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I run 3 long hives in wood which are designed to take 22 off 14x12 frames with 1 entrances on either long side. ( it takes a standard entrance reducer ). It has a fully removable and sealed centre divider, plus it has a gabled roof that I slid off towards either side which then rests on the...

Nige, well done! I wish I’d have been quick enough to come back with that remark. It makes you realise how silly some people’s comments are and more to the point, how they believe their so called proven beliefs are actually right when they are no more sound than anyone else’s.

:iagree:

I fully agree with hivemaker. Why put brood frames with brood in the spinner ?

I use the bamboo cooking skewer sticks vertically on all my frames having followed the website of the http://theapiarist.org/ as well. It’s great. They are available in different lengths so I even use the longer ones on my 14x12 frames. They are cheap as chips as well. Whilst not bee hive...

I currently run both national and 14x12 nationals and I find the 14x12 much easier all round. I only have standard nationals still because that’s what I started with many years ago but I’ve been buying ekes from the bee suppliers recently to change my nation brood boxes to 14x12 as and when I...

Provoking thinking is great and works wonders when your in front of a group showing something or illustrating what your doing in real time but on a forum when there’s new visual prompts to help clarify the short point it’s not so good. Credentials, well on this beginners point and my ‘what to...

That’s not the kind of quick, incomplete and put down comment I’d expect or want to see in the beginners section if I’m honest, especially the off the cuff ‘Think about it’ comment. You obviously knew it was a beginner asking the question and the hive is clearly a poly one and thus has...

What do you mean by reversible solid sloping floors Hivemaker? I’ve often wondered if solid wooden floors would be cleaned by the bees, because your right about leaving the slides in on an OMF as they do need human intervention even when the slides are tight up against the mesh. I’ll be...

We leave some of our windows cracked open all winter as well, but it’s a very Old house and has plenty of natural leaks - albeit it has lots of roof insulation ( 3 times the government recommend amount ) We also have only wood / coal central heating which draws a lot of air out and through the...

I use to run OMF’s for the last 8 year on my national hives and due to being located on a very windy side of a hill and being 18” off the ground I really suffered with weather conditions hindering my hives as I never could get the bees to progress as others do down on the lowlands, my hives...

There are many feral hives sites that have been in trees and old building here in Gwynedd, specifically down towards Porthmadog and Pwllheli, for many years. Over the years I know of 1 or 2 that have died off ( and the hive site gets replenished during swarm season ) but I have a diary of 18...

Checked all my local Welsh bee hives and nucs on Sunday as they were all flying and they were all lighter than they have been before at this time of year - even though they had plenty of stores in October. As there was plenty of activity and it was 9.5 deg I cracked open 3 of my biggest hives...

I got my 14x12 long national hives from heather bell bees in Truro and I really like them as working them with a bad back is great. I can use them as either as a single 22 framed hives or put the centre board in and have 2 x 11 frame hives with entrances on either side of the hives. It has a...

The BS honey nucs are brilliant, they are priced well and top quality so if they are looking to produce full poly hives I’ll be waiting to check thier prices and look to buy from them I think.

That’s a good point. I’d not thought of about the queen not being infested for one reason or another ( unless she is?). It makes you think if the mite is clever enough to have worked out that if they affect queen, then indirectly it will affect its self by killing of the only thing it really...

We know that Varroa prefers drone brood to worker brood but how do they know the difference? Do they simply enter the cell at a certain stage in brood development and thus recognise something different in the brood lava between Drone and Worker or is it the cell size they recognise?

Very little stores in my hives that I checked on Friday and I also noticed that the queen laying is also down compared to the huge brood patterns I had 4 weeks ago in all my hives, due to the lack of incoming nectar I assume. I've added both liquid and fondant ambrosia to my hives and they are...

I've not had much luck with MAQ strips so far I'm afraid. I lost 2 established queens from 3 home hives and last year I lost first year locally breed queens from 4 of my 8 home hives using 1 strip of MAQs, all in double brood with an super with frames and empty drawn comb in them, so I'm not...

:iagree: I'm in the minority with you.