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What are you going to do with the ground, under and around the hive(s)?

I like my Dartingtons, even though they are not in use now. No problem with stacking shallows on top in the summer, if you don’t want to go ‘long’. Superb for over-wintering if the colony is suitably isolated towards the mid-section with no top ventilation (but with access to the entrance, of...

If there is a good sized brood nest, they will stop when the other frames are filled. They may, or may not need topping up late in the season as the brood nest shrinks. Observation of factors pertaining to feeding are always required (weather, forage, space, etc). If over-wintering on a...

I always remove one jar and immediately replace with another. That avoids drips getting on the bottom of the jars. Often the drip collector is not the next jar to be filled, just a dedicated ‘drip catcher’. I invariably fill approximately and adjust afterwards with a teaspoon ‘dipper/drizzle’.

No need to ‘try it’ to ‘see for yourself’. JBM tells it just as it is. Believe him! When using poly hives the bees will brood right up to the outer wall - yes right next to the poly wall. Believe me.

Simply put, you need more insulation above than around. Most aim for 50mm above. Sensible ones avoid top ventilation like the plague. A complete OMF is actually far more ventilation than required - but bees must have access to the dry floor to remove detritus when they are active.

One way is to stop keeping bees on that site for about 25 years. Boiling at 100 degrees Celsius is not effective at destroying AFB spores. I expect boiling the kit in strong Lye would eradicate the spores…

Why would anyone be buying nucs at this time of the year? Outlay with the fair possibility of total loss over the winter. ’Fair’ being that it is likely/mostly only inexperienced beeks who would buy bees in the autumn.

Feed until full, then stop. Can’t be much simpler than that? The clever beekeeper notes how much space needs filling and works on that figure when making feed and feeding.

The bees will find there own place for the nest without you bothering them by trying to advise them. They will pick the warmest place, when it is cold and the coolest place when hot. One winter, one of the slabs of insulation slipped on a Dartington. By spring they were on the warm side of...

Steady on! They are likely better quality bin bags.:) Hives will do OK with just top insulation. Bin bags, held on by the roof and a few drawing pins (or bungee cords?) help to prevent water ingress - and don’t provide grip for woodpeckers. All my hives have OMFs, but I have over-wintered on...

So simple, I’m surprised it needs to be posted.🙂

Anything that is suitable. Why bother with getting something ‘special’? Bees will propolise any cracks (given time) and there should be a thick sheet of insulation immediately above the crownboard at all times apart from when feeding. Simple enough?

I have made home produce wines as well as a lot of high quality kits (single varietal kits). Nearly all have been successful, but one should always expect some failures. Every expensive kit has succeeded in making a vastly superior wine, compared to supermarket priced examples. For a start...

I actually read the OP’s post (yes, the very first one, at the very top of the thread). Here it is again, which basically means your reply above is pretty well totally irelevant, not applicable and rather silly. Here it is for you to read, or read properly: “Hello all, some OSR honey I took...

How many drones do they need to get mated? The only down-side may be the strongest may not be as strong as when there id a glut of drones. Weather mostly dictates the likelihood of getting mated. I might duggest it could easily be six weeks before any bees emerge. A week to emergence, a week...

Not really any excuse for this. A quick check, after crystallisation, will reveal (quite clearly) any tendency to ferment. Another mistake is to not fully liquify a bucket of honey and jar up only the liquid.

Now you do - and that might save you from losing a swarm, if you ever knock down queen cells, after only 3 or 4 days! Think about it - it is why test frames should have both eggs and young larvae. It is why the first capped emergency cells are likely to turn out as scrubby queens..

I replaced our kitchen fluorescent with a lidl LED fluorescent tube. Lower power, more light, instant light at turn-on, no 50Hz strobing or buzzing, no waiting for full brilliance (like fluorescents), no starter to keep going duff, even light distribution (same as the old fluorescent). An all...

Buzzo, you need to understand that 14 x 12 frames are National frames. There are shallows, deeps and extra deeps. Some call the shallows super (or even supper :)). The deeps are erroneously referred to a ‘standard’ (probably because they used to the generally used frame size for brood boxes)...