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My flat sheets came off the paddle a little greasy, but it didn't stop the bees working the wax strips I cut. To my mind, better a residue of something as natural and benign as olive oil, rather than detergent, though I guess that can be rinsed with cold water (unlike the oil) - assuming it...

Hi all - I'm going to have a bash at making some of my own foundation with a Leaf Press. It'll be a learning experience, and I'm not too precious about the quality of the outcome, as most, if not all, will be cut into strips to use as starters for foundationless frames. Thus far I have been...

Likewise. I run mainly 14*12, so generally never have brood in the supers, but all my previous attacks have been in supers which (for whatever reason) have hosted brood. Late last year, though, they seem to have infested everywhere. A bad do. I've even seen frass, trails and bald brood this...

The frames were salvagable, believe it or not. The bees have since patched up most, if not all mess. In terms of wax damage, I have experienced worse. Maybe that is as a consequence of storing them wet ?? Previous hive-part damage I have had has been in wooden boxes, though, where, in the main...

Thought I'd share this as a salutary tale. Normally I fumigate boxes with acetic in autumn to combat wax moth (pre-storage). On occasion, I have frozen frames, and have also winged it. In all cases, I put sheets of newspaper between stacked boxes. Happy to give all tactics a try. Last year, at...

Hi there, I do have some experience, given that a mentee, to whom I sold a national nuc, quickly transitioned (against my advice) to a Flow hive. Quick answers: 1. No. If transitioning between formats, you will need to bleed the bees from the source format (e.g. national) into the destination...

... Also can't wait to get back to Portugal in early July to see if this repurposed pallet has had similar success at snaring some Apis Mellifera Iberiensis 🤞

yessiree... We have liftoff here. Some serious scouting Thursday p.m. was a precursor to this, mid-morning yesterday

... It's enough to ruin a happy marriage. Etc... For the second year running, I have two Queens coexisting in a hive, and am coming to learn that this is not uncommon. Last year, they lived together all season, with the old Queen prevailing. This, I expect will turn out somewhat differently...

Appreciate the idea. I had considered stretching the J cloth over the top of the receiving vessel (an old loaf tin), but was not sure how I would secure it, so that's a good tip, thanks 👍 In the event, I used some old tights *, which are stretched over the tin. As you can see, I'm using the...

Not the finest piece of carpentry ever wrought by man, but I am chuffed to today have put the finishing touches on my homemade solar wax melter. Picked up a hunk of Douglas fir and some sweet chestnut staves from the offcut shed of the local sawmill a year ago (for £9 if I recall) and have been...

Hi all, I have previously painted a couple of my poly nucs with masonry paint, but did not use a primer. Equally, the pre-painted poly hives I have from Abelo don't seem to have been primed. In both cases, a couple of years down the line, there has been some limited degradation of the paint...

Yes - only so I have a baseline (i.e. so I know that all the cups I encounter on the next inspection are new, and a current reflection of the colony mood/behaviour) - not for any other clever reason.

If Lee can't locate a Queen, and there are a number of sealed cells, I'm not sure about the merits of splitting at this stage. There is talk of "BIAS" over 8 frames, but did that include eggs ?? If so, I'd possibly be looking at removing all QCs, executing a vertical split in a manner not...

I would do it. A couple of years ago, an old-boy (ex beekeeper) called on me to help sort out a mess in his garden and woodland clearing. His kit (unmanaged and shambolically strewn) was occupied by a couple of thriving "free-living" colonies. One (dilapidated stack) was bang in the middle of...

NOW SOLD - THANKS 👍 14x12 (Jumbo) BS National High-density Polystyrene Beehive (+ 2 supers complete with clean, drawn comb), containing a healthy honeybee colony, headed by a 2023 Queen. Collection only from Loughborough area. Due to downsizing, we have the above for sale - priced at £350...

Appreciate the thinking here fian - left field as it is (vs. the consensus in relation to varroa). My wife, who is a fetal medicine midwife, and whose bread and butter is congenital abnormalities is certainly interested in this stuff. Genetics are not my strong point, but I understand what...

Lol. What I saw as a mite is clearly a drop of nectar, on second inspection. It did look reddish brown, and mite-like, but now that I can see it for what it is, I can't unsee the globule, nor get past the realisation that either my eyes or my brain are starting to fail me 😟

Yep I see that too. The wife laid the first frame she pulled across the top bars, and it was full of recently stored nectar, an amount of which dribbled out onto the frames beneath. I've been zooming in looking for the white varroa poo which Drex has seen. Also, on the photo with the pulled...

That's excellent advice - thanks Eric. Good resources, too. Thanks. I had considered the possibility of varroa being the root cause, but I generally haven't equated varroa in cells with pupal death in this way. Every day a school day.