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typical Mancunian wit although Andy is correct to say it is sub-tropical ... about 20 or 30 deg c below "tropical". As a born & bred Mancunian I can tell you the joke about it always raining in Manchester is true. Get yerself down south - I am just about as south as you can get without being...

My bees have been bringing in yellow pollen too. I live about 1/2 mile from a heath where there is loads of gorse which normally flowers in early spring but is starting to flower now. Not sure if this is where they are getting it from - I'll ask next time I am out in the apiary.

I use Resintite powdered glue, Similar to Cascemite and is stronger than the wood it sticks. http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Resintite+Powdered+Wood+Glue/p36300 The only trouble is an £8.50 tub will last years & years & .......

I've seen a rat climb up a 1/2" dia metal pole ( on a bird feeder) to get to food. They can get anywhere !

Personally I don't like beesheds. My local association has a beeshed and I find when inspecting the hive I have difficulty in seeing into the cells. I have enough trouble seeing eggs in the daylight never mind inside a dark shed ! Our local bee inspector when he came to check the hives also...

They don't care -they will do whatever they want without asking ....and we will meekly roll over.

People who write : "to" when they mean "too" " there" when they mean "their" "off" when they mean "of" ( including both words together " off of" ) " I was going" or "I went" when they mean " I was saying" or "I said"

Ah ha ratchet straps - great idea. And I like the new entrance porch for the girls..... Many thanks

MM Said "some of us also put insulation under the roof, theory is the bees move up higher to the warm area" I have seen (poss on this forum) that 50mm Kingspan or equivalent is recommended. My hives only have 4"" roofs so if I add 50mm ( 2") under the roof this only leaves 2" for the roof to...

Sainsbury's sugar today was £1.02 / kg !!! How long before Tesco have a new "lower price" ?

I am not far from you DorsetB and this is the third email I have had in as many weeks. My hives got a clean bill of health about 3 weeks ago and the Inspector ( same one as you) also mentioned the high prevalence of EFB in this area. I asked where the latest EFB outbreak was but he was not...

Does the 3ft / 3 mile rule apply in winter? My thinking is the vast majority of bees will be resident in the hive for long periods apart from the occasional toilet flights and will only emerge to forage in the early spring. So could a hive be moved, say 50 yds, during the depths of winter...

I have Nationals and my friend (who has 70+ hives) uses Langstroths. I have been helping him all of this year and so have experience of both. In general I prefer the Nationals as the frames have much larger lugs than the Langstroths. This makes for handling the frames a lot easier, especially...

According to Thxxnes website the budget boxes are "Made from home grown Cedar from sustainable forests " I bought one earlier this year and it was fine apart from one of the side rails being warped - replaced by Thxxnes without question.

I have a similar problem - friend that I work with has Langstroths and I have Nationals. The board method works fine ( I have used this to unite swarms/castes ) but another easy way is to get National brood frames and fit 1.5" screws to the ends of the top bar - better to pilot drill the top...

Not bought any Nucs from Trellil but have had good service from him in the past ( hives/smoker etc).

"He also believes claims that residual creosote helps prevent varroa." Interesting, as creosote was used for many years as the most effective way of ridding a chicken hut of red mites ( similar size to Varroa). Not sure what the eggs tasted like though! Did the honey in those days taste of...

Out yesterday with a friend inspecting his hives and came across one with numerous drones in the supers. Thinking that there was a hole in the QE we removed the supers to find nothing apparently wrong with it ( a wired type rather than plastic). Could this be similar to the Th**nes problem but...

Anyone thinking of ordering a Seconds hive from Th**nes should allow plenty of time - they are working on 3-4 weeks from order to delivery. Mine arrived with bottom locking bars on the brood box doing a passable impersonation of a pair of bananas due to knots. A quick call and the replacements...

My tutor at the beekeeping course used pine cones and his honey tasted superb, better than some other local honey I have sampled.