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Last of the honey supers off today and back home for extracting. First round of Api-life Var on all hives, and feeders out ready to go Took my clearer boards to an old local beeks hives who was struggling with porter escapes Ivy flow has started now:party:

An ideal winter job really, and the same as anything if you make more than one the price per unit reduces to a worthwhile level They work well and with >10 hives I refuse to pay £45 each when I can make them for less than £10 including mesh

It's on my Christmas list now :thanks:

I had a similar one in a large hawthorn bush a month ago that had capped brood, so a prime that had been there over a week From a genetics point of view, is the fact that they've made their permanent home in a daft place an indication that they're 'not the sharpest knife in the box' ? Or do...

From memory, isn't it supposed to be placed downwind of the apiary ? Theory being that scent trails carried on prevailing wind are intercepted by wasps that follow up the scent trail finding the trap first ?

How soon after becoming queenless is it best to combine with a queenright colony ? Evening of the same day once flyers returned ? Next morning ? Wait until emergency Qc's are capped then knock down ?

Bees in full flow now so we made up our last eight supers and got them on - no point in them sitting in the shed All hives with 2 supers half to 3 parts filled now, and added a third super to the eight neediest By my reckoning, so far in July they have already put away as much as we took off as...

Cheers all for your replies Looks like lots of you use the small cannisters, roughly how much burn time do you get from one cannister ? If Ive got 40+ supers and at least a dozen brood boxes, plus untold crownboards/floors/qx to do, are cannisters still economical compared to a calorgas bottle ?

I've been offered a van load of kit from a retired beek, plus half a dozen smith hives of my own that will need a clean up this winter They'll need a good scorching - where's the best place to buy a blowtorch and gas bottle ? I've started looking but some of the prices are ridiculous - I'd be...

Got a call to for a swarm, nipped out of work about 2pm and found them only 8 foot up a hawthorn. Shook them into my swarm box, upturned onto a sheet propped one corner and watched them walk in Returned at 8.30pm having got a hive and foundation set up for them - gone, empty swarm box...

In a similar vein, we checked on a bailey comb change today and the last of the brood in the old box below has now all hatched and they are beginning to backfill with fresh nectar. We gave them a new floor for their 14x12 box and removed the old broodbox and frames, but about half were loaded...

Likewise

Spring crop was our best ever(well in 3 years :spy:) averaging about 20lb a hive mostly OSR They've still only half filled the super that was left on a month ago and not touched the extracted one I added under. Fingers crossed for some bramble+raspberry to get a summer crop as June has been a...

Likewise, 5 from the Rand sale last year Think there is a fella flogging pre-cut beespace frames on fleabay which would make things easier ?

SWMBO picked one up at Beetradex from Simonthebeekeeper - she reckons it does the job

No problem on fresh comb, but if old brown comb get a child to look for you ....... "yes Dad there's hundreds, how can you not see them ?" Oh to be 12 again

Got my first sting of the year Stupidly it was from a dead bee squashed on a hoffman sidebar that I didn't see whilst uncapping in the kitchen last night :eek: spanner

Cheers folks, with winters becoming virtually nonexistent here in the deep south I reckon it's more likely to be usefull than not - my bees hardly bothered clustering this winter anyway

Cheers for all the feedback folks, I treated myself to a Dadant which arrived yesterday morning and was duly played with yesterday afternoon Half as big again in volume than my cheapo, lit first time and stayed alight for 3 hours without refill - what more do you need ? Great to not have to...

Winter honeysuckle (I looked it up :spy:) Gardener friend asked if I "wanted some for the bees", it appears to be good for pollen and nectar If it flowers midwinter will the bees find it if they're clustered ? Anyone seen bees on it ?