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Dishwasher, no detergent, then into oven at 45 degrees until dry. The jars are then filled when still a little warm and it helps dispersal of any tiny bubbles that haven't floated up in the ripening tank. I sterilises all honey buckets and jar lids in a solution of Milton and then rinse with...

I've used Bee Quick and also at other times a leaf blower. Bee quick worked fine on a warm day and the bees just hung outside the hive but were not aggressive. The leaf blower also works a treat and is my preferred option now as it is very fast. Any time I have used it they have not been...

I think two is the ideal starting point, gives you a bit of insurance as overwintering both doubles your chances of having bees to work with in the following spring! You can get a frame of eggs from one if the other goes mysteriously queenless and they don't have any eggs to work with, or you...

I agree with a previous poster, don't put them directly under the trees. Bees don't like Chinese water torture ;)

If they are it's not any of the hives in the apiary as they are going straight out from the apiary to somewhere further afield.

All my hives are now finished with OSR about two weeks ago. Not much happening with three of them but my strongest and most productive hive has a flow on that resembles their manic to and froing when they were on OSR. I have no idea what they are working but puzzled as to why the three...

And never ever open a hive when your smoker has gone out, because it's a certainty that is the one hive that will have thousands of little lively darlings boiling out of the frames!

Nah… Trigger was a famous horse :rofl:

Thanks for the replies. Have some spare supers so will maybe try a box of foundationless on one hive when I take off the existing heavy supers this week.

You must send a letter of complaint to his employer. Ranting is understandable but take action and complain, that way something may be done to prevent a similar occurrence again.

Couple of questions before I have ago at foundationless… I read in the thread that it's good to try out the techniques on supers. How many "wires" are people using in the SN1 super frames. I am thinking two horizontal just to be safe when extracting? If using foundationless in 14x12 frames...

It also seems that you are forever making up frames bee-smillie

Nice to see the NHS actually trialling a natural treatment that has been used to help wound healing for centuries. Interesting article… http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2686636/

Last year I had a similar problem with a Queen cage. Bought in a mated Q from a local supplier. Snapped plastic flap off on cage and put it into the hive. 7 days later had a look and Q still in cage! The fondant was so hard the bees couldn't eat through it! Once I released her all was well.

Is that the air quality or the attitude of the staff :)

The major difference for me is the quality of the poly, Sw@enty is much tougher. Whooshing, the outside dimension of the P@ynes is too large (500mm x 500mm) to fit a standard roof and I don't think it's possible to fit their BB to a wooden floor either but have not tried it. They are better...

I have both P@ynes and the new Sw1nty 14x12. P@ - Poly is much softer than SW, roofs are very tight and tend to get stuck. BB locks into floor with 4 lugs on the corners, secure, but difficult to separate single handed if you want to change them. Big landing board - great for OSR bees :) but...

Put a brand new shiny white plastic QE on one hive and two weeks later had two nicely laid up supers full of brood :( Back to metal QE now.

Re-queening a chalkbrood hive is the best way to deal with it, provided the Queen is from a strain not known for have chalk brood.

I agree, they are the best poly I have seen in 14x12 so far but I do still think they should adhere to the British National dimensions internally ;)