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Uniting a Q- colony on 14x12 frames with a Q+ colony on Commercial frames using a Hamilton converter. Sounds like a small thing, but it was more fun than I expected and worked like a charm. That and the really warm reception our labels got at farmers markets. That was a high point too. Wish we...

But using the valve is like a fun computer game! :geek: Tbh, I've just gotten used to the drip and wipe the surface with a damp cloth every now and then when I walk past. The drip is like a permanent member of the household. I might start saying 'Morning' and 'Sleep tight!' to it. I'll miss it...

I wouldn’t say easy. You’re supposed to have minimum 2 in case one doesn’t work, but GP at the hospital when I was first prescribed told me she could only give me 1 because she was genuinely afraid for her job if she prescribed 2. She told me to get the second from my GP, who seeing as 1 was...

This is my favourite. :laughing-smiley-004:laughing-smiley-014:laughing-smiley-004

I literally just discovered a blunder about 10 minutes ago. A week or so ago it started raining mid inspection so aborted and chucked everything into the bee shed, which is a small old outside toilet (the old wooden seat is still in there and everything). 'Everything' included a couple of really...

I was absolutely fine (save for the swelling etc) for the first four or five times I got stung, and then one day I rocked up to a hive to put an entrance reducer in because of wasps and foolishly didn't suit up thinking I'd only be there at most four seconds. Took longer than expected as the...

Videos are here: Hedgerow Pete

Shout out to Richard Noel (on this forum as @Plenty of honey ) who has done great YouTube videos on his channel, and I like him as he’s a normal guy (albeit with a lot of love, knowledge and passion for bees) trying to provide for himself and his family. and Gruff Rees as well from Gwenyn...

For what it's worth (admittedly not much), I think there's something to be said for rotating different treatments on an annual basis. Even if there's no scientific basis for it, you'll at least gain experience of each type and be able to form your own informed opinion on each.

Amitraz is not wax-soluble, so won’t impregnate the wax. It will be present in the stores, but I guess the theory is the bees eat this, not humans, and that by the time you’re putting more supers on, the bees will have used up all their stores, the treatment will have ceased, and any remaining...

Instructions say don’t treat when supers are on, so if they’re off, it won’t get in your honey.

Great, thanks all, much appreciated. I think we all just want to get to the same goal (plenty of healthy bees overwintering successfully), but sometimes via different mountain paths.

Well, yes, that's ultimately want I want to do in an ideal scenario, but... I may have misunderstood, but isn't the inference here that the BB is too small for this amount of bees to go from 4 supers to no supers, at least in the short term?

I’m in Suffolk, so probably have a bit of leeway in mean temperatures for Sept/Oct. Just back to the sub-question then, is the consensus to leave them with an empty super to fill with whatever ivy-nonsense they like for another 4 or so weeks before removing that and then Apiguard on? I...

Ah, I’m glad you said that. I see a huge amount of posts from various places saying need to be treating by late Aug at most, so feeling the pressure to get the treatments on.

Re: BB stores level: Good point, yes. Hive in question had good BB stores when I checked last week. Yea, it was exactly that thought that made me pause for thought and ask this. So, with an extra empty super on, would you still treat? And if ivy flow is good and the bees fill the super to any...

I have a hive with a really good queen in a 14x12 box who has created a huge load of brood this year. They’ve fully drawn, filled and capped 4 supers and I’m planning on removing all 4 supers at the end of this week and then feeding syrup/fondant in winter rather than leaving them a super of...

I haven't gone to church for the past 30 years. I think I need to go now. I only hope other, more innocent, people didn't see it.

We only have 6 hives, but I registered thinking it better to than to not. Local council department phoned me a couple of days later and thanked me for registering so that they could put me on the map, but they considered small honey producers too low-risk and small-fry to worry about in terms of...

Yep, all already done. Food Hygiene rating not required in our council (I registered with them, they phoned and told me we were too small fry to be worth bothering with, but thanked me for letting them know we were there). PL insurance as part of BKA membership. It was more the display of honey...