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I note Thornes has its branch sale items listed today and the prices look reasonable. Has anyone bought their budget brood boxes and supers? If so what was their quality like? I understand the wood is cedar and may contain live knots but are they still fine to use? I've purchased other makers...

Californian Poppy?

Well you do waste a glug of cider. :eek: On a serious note do they trap hornets and/or moths/butterflies? I'd rather just catch troublesome wasps.

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Looks like it's a play on the often stated fact bees will only sting to protect their colony, but in reality you get the odd one that seems to follow you about.

When we first got bees they were often found on the garden plants but once they've settled in they mainly fly off further afield. We do notice them on plants in the winter / early spring so I'd concentrate on that. Here they love gorse and snow drops early on. I also plan to plant more perennial...

Yep, meadowsweet, it's not done my bees any harm. You'll see bright green pollen if your bees are on it.

I know it's good to plan ahead but for people new to bee keeping it always strikes me as strange companies with decades of bee keeping knowledge sell out of common items at this time of year. Many places seem to have sold out of supers for several weeks and even frame nails are hard to find.

The opposite of my bees. They have access to pollen virtually all year round, they were brining in gorse pollen in January. However, the frames are stuff with pollen. Although I doubt they'll need it, if frames of pollen are left in over winter will they use it for brood rearing in the spring...

It'll be a bit tricky getting a badger up onto that roof...

I have this on most of my colonies. I went through one yesterday, double b/box with Q excluder above top b/box. Plenty of pollen stored not only in the super above the Q excluder but in the supers above that. I assume this will not affect the honey I harvest at all as most of it gets filtered...

Well, as a novice I prefer my BS Nucs to my old Maisemore ones as I prefer the top bee space, stops me squashing bees on the tops of frames when I put the lid back on. In an ideal worked I'd prefer a cheaper option that has a single entrance and no divider but that's just me.

Well, weather being better I've inspected the swarm and the colony it came from. Small Qs in both, so probably virgins still. Normally I leave two sealed Q cells and don't have a problem with casts but this time I thought I had just left one and I get a cast. I'll see if they both mate...

The four sealed, empty, cells were not missed last time as they were very obvious. They've been made after the original Q cell has hatched or been broken down. Seems strange they've swarmed if there's no viable Q cells left, I'll have a thorough check in the next couple of days as the weather...

One of my hives swarmed on the 22nd May, leaving behind open Q cells. After a couple of checks I left a single sealed Q cell which appeared to hatch at the start of June. Today they swarmed again and on inspecting the hive there were four sealed Q cells but all were empty. As it was starting...

Thanks for the replies again. The colony has produced Q cups, removed when the eggs have just been placed in, rather than full sized Q cells. Anyway, I've tried a Demaree and I'll keep a close eye on the hive. One further question, what should you do if there are two Qs in the hive? I...

That's confusing, from a local bee keeping association "only perform the manipulations when the colony is ready. That is, the colony must be ready to swarm. Key indicators will be brood on 8 or more combs, lots of drones and early signs of queen cell production (queen cups being extended)."...

Thinking about it, I can add the 2nd b/box and if that doesn't calm them I can then try Demareering.

I'll try, but there's always one watching...

I've replaced about two or three brood frames before I noticed swarm preparations and that hasn't stopped them. Those frames are now full of brood. I could move the top, empty super down, place it on top of the brood box. Or move some of the frames down?