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Yep. I tried magnifying glass and various specs. I read with 1.5+ which I have tried and have also tried 2.0+, at one stage tried bifocals too. In all cases I find the mesh interferes. I usually inspect with my wife and between us we take loads of iPhone pics to confirm our findings later. I’m...

I considered that. Will see how they look in two weeks.

Thanks, good advice, will try that next time. Rather than buying another queen this time I may: 1 Cage her for a week 2 Remove her and drop in a frame of eggs from our strongest and friendly hive It means we’ll possibly not get that much honey from that hive this year but would have gained a...

We had/have two very defensive colonies. Bad case of followers. Really sore stings. These are the steps we followed: 1. Killed the queens 2. A few days later ordered new queens 3. When the queens arrived, went through all frames and removed all emergency cells (we were very thorough). There...

I’ve reached that stage where I need specs to read. Can‘t actually see eggs without specs. My problem is I find my suit interferes with my vision - and wearing specs doesn’t work well with the suit. Anyone else have this problem? What is your solution?

Last year I took over two hives from someone who was convinced he’d become allergic. He was reacting badly to stings. Getting worse over time. The bees in question remind me of several colonies I worked with in Africa. Extremely defensive. If they can get to you they will. Always a bunch of...

Do the bees know about weekends? :unsure:

We got two swarms on Saturday so activity seems to be picking up. One was a call from somebody and on the way there we saw a small swarm in a tree. Both seem to be doing ok.

We (the family) were just commenting on the lack of swarms this year. Last year we’d caught four or five swarms by now. This year so far we’ve caught only one. It hasn’t been the warmest or the driest, especially in the morning. How has it been for you?

I took a swig of beer in a bottle - momentary lapse in concentration. The wasp sting on my upper lip brought back focus very rapidly. Swollen and throbbed for days. Give me a bee sting any day.

I had one colony that I thought was queenless. I had two separate people search with me. I put in a test frame …. nothing. Finally my son and I did one last check before ordering a queen. We found her hiding in a gap between comb and frame. Such a shy girl. We managed to mark her and have seen...

I read about it in a few places. I don't know if it totally changes the smell and/or adds a physical barrier. I've just moved it to the other target hive. Didn't wet it though, one or two robbers still trying their luck. Just experimenting to learn.

The good news is that all of my colonies are ok. A few wasps trying their luck, one or two get through but the bees are holding them out. The ones that get through .... I wait a few minutes and see them booted out. When I needed to sort something out in one hive there were one or two dead wasps...

Agree - hence why they're some distance away. Only one is close-ish in a tree, the others are around 20m away

I realise this could be contentious. Don't wish to pick a fight, just to increase my knowledge and to provide practical solutions. If you have a wasp nest that you know of, do you destroy it at some stage? If so .... when? I realise that wasps form an integral part of our (modified) ecosystem...

Agree. The robber bees have figured out the new UF entrance fairly quickly (the robbers don't (yet) have a UFE). I think the colony was and still is protecting themselves but we decided to give them a little bit of help with the sheet (and the restricted slot). At the same time we have a huge...

Thanks for the advice. I have restricted the 8mm entry slot to about 2cm. I did it last night at about 10pm, one bee expressed her displeasure and you should see my hand! The bees were still at it this morning so my wife covered the hive with a wet sheet. How long do we leave the sheet on, and...

In one of my weaker colonies today the UFE seemed to make robbing much easier. I was also surprised at how many wasps get in.

Most of my hives are in direct sun most of the day. I’m planning on giving them a cardboard (or ply) hat for the next week or so. They already have a good source of water about 20m away. Anyone else taking some preventative measures for the upcoming heat wave?

We have Thistle galore. Bees love it.