Search results

Haven’t taken off any honey yet. Usually do it late Aug. I’m feeding two brood only hives and a nuc, as their stores aren’t great.. Two stronger hives have adequate stores...for now anyway.

So, it’s possible we might have to feed until then?

Thanks. Good to know that.

I sort of panicked. As there is brood in the brood box that needs attending to, I was afraid of not adding a frame of stores. The other hive could spare the frame, so thought I’d rather be safe than sorry.

Wow, that’s mad. But they should go up to the Super to get stores? I mean, they won’t stay in the brood box and die of starvation, would they?

My best hive has 2 supers. The brood box had little to no stores yesterday, so I added a frame of stores. I will continue to monitor, but even if they use up the frame I added to the brood box... they should be ok as there are two supers above? Yes?

I bought one of those electrical plastic trunking. As I was having wasp trouble with one hive particularly, I cut a piece and slid it in the front entrance, so it reached back to the 3rd or 4th frame. Intended later to make the slidey version at the front, but this one seemed to work well. So...

I had to requeen a couple of years ago, with a cranky colony. Was worried they would kill her, so I left her in cage for 3/4 days. Might even have been longer. They accepted her when I opened the tab. I didn’t want to take any chances, as it was late in the season, and if they’d killed her...

I’m looking at sizes now online. There are sizes 18mm x 9mm , 16mm x 16mm and 25mm x 16mm. I thought firstly about the 18mm x 9mm. But seeing that you’re using 25mm x presumably 16mm, just wondered if yours worked well? Or would a smaller trunking be better? (ie. 18 x 9mm)

I see. So, when putting the piping in at the entrance...... Does the piping need to be a certain length? And how far inside the hive would the piping need to go, for it to be effective, yet not be a hindrance to bees exiting?

Been watching videos of someone creating an underfloor entrance, with two pieces of wood.......and another video of the plastic piping at the entrance. What’s the deal with these methods and wasps? Underfloor entrance - won’t wasps work out the underfloor entrance? Or are wasps not as agile...

Okely dokely!

I think I have a drone laying Queen as well I was going to remove the DLQ, and unite the colony with another using the newspaper method. I’ve only really united colonies when they’re weak. Do you foresee any problems when uniting colonies in this instance?

They were buzzing around when I took off the crown board. Ended up squishing 5 or 6 before closing up. Reduced hive entrance in case they tried to get in via the entrance, but didn’t notice any activity there. Put some jam in jars with water in, a number of metres away, and they were starting...

On the subject of wasps...... Are they more active in the evening? I was inspecting yesterday evening, and there were loads about when I opened up. Normally I inspect in the daytime , and never encounter many.

Your neighbours mightn’t thank you for that!

Yes, whether they will swarm or not is always a tricky thing to work out. If I do an artificial swarm when I see QC’s, the hive where you put the existing Queen mightn’t come to anything, as she could be on her way out, laying-wise. But then risk doing nothing, and you could get a swarm.

New Queen has emerged and is laying. Laying pattern is good, but she seems to be only laying in the larger drone cells around the edges. They are at the egg/larval stage, so too early to know if they are worker or drone. If it was a DLQ, wouldn’t she also be laying in the smaller worker cells...

.

I see. I have an eke (1” high) with an entrance , that I made for performing a...(the name escapes me...basically, when you need another/alternative entrance further up)....... Would using that eke do? The drones would then be able to escape from the top box.