes as well.

Yeah we have a pile at work that I help myself to. Can stack 5 on the roof rack if I'm really pushing it. I use an old ball joint separator to split them up and usually salvage enough to make floors, crownboards and roofs for at least five hives. The only thing I buy now are the packs of...

I only use pallet wood to make my hives. Always seems to be plenty of free pallets knocking about.

Yes Thinking back I made things too complicated and was thinking too far ahead. Lesson learned, solve the immediate problem first then worry about the next one.

Yes sorry that could have been clearer. So I have the queen in the mini nuc who was almost out of bees so I needed to do something about it. I also have a queen from a tiny swarm who will need boosting. So the resources of the two hives was to be split between the two. However I wanted to...

Because I have two fresh queens in need of more resources. So the plan was to split this colony in two to share between them. That was my thinking anyway. It appears to have been wrong.

My plan was to leave her in as a caretaker for a couple of weeks while the third queen was getting sorted although thinking back I guess the newly mated queen could have done that just as easily.

Ok guys I need some feedback to see what I did wrong here. I have a mated queen in a mini nuc who is running out of bees in the cold weather. I also have a small swarm collected that I'm waiting to see if they have a mated queen before doing anything with. The third colony in this story is...