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The two colonies I’m feeding, both have very thin syrup to draw comb. Not feeding any colony heavy syrup yet, waiting for the heather and balsam to finish and estimate weights.

I also noticed this year honey is lighter (compared to last year) and taste divine. We had a brilliant July here and for the first time I’ve noticed bees working the lime hard.

Have you checked the uncapped honey Greg? Might be ready. Almost all my uncapped honey was ready (17-17.5%) when I took the supers off beginning of Aug.

My bees are on HB (see ghost bees coming back), but I don’t think they bring in a lot. I’m looking at some hives weight every 2-3 days and not much increase.

One of my biggest colonies, Q and eggs not seen for ~3 weeks now, but I was puzzled as they didn’t sound/act Q-… Gave them a test frame on Sun. Today no QC’s drawn + VQ seen on one of the frames. looked not mated yet. A bit late but drones are still around and the weather looks good for the next...

OP says it’s in -20c…

There are bags you can place wax/honey in and spin in the extractor. Not sure which extractor you use, but those bags aren’t expensive.

Jarring and labelling. Not my favourite activity I must say…

Same here. Sun came out and lots of activity at the entrance. Many colonies are out for orientation flight.

My warming cabinet is actually a fridge. fitted a heating bulb and a fan inside, but could also be used as a normal fridge. I’ll do a quick test to see if it can maintain 14c.

A bit warm now for soft set. I plan to do a couple of soft set batches around Oct-Nov time.

None issue here.

I think some are too fixated with bee type and local/non local. some Q’s are rubbish (due to many reasons), some are average and some are exceptional. I’ve seen this here across different types and origin.

This is a similar one for poly hives: https://paynesbeefarm.co.uk/products/poly-crownboard-with-porter-escapes I converted many of those to polycarbonate:

Agreed new prices with my local farm shop and received first order (120 jars).

Are we all not saying the same thing?

Don’t you help out a ’weaker’ colony when doing a split? agree with the points above. Knowing to recognise disease and understanding why the colony is weak is key.

How opening up a hive every 2-3 days, looking and taking down all Q cells (surely you need to knock off the bees for that), not considered interfering and by that setting them back?

My GP prescribe Epipen for me as I explained I’m a beekeeper and would like to have one just in case. every time it has a different expiry date. I simply request another before the one I have expires. no cost in Scotland.

When they settle in a tree there’s no mesh floor either.