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There is some really interesting new research from Giles Budge on the subject.

or scientific studies.

I was referring to it making sense in relation to treating when the winter bees are being reared. That would apply to wherever you are based when that time occurs. The fact that people all have supers on makes no difference to the science, it’s just inconvenient for beekeepers to treat at that...

That’s certainly what David Evans reckons. It makes a lot of sense.

No idea I did. My phone has been really glitchy and sometimes I go to press something and it glitches and I press something else entirely! No I didn't intentionally bump it.

The whole point of the Apiarist blog is that we don’t graft but allow the queen to lay in bigger cups which then become bigger queens (as the eggs are heavier). I don’t think this will ever be used commercially but rather for us smaller scale beekeepers, once we figure out how to do it and can...

I bought one of your queens early 2022, she’s still my most prolific queen and they have never attempted to swarm, lots of honey, lovely calm bees, i’ll be very sad when she goes!

Would you do this even if you had OSR on the hives? This is only the second year my bees have been near OSR and it’s usually a mix and i’m keen not to have it mix with future honey but would happily leave it for them till the risk of a june gap has passed. My bees were slow to get going this...

i’ve been following those updates, very interesting! Look forward to seeing how you get on!

i’m pretty sure I see distorted, melted open brood in addition to sunken cells in the screenshots I posted, I thought more likely EFB in that case but wouldn’t rule out AFB either. Either way pretty sickly looking and worth investigating.

The sealed brood also looking bad.

Looks like some discouloured, molten larvae in a few cells. It would be worth calling the bee inspector. This hive isn't worth saving but it is worth checking why it has failed. Looks like EFB to me.

🙄 I knew there would be one! Just because it's not what you do doesn't mean it makes no sense. Reasons I do this: Gives the bees a nutritional boost when there still isn't much forage around (instead of syrup/fondant). Keeps the heat where the bees are (up top). Multiple supers will be...

You could always stick them under the brood box to clean then move them up when the flow starts.

I use sheep wool insulation (sold as) in pillowcases above the crownboard as insulation in winter. It fits snugly around a tub of fondant over the hole too. Works well for me, no damp issues.

lots of ways of doing things I guess, I learned this way from av experienced beekeeper and it gets them all cleaned out before the new crop goes in, not worth splitting hairs over really!

If you have wet supers it is great way to get them cleared up ready for use and gives the bees a bit of food.

I tried these last year but I gave up when the local cats (including mine) thought it was a nice new toilet. Then the dandelions took over enforce and didn’t want to remove them as the bees were on them. So this year, I have made this hugelkultur bed instead (i’ve currently got some protection...