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Prompts me to ask; whats the purpose of the hole in the hive tool? I've often wondered and never found a use for it...

Me too. Thornes were selling them two years ago. Great value for an electric. Its only 3 frames but the beauty of the electric is that you can let it work at its own pace. I fitted a base and castors to it.

In fact correct procedure would be to mention the active ingredient, in this case oxalic acid, not the brand name.

VMD can only licence what the product promoters apply and submit evidence for.

No. The name derives from Essence, meaning that they smell. Amazing the number of people that think they are like vitamins.

Personal observation. I have a wild colony in the roof for the past 7 years. The scenario I described is what has happened. Colony died out August of 4th year, repopulated May of 5th year and going strong since. It's not necessary for an individual colony site to be permanently occupied for...

I believe that bees in the wild are dealing well with varroa now, in their own way. The colony dies out from varroa, typically after four years. But meanwhile the bees have swarmed maybe several times and established new colonies. The dead out nest gets reoccupied by a new swarm the following...

Very true. Unfortunately, because of patenting issues etc, pharma companies are unlikely to use mellitin as it is. They will likely 'improve' the molecule by changing it slightly so that they then have a unique drug that they can patent and start clinical trials on. Im sure they are looking at...

Very impressive paper in a quality journal. Much more than a small in vitro study. The researchers did in vivo mice work with potentially important therapeutic outcomes that will surely be followed up on " This suggests that tumors resistant to docetaxel could be rendered sensitive by the...

Summer bees entering the hive are often carrying nectar and will seem to have bigger abdomens. Winter bees entering the hive have cleansed and are empty.

Everybody smoked then, especially pipe tobacco. You don't see pipe smoking any more. I used to like the smell of pipe tobacco. I presume in less sophisticated times, long before varroa, beeks would puff their pipes at the bees if it helped calm them. I very much doubt that nicotine would...

I have been gifted and old under counter freezer and am converting it into a warming cabinet. The refrigerant gas used is R600a which is isobutane, a non global warming gas but highly flammable. My query is whether heating the cabinet to +/- 40C (or higher in a malfunction) might pose dangers...

After January 1st would be an opportunity to end the EU/Non EU origin labelling and force bottlers to state the actual country of origin on the label. Knowing the brexiteers though, they will probably get rid of all origin labelling...

And a certain Brexit negotiator was an ex Tate and Lyle employee.

'essential' meaning with an essence (smell). Not essential meaning necessary.

Genuine questions; Why go treatment free if you know you are up against it? And given that varroa is endemic, why should the presence of nearby, presumably infested hives matter, since your own are also infested? And finally, if the objective is breeding resistant bees, the objective should...

Its because the tub isn't an approved medicine, whereas apibioxil is (in Ireland also).

Orienteering. Normal behaviour.

Open brood produces a phermone that normally supresses the development of laying workers. I have seen reports that the consecutive addition of frames of open brood will eventually result in the hive drawing out queen cells. However if you think about it, its a fools errant as you will use maybe...

I tried this last week; made up a nuc extra strong, or so I thought, and set the entrance at the minimum. Unfortunately, it became an instant magnet for robbers and wasps. I removed it after three days, as no sign of queen making and I didn't want robbing behaviour in the apiary. They wouldnt...