Search results

Ha ha yes know the feeling and I only have a few hives! The tennis, cricket and helping with two under 3s all get pressurised as well.

Yep agreed - my tbh is still very much at the experimental phase. Framed hives much easier. If you want the supposed 'more natural approach' you can in conventional - foundationless, no queen excluder etc. if it's just a hobby tinker about - the bees will teach you

I wouldn't - if it's strong enough to Demaree and you do it during a good flow they should draw it out from their own resources. Key us to get the timings right when they are strong enough

Shows the diffence in farming in Brittany - they're more like 30 hectares around here before huge gets mentioned! Mine have over 100 hectares to go at in foraging range

Well said - totally agree with all of that. My OSR is about two weeks from flower and will yield for a month or so if weather is favourable.

I would suggest you need to do two additional things:keep reading up about behaviour of bees, understanding how they work will tell you more why they do what they do and how doing things with the hive will affect them; and relax a bit more because you sound like you're stressing over everything...

I put temper down to being early season when working it and frustration caused by imperfect weather. You rarely get a 25+ degree day in May. Different beasts by the main flow in July if weather is fine and warm

Leave it to the bees to decide - if it makes sense in terms of energy returns they will find it. They've been making these decisions longer than us - leave them to it! As for the OP in big arable areas there is vast quantities grown and it's a no brainer for the bees. And personally I really...

If my memory serves me right when I read about the Curry method is seemed just like a vertical artificial swarm and was relying on the bottom colony with old queen and flying bees not to swarm after the A/S bit was done to them. Seemed risky to me, depends upon the season and colony strength...

Loved them. Do we know if they still operate like that. The swarm catching - particularly the cast swarms was something else.

The green ones you don't need to see - they have a very distinctive cackle like they're laughing at you. Although, would rekax now spring is on way and they have more food to go at

Yep - but sometimes necessary if all else fails. More aimed at those bad-un colonies wanting to inflict damage

On tricky ones I remove brood box, leave supers for the flyers, take a break and return a bit later once brood box has emptied. Times easier. RAB made a good suggestion not so long back for real tricky to find or if aggressive - think it was along the lines of remove brood box, replace with...

Too true. Or just a non beek friend - on several occasions I have had friends go is that the queen way before I spotted her

A local beek to me had to go and do a swarm removal from a dog poo bin. Dedication to the swarm collectors cause that one

No just leave a top entrance. Thread last night discussed exactly that.

Brings back bad memories of when my old man set 500 tyres accidentally alight in our empty silage clamp - angle grinder sparks got in to the old railway sleepers and when he came back out after lunch there was a lot of black smoke! Could see it from ten miles and involved three fire engines...

Or on a wet day

If that's his style and thinks it's good swarm control why doesn't he leave it in all season and do away with weekly inspections. Those of us doing weekly inspections must be fools....