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If they were busy early on you cannot really judge from what is happening now. Did they have stores on the frames when they arrived. Was there brood present when you hived them? A bit more information would be good but I am sure that they will be fine.

I was in a similar position earlier this year. Being a nervous newbie I could not bring myself to leave just one cell so I left two. I then lost a cast swarm the following week. So although it feels risky I would reduce to just one.

I united one just like that to one of my weaker hives. I could not find the queen in the weaker hive so on went the newspaper and the swarm on top. They sorted it out themselves and that is now one of my strong colonies. Good luck.

Did my usual thing of sitting watching the bees last night and watched this large bumble bee alight on the landing board. It then walked calmly into the hive. Wandered about on the floor for about 30- 40 seconds and then calmly left. I would have thought it would have been attacked or chased...

I did my earliest AS on the 9th April. Virgin queen seen running around on the 21st May and she was small. She was laying by the 30th May and was much bigger after mating. They now have three frames of brood.

Found my two 2011 queens who are now mated and laying well. Just waiting for the last one to mate and I will have a full complement of 2011 queens! Noted the big difference in the size of their abdomens after mating. They also wander round the combs very slowly making them much easier to...

Heard a queen piping for the first time. There were some queen cells left from a swarm that left one of my hives last week. I went through cutting them out and managed to get three live queens. I dropped one into the hive so that will be a fight to the death. We retreated to the garden...

Just a note on using making holes in the paper first. I am sure it is good practice but I forgot to do this the first time I united colonies with paper. It made no difference they still chewed through the paper pretty quickly and it was almost all gone by the next inspection.

You have my sympathy as that sounds really sore and I hope that it does not swell too much in the coming days. With regards to the suit I cant help thinking that something is wrong. The veil sits on your shoulders and seems to be designed to hang forwards. That is the back of your head is...

I did that with one of mine last year. I noticed mould on the varroa board at Christmas time and took it out pronto. No problems thereafter.

I tried vinyl and my bees could sting through them. Never ever got stung through latex so I am going back to those. I will give it a go tomorrow and see what their reaction is. Leather gloves at the ready just in case.

I have a big colony that is rapidly running out of space. Currently they are on brood and a half with two supers and I suspect that I will need to move to double brood soon. My question is really about the end of the summer when preparing them for winter. Do you overwinter on double brood...

I bought a new box of latex gloves yesterday from Lakeland. I noticed when I got them home that they contain some element of Aloe Vera. Have I just wasted my money and will the bees go mad at this smell? Note to self read the label more closely next time!!! Thanks Alan

I used the paper method to unite a weak colony with a prime swarm this year. It is now my strongest colony has filled two supers and is about to go onto double brood chamber. As a second year beekeeper I am v chuffed with this. So I would support using the paper method. Worked a treat.

Many thanks for sharing those wonderful photos. Thomas looks great in his beesuit and very very proud of his completed frame. Yours Alan

The books say that you have to reduce the number of queen cells to one to prevent a cast leaving when the first queen hatches. I made the mistake of leaving two and lost a cast. Then you have to wait for her to hatch and mate.

My bee mentor is always very funny about this. He says my plans will only work if the bees have read the same text books as me!

Tho**nes are always very reliable. I buy their seconds and although some boxes need a b it of fettling they go together OK.

My neighbour reports that a cast left my hive and took off up the road today. Boo hoo.

This happened to me a few weeks ago and I left two queen cells at the risk of losing a cast with the first virgin queen out. Well I watched the cast leaving last Monday morning but she did not get far. I caught it and united it with one of my weaker hives. Next time I will only leave one...