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I've now got a hive with CBPV. A large colony (15 frames of brood in a double brood with 3 supers). The previous week I did a nuc AS, and at the time everything looked dandy. A week later a noticed some typical black hairless bees and in another few days the disease took off. It's amazing how...

CBPV ?

The WBC is a bottom bee space hive. Frame top bars should be near flush with the top of the box (be it brood or super) and there wil be a bee sapce at hte bottom of the box above the frames below. But if you don't create a bee space between the bottom of the side board and the top of the frame...

Yes there are. Have a read of Wally Shaw's articles on using a Brood and half. For instance https://silo.tips/download/how-do-you-keep-your-bees-alternative-hive-configurations and https://www.ec-bka.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Keeping-Bees-on-a-Brood-and-a-Half-submitted.pdf

Because my WBC hives weigh different amounts (differing construction) I find hefting them difficult to interpret. Hence I started weighing them. This winter 4 hives followed an almost identical path and on average lost 9kg. But one hive (currently 10 good frames of brood in a double brood setup)...

I bought a simple veil from STBK for mowing & strimming around the hives. https://www.simonthebeekeeper.co.uk/clothing/10006-white-toggle-round-veil.html It has a drawn string at the neck. Its an added precaution against stings to the head just in case they get annoyed (which they rarely do) if...

What is a Class 1A hazard? My daughter lives in Vic, Australia - maybe she can bring some back to the UK for me when she visits us this June.

FWIW the QC contained a very dead pupa - probably been there quite some time.

FWIW Colony was monitored with V board several times last year and this January (daily drop rate always less than 1 per day. Treated with MAQS and trickle OA. Thanks for the comments. As everyone says - let's move on. :)

Could well be - well spotted

Pics taken a few days ago. Going to shake out after lunch.

Thanks for posting the pics CGF - its appreciated

I was going to re-queen that colony this year anyway as they were a swarmy lot. In retrospect I should have re-queened last year and then I probably would not have had a failed Q before the season got going.

Either way I'm fairly certain the colony is doomed, as confirmed by my esteemed colleagues on here.

Had a look at my colonies this week - all good, except one. I'm not entirely sure how it arrived at the situation its now in. Its a WBC double brood with a 2020 Q. The Lower brood box frames were empty apart from a solitary sealed QC. The Upper brood box frames had lots of stores and 3 frames...

Rawlings of Bristol (Compak) sent me this in Dec 2021 "Negotiations are still underway and while we are aiming to keep increases to a minimum, it is expected that increases are likely to be as follows: Glass packaging (inc. jars & bottles). Increases are expected to be between 10% and 25%...

I sterilise super frames in boiling washing soda and bleach dip. But I wouldnt bother with brood frames - just not worth the effort or risk. They don't clean up welI compared to super frames and I also discovered that you don't get a lot of useable wax from them either - so now I burn the lot...

Trouble with overlap is that the boards will warp and gaps will appear between them. Shiplap is not full tongue groove but dosent warp anything like as much. I agree those sheds look flimsy.

2 years ago I bought a 6' x6' garden shed from Shedrite after looking at several other shed manufacturers and decide they offered a good quality/price point for me . https://www.shedritesheds.co.uk/ I subsequently bought an 8' x8' summerhouse from the same company - for my bee equipment and...

IIRC Isopropyl alcohol will dissolve propolis and should not harm the paint, but it will remove any protective wax and polish.