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Plenty of time unless the winter starts 3 months early :)

It is a heart stopping moment when your queen takes to the wing. Luckily when it happened to me she flew from the frame I had her on to a piece of foam I have for the roof where I used a crown of thorns to mark and clip her!

They normally swarm when the queen cell is capped. That would give you a week or so to get in there and knock it down, at which point there would be no virgin. I have been told to shake all bees off and check each frame twice to make sure there are no missed queen cells. If there is a chewed...

I would say: unlikely to induce a swarm in itself (there is a caveat) As a rule of thumb I have noticed or part of a hive that is queenless can give off a bit of a roar it is all relative. If she is not back in the hive look around the area for a cluster of bees she may be OK. If she has gone...

Not an expert myself but I saw this recently and think it may answer some of your queries. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2tSkW9YuHY

Thanks will definitely give that a go, was just given a load of kspan/celotex didn't even have to skip dive :)

That is what I was lead to believe in my first year. Very poor advice, I wasn't expecting to have to put supers on and only did so when it was too late. At least I learnt how to perform an artificial swarm in my first year!!!

Are you on brood and a half? If so move some of the drawn frames from up to the middle of the top super.

I like that setup seems really easy (my sort of thing) What tape did you use to put the cosy together with?

Where on the frame was the queen cell. It could be that moving the queen back down below put a separation between her and the brood and they drew a cell, a bit like how you have to check for queen cells after a demaree. If that was the only queen cell and you have eggs in the brood box you...

Well done doping your first AS I know some long time beekeepers who have yet to do one!

You could create some nucs to introduce the queens to then unite them with your hives once she/they are settled and laying well

"You also seem to want to ask a 2 frame nuc to build you EQC. Probably unadvusable and likely to result in a poor quality queen. Good queens come from strong colonies where there are plenty of bees to feed the larvae. " I agree

Sounds interesting. Do you have any plans (I did search)

re the two hives you could point out to your boss the cost of a nuc of bees and state that if you get a chance and there is opportunity you will make a split, but if he wants two hives guaranteed he should let you know what funds are available. May not produce much of a result but should let...

where did you get the bees that went in the apidea?

I have 2 I have made up, 4-5 bits of fairly decent pallet wood cut to 460 mm in length. These are laid side to side and then a trim place at one end that is 460mm and two from it that are 460mm minus the width of the piece at the end. The two bits of trim hold the base together. I used some wood...

I think you could reasonably expect them to replace or refund.

Things might be clearer when you look inside. It may help to have a second pair of hands. If you have a spare floor lift what is above the current floor on to the spare and then that leaves you to work the cluster in peace although it would be better to move the cluster to one side and put the...

You would think she would know which hive to go in to, what with them having her number written on it and everything!