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Hi Mike, I think your plan would work provided we have a mild march. I am assuming your current hive and new drayton are the same sized frames. Not sure your preliminary move is necessary. If it was mine i would probably leave it until late march. Then on the given day just move the old hive...

Now it's back on track, I would say i have had the cedar 2nds from bee equipment before and found them at least as good as other 2nds. I particularly like the pre drilled pilot holes as they made me far more likley to drive the nail in straight with my rubbish hammer skills.

I use ultrabee to try and give them a head start for OSR as it makes up a significant portion of my crop. Not sure what difference it actually makes and think genetics, weather and natural pollen etc has far more relevance.

Welcome and good luck.

PM sent

Don't know if you follow ITLD on twitter but he recently posted about boxes his father made in 1940s/50s from post war tractor packaging that are still in use. Just shows what can be done with decent workmanship, tight joints and suitable weather treatment.

Mothers? Mate with offspring? Lost me on that one do you mean siblings?

Not a bad view from the office you have there.

From what little I know about DCA and mating flights if your colonies are all in the same apiary your effort to flood the drones available to your queens might be a vain and your neighbours genetics may have a far more significant influence. I recall research showing that drones tend to...

I would have thought it is important for you and the school to check who is covered and responsible for what. The school should as part of its assessment check that providers (you) have adequate insurance and risk assessments and controls in place.

It's all on their website

If they are not showing signs of disease and just queenless that suggests to me that the comb is probably ok. I guess there is always a risk in reusing and swapping frames and you need to decided what is acceptable to you.

It does keep me busy but in a good way. If I had not spent the time working full time on a huge commercial bee farm I doubt I could manage half that number. But it speeded up my own skills and gave me techniques I use to make it feasible. I try to overwinter and have them on osr sites fairly...

As I missed it 1st time round. I am an environmental health officer working mainly in food safety. Fairly late entrant to the profession and was previously a soldier for most of my career. Spent a bit of time in education after leaving the army and a couple of seasons working as a professional...

Yep what a load of nonsense. Surely it was a fruit jelly

So with BBKA more interested in pushing its local bee mantra and honey production way down its priorities the BFA having cash input from one of the largest importers and some of its members being both producers and importers/packers can't see either taking an interest.

The accreditation process for Red Tractor is quite onerous from what farmers have told me. Not sure many would want to go through it unless there is a significant benefit. Sont think want audits on where I store Ox Acid or calibration records for my warming cabinet and api melter just to have...

I read less than 10% somewhere

Good haul of kit there elainemary, well done! I can not think of much else that would be of use and fit your transport requirements. I find somthing like an api melter or abelo meliflow really useful but transport would be a nightmare to transport. Bottling tanks could be handy.