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If one colony is OK and the other isn't, the chances are that it's not poisoning. With poisoning, you could well see 'dying fly' symptoms of bees outside the hive entrance. I am not sure if acarine appears nowadays if someone hasn't used thymol for a few years. If it's not acarine, then it's...

As you are inspecting a bee-hive, could the sticky honey-like substance be honey? Just a thought. I would not be too worried - with such a large hive; assuming the bees are towards the top, then they would not be 'in control' of the whole hive so something could have gotten in the entrance.

I have a few of the Abelo mini-plus hives. You can hack around a National frame with a saw to make the odd one or two up if you have a mind to. I wouldn't want to make loads of them that way. As the Abelo side bars don't have a pointy hoffman part on one side to minimise propolis build-up, I use...

It's also the case that some bees like putting honey above their heads, with little around the brood; others keep it around the brood until the brood chamber gets quite congested and then decide to move it up in a hurry. You can never be sure with bees!

With regard to queen excluders, yes bees can be reluctant to go through them when there is only foundation above. Once foundation is being drawn, then the 'excluder can go on. Bees will only draw foundation when they need the space, otherwise they will not waste effort on something they don't...

As has been pointed out, with a Bailey exchange, the queen needs to be put upstairs (i.e. above the excluder) with brood. If she is left by herself, the bees will potentially ignore her; they won't ignore brood. It takes a little while for a bailey comb exchange to get going as all the brood...

I have some old equipment that I think "I really should chuck that out soon" and then I finish up using it.

I couldn't get any more mini plus boxes last summer so made a couple of 4 frame wooden ones with thick timber I had left over. It's possible to make frames out of DN4's to fit. The two 4 frame ones are stacked together with a colony inside. Sorry Moobee, slightly off topic!

I agree with using mini plus hives - although I find them a faff to split the Abelo ones into two, using the two entrances and the supplied division board. You can park a queen in them if you need and once you have got one going, you can potentially split over time. Once the season is over, you...

Some quite heated debates here sometimes!

Nothing wrong with Italians - although they do have a reputation of having a large winter brood-nest so can be hungry - although a large colony can result in a larger honey crop if the weather is good. Buckfasts can turn nasty after a couple of queen generations, although that can also happen...

So only 10% of nest-sites are occupied, which means there's plenty of nest capacity. Although making nest-boxes can't be a bad thing. The CCD thing is a bit daft though. Nice to see bee hive parts in the background of the photo.

After using Apideas/SwiBines and my own mini-nucs with super frames cut down to 140 x 140 mm, I still see absconding on hot days as the colonies are too small to regulate their temperature. (Less losses from the bigger frame sized boxes, as you would expect). Abelo Mini plus boxes seem to work...

Bees will almost certainly block up any vent-holes above them if they can. That tells you all you need to know; A vent in the roof will mean that an insulation there is largely useless. I see cozies advertised, but they will be almost useless unless the roof is well insulated too. Correx boards...

Yep, that's beekeeping in a nutshell!

But if the strip has gone in, it will be wasted if removed, so once it's in, it might as well stay there. Unless there's a concern about chemicals getting into wax.

Beebase has a good varroa booklet. Bees tend to develop a (vertical) cigar-shaped brood-nest, so if you have a dadant brood box and a super over it, they have happened to colonise one side. They will stretch across the hive when they are ready to. Is ther a queen excluder between the two boxes?

A point (warning) about putting a super under a 14x12 brood box. I recall reading on this forum that one beekeeper reported that the bees died of starvation despite the super having food in it. The reason - I vaguely remember - was that the broodbox was not supplied with much food before winter...

Beekeepers put a super of stores under the brood box (no queen excluder) to ensure that there is enough food in the hive for winter; The bees are in the top part of the hive where it's warmer and without an excluder, they have free access to the stores. If a super is above the brood box (without...

Just as in your house, the most important thing is to insulate the loft space and don't leave the loft-hatch open - (crown board feed holes shuct and don't ventillate the top of the hive to allow heat to escape). You may have noticed that the bees will seal up porter bee escapes - for a reason...