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Very nice. Watch the council don't come along and chop them all down like they are doing in so many places!!!!

Extract the honey to reuse the frames or store it for use as winter feed.

Well what can I say, location, location, location... This hive has produced 50 lbs of honey from 2 supers so far and more to extract next week when I am back home.. Nevermind the other 11 hives!

:iagree: It is so much easier with sun light over your shoulder. I also carry a small pocket LED torch for when I don't have the Sun! I have recently resorted to wearing eyesight enhancement to help when I need to look for specific things. Also as pointed out once you know what to look for and...

all the above and yes OSR will accelerate both the growth of a colony and the lack of space both of which can lead to swarming.

I recommend inspecting before collection if possible (depending on distance) and yes my preferred time for collection of the nucs I produce is in the evening (dusk or earlier if it cools down). When moving Nucs between sites in the summer you really have to be up before the sun otherwise they...

:iagree: A couple of examples spring to mind. Easiest way (in some beekeepers minds) to get more brood size comb drawn is to stick a BB full of foundation on as the 1st super during a good flow. Then when it is drawn and filled / capped you can extract the honey and are left with drawn brood...

That sounds about right. I extracted 6 supers last week and most were that or just below except for one super that I thought I may have taken off too early. All supers were left in my extraction room for 36hrs drying and the sixth super (almost no capping at all) tested at 17.5% !!

I extract as soon as I have enough supers that I deem ready to extract. It will take more than one run in a good year (2014 and possibly this year). There is no rule of thumb for how long before it starts to crystallise as it's partly to do with the weather (especially overnight temps) and...

Any room that you process honey in be it extraction or jarring should be as dry as possible. For example my extraction room has both a heater and a de-humidifier in and it's amazing how much water it collects. In terms of heating I only use 36 degs and only warm it to a paste consistency before...

It's easy to make a board from a crown board. See my attached photo. Just need to cut an entrance on one side and cover the holes with cut up queen excluder. Placing this board below the top BB and above your supers will prevent drones entering the supers and getting trapped by the lower QX.

In short yes. The drones cannot get thru a QX and therefore are trapped in the top half of your hive.

What version of a demaree did you use? Is that the exact set-up you have now? The reason I ask is that generally the method I use has a top board under the upper Brood box (BB) with a seperate entrance to allow drones to exit the upper BB and has a hole covered with queen excluder so that the...

One point that hasn't been raised is that there are different varieties of OSR and there was a lot of talk of some varieties not producing as much nectar / pollen as the traditional one. In terms of weather, yes it has to be above a certain temperature but in my experience not as warm as some say.

Not that I would personally recommend what you want to try however I can offer a couple of shots from a hive that I was called to rescue late last year. On managing to prise the crownboard off I found that the super didn't contain any frames but the bees had made use of the space anyway! As you...

and Dandelion is the same! I find most Spring nectars crystallise easily.

Generally it crystallises early only when we have cold temps at night and the colony retreats out of the supers or the colony is not strong enough to maintain the hive temp. Otherwise you are normally safe for a couple of weeks during the OSR flowering. The reference to early extraction is, in...

4 calls Call 1 - One of my own hives swarming at home! LOL Call 2 + 3 Bumblebees in bird nesting boxes Call 4 - Assuming masonry bees or mining bees in some stone steps leading from a house to the back garden. ie no real swarm calls, I assume they will start soon as I knew my hive that swarmed...

I'm a bit confused, are you saying it is crystallised already? Yes timing is key in regards extracting OSR honey but you soon get the hang of it. Any way of extraction except melting is preferable imho. Finally to answer your question, bees just add way and re-dissolve crystallised honey. To...

Personally I do but it's not everyone's choice of action.