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That's not quite what I've found. The hives that I've over wintered just on a double brood can have frames of stores left well into late spring and need a super as they've built up well and are bringing in fresh nectar.

Surely that can also happen if you only have a brood box? So, if you feed syrup then that can be moved into a super and contaminate your honey if any is left in spring? That assumes you're selling the honey. If you're not then it can cost more to feed syrups etc. Personally I've found my...

Our bees are always on our knapweed at this time of year, some years there seems to be much more knapweed in flower than others. This year there seems to be a good crop of it and about an acre for them to harvest from.

Down here in Devon ours are surprising large. King Edwards are a good to large baking size. Just had to remove the foliage due to the first signs of blight but the spuds seem ok.

If you want to leave a super of stores on over winter you wouldn't be spinning it off. I also intend to leave a super on over winter and would be curious to know what people do when treating at this time of year.

Hopefully the last update. They raised a supercedure cell but it wasn't viable. They then raised another which hatched and quickly mated and started laying. No sign of old Q. The brood pattern is much better, typical solid brood in middle of the frame and now a couple of frames are almost solid...

Thanks, the queen that is being kept is a new queen raised by an existing colony. So, there's currently capped brood and larvae from the old Q but the new Q hasn't started laying yet. I was going to wait for her to be laying well, so should I wait a bit longer for her brood to also be capped?

Can I just check a couple of things about merging hives? 1) Can I merge a queenless hive with a hive that has a very young queen - one that has only been laying for a few days? If not, how long should I wait? 2) If I want to dispatch a queen in the other hive do I kill her and merge right...

I had this on a hive this year, hive going well with Q, eggs and BIAS; the next inspection no eggs or Q and about 20 Q cells. As I had a couple of new queens in nucs I broke all the cells down apart from one and it raised a new Q which is doing well. What would have happened if I left all the Q...

I know this has been asked multiple times but I would like to know if it means anything in terms of future management of the colony. I have a hive on brood and a half (I know, but it seems to suit them). 8 frames plus 9 half frames of BIAS. Queen in bottom box with a couple of full frames of...

I've been keeping an eye on my colonies, especially the nucs, as not much has been coming in for a few weeks now. Yesterday they did seem to be going somewhere with far more purpose so hopefully they've found something. I was wondering about the NBU as I would have expected a warning by now but...

A further update on this. I'm leaving the hive going as I have others doing well and I am curious to see if this hive sorts itself out. I'm raising a couple of queens from a different colony in Nucs in case I need to requeen. Anyway, today I had a quick look through and they are about 6 frames...

Thanks for your reply. I did read that thread as it came up when I was googling the eggs.

Is it not actually two different queen wasps? Pic 2 is the Common Wasp and pics 1, 3, 4 & 5 a Germanic Queen?

Don't they often not know themselves? Just looking at old threads on here about reusing jars shows individual councils giving conflicting advice.

'Tis the icing sugar we don't have. I'll pick up some when I go shopping, not been out since the lockdown started as we've not had much need. I doubt the load is high in this hive though but will do the test when I get the sugar. It's the eggs on the varroa tray that puzzle me more.

I've tried counting the nosema but I only have a cheap microscope. I did find what looked like nosema spores but I couldn't tell if they were apis or ceranae. If pushed the ends seemed more rounded so I would say apis but not sure. I need to sort out a better 'scope at some point. I don't have...

I had assumed this wasn't a serious reply, but if it was, would that be wise. Would the bees spread any infection?

I've no idea, hence me asking. I had a colony that swarmed. Queen was in the swarm. There were no queen cells in the brood box but a sealed queen cell above the queen excluder. I'm now told that it must have been a drone laying worker. I'm not convinced, but if it was the case then I will need...

If it hatches it will be male but female eggs don't trigger swarms, just Queen cells. If you're suggesting they will not swarm then the one I found would have been a viable queen. So, not a laying worker.