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I should have made it clear - the queen mating hives are empty. I had read though you can overwinter little colonies in these. I know John Taylor well and he has been really helpful over the years. I like all the different advice from the forum as well though - there is usually more than one...

would my question rank as uninteresting?

i wondered what the anyones opinion is on the best and quickest way of making increase. I've now 9 hives on 2 apiaries. Most of these are splits of some sort. Ive got the rearing kit kit but no actual queens on the go yet. I had some success with this last year with a couple of mating...

My bees yesterday - this time last year I had snow on all the roofs! Lots of yellow and orange pollen going in (snowdrop?)

runner ducks ive three ducks and one drake all runners and i bought them from jpsducks as hatching eggs. Guy was really helpfull and the ducks are brilliant. Its their first year this year. They are pretty messy and make a bit of a racket at times. Mine are in a large area with some...

These are great photos, really sharp!

I live in northern Scotland and my bees are in amongst heather all year round so still working away. Does anyone have an opinion on treating varroa under these circumstances? My plan is api life var starting end of august for 4 weeks then feed thymolated syrup thereafter (thanks for the...

just to say both hives now with laying queens and my bought in queen presumed dead! It just took some time and presumably due to the bad weather. Hopefully they will survive the winter now..

I've requeened one hive (before I posted) but I realize this might have been a waste of time now! The other I will leave as suggested - weather not been great up here. Thanks. mark

Cheers for the advice I think I will try the test frame of eggs. Hopefully have some queens hatching this week so will need to check before trying to requeen

I have 2 hives both same site which were in swarming mode. I did one AS but took the old queen to a new site leaving one cell in the original hive. The other cells I used to make an exta nuc and successfully requeened another hive. The other hive the cells were hatching in front of me and I...

I think I depends on your response to the sting - most of the problem stings are allergy related. If that's not a problems then it's just the toxic effects of the venom which hurts (sometimes a lot). My wife gets the worst midge bites huge great spots etc whereas I get none. Where I live we're...

I put out wine bottles with sugar syrup at the bottom and they can most be filled! I've never found a wasp actually in the hive during an inspection but have found bumble bees on several occasions and the bees have seemed uninterested in them

NZ queens This is a very interesting thread for me - 3 years into beekeeping and i have a colony bursting with bees from last year with a new Zealand queen at the helm and another with bees from eastern Europe. I have wondered about it before and now will be avoiding these imports thanks...

very good

I live in Perthshire and have had my bees for 3 years now - been through about every problem there is and currently fingers crossed have 3 colonies which look fine so far this year. Local advice or any advice always appreciated and although i wouldn't say i was qualified to give out my own...

I would very much like to buy some of these black queens jamesklilty - if you are able to sell some then let me know. I have a mixture of Italian queens i think New Zealand and local black(ish) queens but always find it hard to get black queens. I like the idea of native bees. Nearly had some...

Yeah I've always just put a chunk over the holes in the CB then at each inspection just plug up the holes the bees make in the fondant with more fondant - I take the point though and I will put in a roll of cling film to my beekeeping stuff and cover it next time I'm up thanks

i use marigolds and always thought that i should be barehanded as its says in more than one book i've read and also the guy who first taught me. Feel better about using them now that loads of others wear gloves. I still get stung through them sometimes tho