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Added second tray of Apigard to last hive and started to fit mouse excluders. Quite a lot of activity in most hives in spite of three days of frosty nights. Then home for tea and toasted crumpets (with honey) and feet up in front of the fire.

So as a matter of interest I assume that your new splits are queened by the workers from eggs/young larvae? Or do you introduce a new queen to each split?

Not allowed on our allotment and a good thing too. Some bright spark always has the idea how nice it would be to have bees and it don't work out well either for the bees or the people.

They can still sting through marigolds though!

The trouble with long cuff Marigolds etc is that they do not have an elasticated cuff, so the bees crawl up inside and whack you on the wrist and forearm because they think they are going to get squashed. So reluctantly I have gone to leather gloves with a long elasticated canvas cuff. No more...

Most of your grandad's bees are probably foraging in the Elysian fields by now. But then, you never know with bees....

Presumably a night time raid. Don't estate agents get a bit p*ssed off if you keep nicking their boards?

How depressing that such an interesting and worthwhile thread should have degenerated into a ritual slanging match and points scoring exercise. This is an important topic and an informed debate could have been extremely useful to beekeepers like myself who are relatively new to the...

Could we change the subject please?

We put in a bulk order through our association. Touch under 30p including lids, VAT and delivery. Same price for 8oz, 12 oz, 1lb.

Could be a bit tricky to fit to an occupied hive!

Looks good, the dozer. Is it a 240 volt motor, or how did you rectify/drop the current?

I'm planning on motorising a manual 6 frame radial extractor this winter. I've had enough of cranking the handle. Could anyone recommend a suitable electric motor? There's lots of choices on ebay but they all seem a bit bulky.

Blimey. Sounds like a bee knocking shop you're running there:)

This was a bunch of bees that I thought were destined for the great sky hive back in June. However, they produced a queen from somewhere and I have been feeding them over the past month. I wanted to check whether brood had increased as they have been piling in the pollen recently and still...

Is this usual? I opened up a hive this morning. Plenty of capped and uncapped worker brood and four or five capped queen cells. I opened up a couple and they were occupied. So why would they want to produce a new queen now when she would have no chance of mating? Is it best to leave them alone...

So how nice it would be if the crown boards came with the plug they had so thoughtfully cut out!

Stroppy bees So I am not alone in finding that my previously impeccably behaved bees are now really feisty. I put this down to: Absence of males (aka drones) Residual problems with wasps and other robbers Lousy weather Aging population So I wont be rushing out to squish any queens for the...

But why do crown boards always come with cut outs for porter escapes, which are totally useless and to be avoided at all costs?

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