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Best use a face mask, however it's cut. While i would agree if making dust, but such blanket comments clearly ignore cutting with a knife, which makes no dust at all. 25mm can easily be cut in one dtroke with a rigid blade; 50mm is best with a couple of strokes, or more, to avoid the knife tip...

First question is “do they need it?” If they don’t, the OP’s question is irrelevant. They may need fondant if short of stores after about the middle of February, but not now if they are well stocked.

Turning black may mean it is damp. Any holes from the bees to above the crownboard? Many leave feed holes open, which is, frankly, a stupid idea. Is the hive roof leaking? Is the roof space ventilated, so that any moisture, which could accumulate in that space, can be cleared away? As Swarm...

As usual, not an excess of joined-up thinking from those who think moving is a problem. The beekeeper should be easily able to carry out this operation without disturbing the bees or risking losing bees. Bees don’t tightly cluster when the hive temperature is above about 7 Celsius. Bees drop...

First question is whether this colony should be in a nuc for over-wintering. IF it happened to be a cast (unlikely) they might well not have emerging brood until the end of October. Little surprise they may have been feisty. What they need is a properly sized box, or be dummied down, with...

is this just a male winter thingy!? Is that not a sexist comment? My lady wife (I suppose there are some with ‘male wives”) would not be able to grow a beard for the winter!

To add that they won’t take sugar syrup when the temperature drops, so a waste of time and effort. The bees are likely to consume between one and two kilograms of stores in a month, so what is the problem?

Antifreeze used in these systems should not be automotive types. Ethylene glycol type is extreeemly poisonous and alcohol types contain methanol, which is also fairly deadly, so neither should be allowed anywhere near where a leak could develop. Propylene glycol is ‘food-safe’ and should be...

I’ve not bought any new hives for years - and don’t intend to. Top or bottom bee space and flat surfaces between boxes was more important to me. Boxes can be pulled together to maintain a good seal, if necessary, but bee space had to be top for me. Having crown boards with lips on either side...

Yes, Dani, a spammer. I somehow doubt (s)he will be back - unless to try to stir up the issue or plant a new one. That was my honest (as usual) opinion of that poster. I’m here to be proved wrong, of course, but first impressions do count (and that is all we have to go on :)).

If you are buying multiples (or bent on making your own like Hachi?:)) one could always buy extra and fit an intermediate support in the centre of the long run? Likely, at that price, the extra supports would be timber? If you are fair at metalwork, it should not be difficult to make a jig and...

‘Carcinogenic potential” What is nice term to use. Potential is one thing, reality is another. Where does this new member come from? Has this new member simply joined to air a particular agenda? Is this NIS a 100% recognised authority in all such matters? Have they checked the content in...

Two reasons why the bees are no longer interested in a liqid feed. 1) The available space is full, or 2) It is now too cold for them to continue. If they have more than sufficient stores and take fondant (because it is handy) your feeding will have been a waste of time - your autumn feed will...

on the basis that heat rises and will be contained where the bees are most likely to be . Only for convection. Conduction and radiation occur in all directions. Conduction is limited to movement from higher temperature regions to lower temperature but can occur in any direction. Radiation...

Just for once your post is spot-on correct.:)

the still air in the flutes gives a slight increase in insulative properties Really? Never heard of convection? Why do you think insulation foam has multitudes of tiny cells within the matrix? It will provide a little increase, but the air will not be still if one side is warmer than the other...

A leccy diverter to use surplus generation to heat the hot water cylinder would be a good addition. ‘Four’ panels is not a particularly useful description. They could be 150W each or maybe 300W - or more. I have a mix of 175, 250 and 300W panels. One might wonder if permission to export to...

The problem at this time of the year is if that top box is empty or nearly empty, for some reason. Even empty fully drawn frames in that top box may be a nuisance for the bees. This clearly should have been addressed much earlier. I have re-organised bee colonies in December, before now, with...

25mm may be ‘enough’ but 50mm will be better. How do we know? Simple Physics would provide you with the answer. Double the thickness will halve the heat transmission. For the OP, I made slightly deeper roofs than the standard Thorne offering. Each had 25mm of recticel under a 6mm sheet of...

JBM is correct - would you like your food stored openly where all sorts of rubbish would fall over it? I don’t suppose the bees are any different as they never place their stores under the nest (protection from robbers is another obvious reason, of course). Would you consider feeding syrup...