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I made up a small tablet of beeswax “polish”. Using a few drops of mineral oil (it’s what they use in baby oil also called liquid paraffin) mixed into warmed to liquid beeswax. The more you add the softer it gets. Mine solidified into a small cake / tablet just slightly harder than shoe polish...

No, no heather around here - unfortunately.

I found wall to wall brood in supers non in brood box. Decanted all bees out of supers into brood box found queen whilst decanting. She is very small, and hard to find but I did and marked her, put her in B.box. Put different Queen excluder on (in case problem with spacing on original QX). Did...

I have used MAQS since it was first released/authorised (not sure how many years that is). I usually have between 4 to 8 colonies/ national single brood box hives. Never had one loss, dead queen/or problem. Follow the instructions, give the dose as per the instructions, ventilate well (I have...

No I do not sell - just for family and friends, bartering! Etc.

Yes that is a pretty clear routine. It is what I set out to achieve. It just seems I set off too early in the year. Still appears to be forage available up here and brood box still rammed with brood so little space for stores. In fact the two colonies I checked have virtually no stores in the...

I wanted to achieve four things in preparation for winter period. 1. Treat so that varroa reduced and so less affect on any “winter bees” being ‘made’ (both in and out of cell - adult + larvae etc.) 2. Remove any ‘spare honey’ rejigging frames in supers so that supers available for removal and...

Part of my confusion/uncertainty was deciding whether all this brood was the “winter bees”. If they are that is why I wanted to treat (using MAQS) and feed or possibly just leave any honey they subsequently produce with them for winter. But if they carry on foraging and the Q carries on laying...

See Michael ECB’s posted image !

Report on use/efficacy of some OA strips. They appear to have been water based not glycerine and trialled in Spring and Autumn. https://www.apimondia.com/docs/apiacta/2006/marinelli_apiacta.pdf “The efficacy of cellulose strips was evaluated in comparison with other oxalic acid treatments...

The thing is they are not moving and I can cheat and magnify the image! If only it was so ‘easy’ in a sweaty bee suit staring through a mesh hood, whilst being pinged by feisty bees. And looking for one of those tiny queens. I have to congratulate myself though, I spotted two queens on Michael...

Thank you for prompt helpful reply. Saw bees very busy yesterday on big patch of borage and another big patch of golden rod. Very windy up here with strong gusts. Two more hives to check but I think I will relax and have a coffee instead!

Inspected two hives for stores and found both brood boxes absolutely stuffed with sealed brood some eggs some larvae corner to corner of the frames, no stores in b.boxes. 7 or 8 frames of brood in each hive. A bit of pollen on the 2 frames without brood. (single National brood box on each hive)...