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Like many I've valued HM's words of wisdom here and by phone, and still have some of his queens' offspring leading hives. Sad news. Simon

What's your concern with supers, tainting the honey or just the mix of boxes and numbers of bees? Simon

Further update. Nice new queen seen today with a lot of eggs and larvae, fingers crossed it's worker. Simon

When they say "next to nature reserves", do they own the land next to the reserve, or what powers do they have to dictate what happens there? Do ask for their evidence, I'd be really interested to read it, and do tell us who they are. Simon

No. S

Update on my nuc and single QC. Inspected today, 8 days (for various reasons) after my last inspection, when the QC was sealed. No eggs, some very young larvae, and no sign of the marked queen (or a virgin). Not obvious from bee numbers if the nuc has swarmed on one QC, but (somewhat...

Thanks again Replacement controller sourced, ordered, received, fitted, problem fixed. Simon

Thanks, appreciate the offer. Simon

Thanks, appreciate the responses. The knob is turning smoothly with some usual resistance, and starting the spin, so I don't think it's that. Given the relatively low cost and what look like the same / similar model on ebay etc I'll give viridens suggestion a go and swap it out. Simon

Hi Looking for advice from anyone with electrical engineering knowledge. I dusted my extractor off today for an extraction, and the variable speed isn’t varying. Basically the motor is either on or off, changing the dial has no impact. My sense is it is at a speed between slowest and fastest...

Recently came across this from Abelo, queen cage introducer, haven't tried it yet but I like the look of it and will use it next time, for the price of a queen, if it works, you'd now be in positive cash territory. Simon

Thanks drdrday, had a quick look and just spent a couple of hours knocking one up from various bits and pieces around the workshop. Hopefully a bit better than balancing the bucket on various books! Simon

I've got a similar situation, 6 frame nuc with good laying queen, today a single charged, nearly capped, Queen cell. Plenty of space to lay, I've been stealing brood to boost other hives, and a super also with space. Queen is less than one year old. I left the QC, let's see what happens! I'm...

Thoughts people please. Mourning bee, carpenter bee, bald bumble.....(edit) maybe Ashy mining bee Size about honeybee size. Thanks Simon

If you only have three hives now, odds on you'll have six next year, go electric now! Simon

Just spotted the queen introduction cage on Abelo's website and wondering if anyone has tried it. For the price of a new queen it looks to me to have advantages over a travelling cage or a push in cage. No need to go back to remove the tab on the cage, can leave her longer before releasing...

I've done what you suggest, stack of supers away from the hive(s) on a floor with a clearer board. Works fine (and hives was deliberate, supers from different hives in the same stack no issues). Simon

I think the principle behind the 14 day wait and two lots of knocking down is to try and suppress the swarm urge, so I think you're right to keep a close eye for any more QCs as you reintroduced the queen so soon, do let us know if any more appear.

Hivemaker in a previous thread just runs in either the original, or a new laying queen, after 14 days, following knocking down the original QCs and again after 7 days, then a frame of eggs, knocking down QCs 7 days later and then run queen in. See Nuc Method of Swarm Control | Beekeeping Forum...

Quick update Thanks for the comments, as suspected, nice new queen in old BB with plenty of BIAS incl sealed worker brood. Reverted the function of the deep super to a BB and added a couple of shallow supers between the BBs. Simon