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20" fiberglass lorry body. It came at a better price than a 20" shipping container and didnt need to be insulated. I'll probably get a couple more years out of it before the floor needs to be completely replaced and at that point I plan to replace it with a 20" shipping container .

As in this offering: http://beesupplies.ie/product/hive-stands/ Admittedly the "baton" isn't particularly visible in that image but it is visible here: http://www.irishbeesupplies.com/Triple_Hive_Stand/p1800428_15074244.aspx and here: http://www.donegalbees.ie/product/single-hive-stand/ The...

A friend's garden apples are taking a hammering between blackbirds, thrushes and wasps... birds break into the fruit then the wasps burrow in. My observations across a number of apiaries are that some wasp colonies are still brooding whilst others are resolutely in sugar feeding mode. A good...

Was pricing two tons in NI and the best I have been quoted works out at £0.56 per kilo. No Morrisons to go to...

Build up to those numbers over a few seasons and put the honey money and funds from the sale of Nucs straight back into materials and equipment. 1 Nucleus colony = how many new brood boxes? Make sure you retain all your cappings wax and burr comb etc. Render this into blocks and convert it into...

If all the bees in the original box are now old enough to be foragers, they will have orientated on the original hive and will make their way back to it from the Nuc. If there is no brood in the Nuc there is nothing to hold the bees there.

Several options: Change to poly hives Save up and buy a CDB hive - the lift is supposed to be inverted over the brood box during winter and so acts as a second wall for the hive. The double wall of a WBC does the same job. Switch to deep roofs - 8"+ in depth and put some Kingspan/QuinnTherm in...

Linear distance or road distance? Moving a hive or hives a short distance can lead to bees flying back to their original site but the further you move them, the less likely it is that they will return to the old site. The exception is during the winter when you will have greater leeway for...

They make a fantastic clattering/clanking noice as they fly. Quite startling the first time you hear it.

Always nice to find something useful or which will be useful with a little work. Old equipment can be sterilised before use but be cautious about using old comb... it can harbour disease.

:iagree: Bees are constantly moving nectar and honey around the hive. I think we are just seeing them processing honey rather than reacting to smoke.... Blow on bees and they move out of the way in a similar way to when you smoke them but be warned, it doesnt work for everyone. I have seen...

Find the land owner and ask permission.

This is something that many "beekeepers" miss completely. The difference in the way a stock of bees react to someone who is calm and someone who is, shall we say "excited", can be very dramatic and leads to the "excitement" growing .....

Is that an Oz Armour beesuit/jacket in the background?

:iagree: Hopefully they build up well for the Winter with you and you have a good, strong stock of bees come the Spring.

Savour the taste and the memory of your first honey harvest. May there be many more to come. I remember is the first time I uncapped honey.... the scent filled the extracting room and I was encouraged to "sample" honey from the drip tray under the uncapped frames!

MAting nucs are all at varied heights and have differing entrance orientations. I read somewhere (possibly this forum) that bees are particularly sensitive to entrance/nest height in terms of their navigational skills. Mating Nucs are variously coloured Land Rover Green, a near white and Apidea...

I currently have about 25 mating nucs in an area of my garden, a little over 200 square metres in size with semi mature trees surrounding. We are surrounded by farmland with some natural old riparian woodland (hazel) close by. All mating nucs are in shade under/in hedges and trees. I...

I don't disagree with this at all. I only seek to highlight that the Original Poster's scenario may not be supercedure. Whether it is supercedure or swarming, there are similar issues to deal with and as you say, these could lead to a drone layer.... Were I in the position of the OP, I, like...

When we come out of a prolonged period of poor summer weather, I have found that some colonies will contain dismantled/holed queen cells as described. Colonies seem to destroy the queen cells in the order that they were capped, starting with the oldest/most mature. On occasion, they give up on...