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I have 4 of these nucs and not had any problem with brace comb. I now always use thymolised syrup and it keeps without going mouldy.

I inspected all seven of my hives today and at the moment there is no prospect of getting honey from any of them. They have enough stores for themselves and they all look in good condition. HB is just coming into flower and all colonies are within easy reach of it so I may get some honey in...

All the items for sale above have now gone.

5 and 6 frame nucs and some full size colonies for sale in Wigan, Lancashire. Hobby bee keeper reducing number of hives. Unmarked and unclipped queens. Bees and drawn frames included but not the boxes. 5 frame £80, 6 frame £100. Full size depends on size and if any super frames. Please PM...

This thread I started from October last year shows how bad the bee poo can be: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14020 My understanding is that all bees have nosema anyway but when things are in balance it is kept in check. It is only when the colony is stressed in some way that...

Beejoyful you wanted an update. The bees have survived the winter in the makeshift nuc in post 21 and the other week I have just moved this hive to my allotment and they seem the be thriving. This weekend I am building some plywood hives and hope to move the colony into a full sized hive in...

Panasonic. The one with the fruit and nut dispenser. Had it for about 6 years. Gets worked hard. Just today it did a standard loaf and now it is doing a cheese and herb one. Before I got one I did some research and Panasonic won hands down and now I know why. Not cheap but turns out great...

If you have two options, Fondant or syrup, and one of them is sub-optimal, i.e. the syrup may go mouldy, need for feeder which will take heat from hive and the bees have to work harder to get a benefit, why even consider the sub-optimal one? Personally I think it is safest if the better option...

I took the opportunity to go on one of Martin's courses. Fantastic and well worth doing. If you can get a group who want to do a course I would recommend it. And I've used my skep for collecting a swarm.

Our cat use to jump on any flying object that landed in the garden. Since getting the bees it has stopped doing that. I did not see it get stung but presume it must have. This year when we collected a swarm, rehousing it in the garden and they were walking up the sheet, the cat came out of...

10-14 degrees through the morning in the NorthWest. Early on and lots of activity and some decent loads of Ivy pollen still coming in. But now weather closed in colder and rain.

I have found that when I sowed carrot or parsnip seeds in trays then transplant, this seems to disturb the root and I end up with 4 or 5 main root instead of one big root.

I tried 3 times this year and not one. The second lot I tried I soaked the seeds for a week to see if that would get them going; no joy. Carrots have done welll this year though.

Taff, I think in a narrow field of vision then it is a "so what", but there are a lot of instances when what looks pointless leads to greater things. Personally I hate motor racing and F1 and in the past thought "so what, they can whizz round a circuit fast, how does that help me?", but now I...

A thing of beauty for sure. Having crashed many a model glider off cliffs when the sea birds fly and mock, I appreciate this really is truly a piece of master engineering. Thanks John

Hi Susan The idea is to inspect and monitor for swarming behaviour and then take action at the right time by doing an AS and this should stop the swarming. It is not wise to let them swarm on their own and then you expect to catch the swarm. If you do this you will more than likely lose half...

Hi Taff Personally I think the risks of an inspection far outweigh the benefits when there are safer alternatives. From your original post the inspection has also made you concerned about two hives being queenless, probably unnecessarily, but what can you do about it now? I prefer to leave...

Join a local club and see more than one bee man. See hundreds that keep bees and don't lose so many and see what they do.

I have two full colonies in a small garden and it is not ideal. (I now have two nucs as well from late swarms collected) Whilst it is nice to see them at work, it makes part of the garden unusable. No complaints from neighbors, if fact when I did a honey run to the in October they said they...

It looks like the warm weather is being ignored by these queens. I did see a wasp today when looking at some ivy. There were still lots of bees on the ivy but there was also a lone wasp. Great photos BTW I get wasps in the house during winter. When I bring wood in from the wood pile for the...