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It's a vulgar subject money but... our association needs to raise a fair old pile of it to replace ailing "temporary" buildings that are well past their sell-by date. I'm interested to hear about how have other associations raised cash. Most of the ideas that have been looked at so far...

What lessons did all you other beeks learn from last year's rotten season? I few things I found out the hard way.... 1) Never underestimate the British weather. 2) Never give away/sell nucs made with a laying, mated queen until I am *absolutely* positive that her successor is mated and...

I found one of my colonies dead when I went to give them oxalic acid and it looks like nosema got them. I have been told that scrubbing hive parts in a strongly alkaline solution (e.g. made from caustic soda) is as effective at killing nosema spores as acetic acid. I know of some beekeepers...

You chose a tough year to start beekeeping!!! The worst for 40 years according to some of the old boys in our association! Let's hope 2013 brings better fortunes for us and our girls! :)

So that's what they were talking about... ;)

Oh!!! Right!! I see what you mean!! Those Cornish folks eh? with their strange country ways :) Re: red torches, I bought one from Littlewoods catalogue years ago. You can find them still. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Advanced-Outdoor-Weatherproof-Torch-Vision/dp/B00426Z66G But shop around. I...

Yes, I use red. The bees don't react to it. I don't think the can see red light. I made the mistake once of opening a hive and shining a bright white LED head torch in.... never again!! :(

It's ok. the colonies are all my responsibility. i have united them tonight and hopefully that will be my last night blundering around in the woods with a red head torch on for this autumn :D I reckon the locals must think that there is some pagan rituals going on up there in the dead of night...

Thanks. Will do that tonight.

I have acquired a small Q- nuc with not very many bees in it - maybe a frame full. It sits about fifteen feet away from the colony most suited to unification. If I simply unite them as they stand, I am concerned that the nuc bees will simply fly back to where their nuc was. But I don't want to...

:D:D:D Re: the other contributions, yes, the colony in the lower brood is *certainly* Q- I have been very thorough and there have been no eggs for a while. She went DLQ before she stopped laying (or the workers got rid of her. The upper Q+ colony are well and truly sealed in. In the end, I...

A full National brood frame certainly holds around 5lbs of honey - a little more than 1.5kg. I don't think that there is any "fixed" answer as to how many kg of honey a colony needs. It depends on many things such as the weather. Rather than work on the quantity of syrup, I feed them, and...

I didn't know that! I've never had to unite before so this is new territory for me! Thank you. I've used pages of the Daily Torygraph - frankly, it's about all it's useful for :) There is only an entrance for the queenless colony beneath. The Buckfast lot are "sealed in" by the newspaper.

Yes, I agree that some is lost through evaporation, but the difference is substantial and can't imagine that it can be accounted for in this way e.g. 25lbs syrup fed - but barely 10lbs in the brood box (including what additional food the bees have found for themselves). I am now re-feeding...

I am trying to unite a queenless colony in a brood box with a small (four-frame) Buckfast nuc sitting in another brood box above them using the classic sheet-of-newspaper method. All went well with the process but after nearly a week the bees steadfastly refuse to eat their way through the...

I've been feeding mine with a little more than that (25lbs sugar) but have noticed that the stores on the frames are less than the weight of the feed that they've been given. This has been the case in two colonies who have continued to be powerful through the season. The slightly smaller...

I don't like squashing bees either but a cheaper, simpler solution I use is a feather and a puff or two of smoke to clear the bees. I also avoid the problem all together by putting supers on at night when the bees are huddled on the frames and less likely to crawl out anyway.

There is no sign of a swarm in nearby trees etc. but a swarm would not totally desert eggs and brood. All the hardware is there as are the two colonies either side of the deserted one. They appear to be fine. It would be very hard work to nick the bees and not the hive though I suppose it's...

I agree. But I just don't know what. They'd had 3 weeks of Apiguard... so it seems odd that they would suddenly go when they did. However, that is the only "variable" as nothing else has changed at all through the whole summer.

Sorry, that should have read Thur 6th September. I looked at the wrong diary entry. I last lifted the lid to check all was well on Sept 13th and it appeared to be so. I took the yellow tray out from under the mesh floor and had a look and there was no unusual varroa level. There are no bodies...