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I reckon that colony is too small to overwinter successfully ;) If you make the rim 50mm deep on one side you can accommodate a block of Kingspan and, when you need to feed fondant or vaporise or whatever, you can remove the insulation, invert the crownboard over the whatever and put the...

ProVap has a digital readout of temperature whereas the Sublimox has some cryptic LEDs (which are largely indistinguishable to the colourblind!). snl, the manufacturer (?) of the ProVap is active on BeeSource and the machine appears to be well received by users.

And robbing them out late season ... a great way to pick up more than honey.

They’re not unrelated. One leads to the other.

Since we're talking about listening to the bees, this deserves a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RM-1cv0oZ4 No stethoscope involved ;)

Poor Professor Potts was stripped of his title by the closing paragraph. My hive monitors use real intelligence, rather than artificial intelligence ... does this make them more suited to natural beekeeping?

Frankly they're also not the sort of bees I'd like to have in a neighbours apiary either ... every time they swarm they take ~35% of the mites with them into the uncontrolled environment. How much do these small colonies contribute to pollination? These points are conveniently forgotten by many...

Interesting (and encouraging) that bulk prices that good are possible in what was a pretty good year for honey. Over £6 for 227g and £8.50 (ish) in some shops here for 340g jars. Almost no point in jarring 454g as it pushes the price over a tenner which appears to be a psychological barrier to...

I agree HM, but there are costs in scaling up to produce a reasonable harvest that are good to recoup ... if it was a hobby alone I might have stopped with 2 colonies and done "crush and strain" ... It's interesting how supermarket pricing influences the expectation of customers. About a third...

Difficult to generalise yes, but probably earlier than now. Queens still laying here as well, but at a much reduced rate.

But the key thing that's not been mentioned is that it's too late to protect the majority of the winter bees from DWV. It doesn't matter what you treat with at this stage of the season ... it'll kill the mites but the likely high viral load in the winter bees will reduce their longevity and -...

As a cheapo alternative to screened covers you can use insect mesh screen. Just lay a 50cm square bit over the top bars and clamp it in place with an eke strapped down over the top. You'll probably be OK shifting them without screens but the general shaking about they get in a car usually...

Interesting ... are these very good customers: a) expanding year on year b) replacing huge losses c) selling on as a 'treatment free' supplier The question is rhetorical. I don't expect an answer ;)

The Arnot Forest bees tolerate Varroa by behavioural changes - very small colonies, very frequent swarming, frequent brood breaks etc. Unlikely to be of any practical value for beekeeping for honey production. I seem to remember Seeley also established them in standard apiaries (closely...

Not really ... it was a suggestion based upon the observation, not on a formal test of virus virulence or actual superinfection exclusion. Robert Paxton has subsequently demonstrated that the A and B strains are equally virulent in side-by-side tests. This is published (at least once).

Well, you can be damn sure that no-one else will be buying it! After all ... there are much cheaper ways of cleaning the teak deck on your yacht.

I think it's VMD that make the rules, not the NBU. NBU cannot - obviously - do anything but recommend approved treatments. Shelf life of Oxybee when made up is interesting ...

Don't drop full brood boxes. Ever.

And others are just starting to think about their 'late summer' Varroa treatment ... :banghead:

B)