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Battling to upload pics. Says files attached but...ah, yes.

Carried out a further inspection today and took some pics of the current state. Apologies for quality of pics as I was holding frame in one hand and camera in other. Pic 1 shows a few drone brood. You can even see a larva to the right of one capped drone cell. All told there is maybe tops 15...

OP? Is the drone brood regular or miss-shapen? If tomorrow is mild I'll carry out a further inspection and take some pics to provide a better picture. I understand we're going a bit blind here. Thanks for the comments.

I appreciate the comments PH. I know you experienced beeks have been here before and know when to cut loose. It was my first swarm, nice black bees and somehow feel I need to explore all possible avenues before throwing in the towel.

remaining bees are probably getting long in the tooth and are about to expire RT- Aren't they ALL getting long in the tooth assuming she would normally stop laying in December? Why not buy in a mated queen and transfer the 3 frames of bees into a nuc? £40 vs £160 for a new nuc of 5 frames of...

One of my two hives has been very inactive and bringing in very little pollen. When I applied OA at end Dec they were on 7 frames. As it is warm here today I whipped off the crownboard to investigate. They're now down to 2-3 frames and on inspection found no worker brood at all and a mere...

I see it as two separate stages. I have two hives overwintered with super below. From a recent visual inspection through the OMF I see one hive has eaten all the stores in the super and vacated it i.e. they have moved further up and into the brood box. My intention is that on the first warm day...

Duplicated post above.

Yeah and a Garlic shrug smilie for those of us living here in France. :laughing-smiley-014

In response to your query RAB - I would like to continue using these bait hives every year. I'm happy to buy 10ml each year at £4 a bottle, if that does 3 hives, unless of course someone has a source where I can buy a larger bottle at a better price.

How much to use per hive If using Lemon Grass as a lure how much do you use in each hive. I'm making 3no. bait hives. A popular size for this lemon grass oil seems to be 10ml. Is that enough to bait these 3no. hives?

Ours roam the garden and never had an incident. If anything they're a benefit as they eat any dead bees, larva discarded by the hives reducing risk of disease.

Timing of apple blossom and OSR I have the opportunity to move my hives to an area adjoining Winter sown OSR and an apple orchard. Are these two crops likely to flower around the same time or would one lead the other. Just thinking about how long to leave them in this temporary location.

Do you need travel screen with OMF? RAB mentions mesh for use as travel screens. I'll be moving my bees 5 miles, around April/May. Would I still need a travel screen when they're on OMF?

They didn't I guess. They would have died in much the same manner. If you refering to the colony - don't think anyone is doing it for survival of their colony. Just trying to avoid unnecessary loss of life.

Ely - Stupidly, I cleared the entrances of snow this morning thinking it was the right thing. Fortunately read this thread this morning and returned to the hives to heap some snow on the landing boards. As I arrived I saw a perfectly healthy bee returning, it bounced off the hive and landed in...

Thanks all. Saved me a bit of work. This time I think I'll use the cling film method over the hole but allow for an extension of fondant from the block down to the top of the frame to ensure they make contact.

No - only was considering cutting off two slices and working those smaller pieces with some additional water, not the entire slab. :)

My existing fondant on both hives is running low and will need replacing this weekend. I would choose a better time to do it, if I could, rather than in sub-zero temps but time doesn't permit. I've got a 12.5 kg slab of bakers fondant which I am yet to open. Would it be ok if I added a little...

Sounds like we should be using this for OSR then.