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One colony is (I hope) waiting for a queen to get going, but brood box getting overladen with stores so swapped a couple out for foundation

As can the mesh bags that fruit comes in

Many thanks. That being the case and seeing as how I seemingly cant find a queen when shes wearing a tiara and a pink spandex top with the letters Q.U.E.E.N.I.E., let alone a small runt, and bearing in mind space is limited (sheep roam the field), my plan will be: 1. Move the broodbox to one...

Would be grateful for some opinions. Got a swarm last year, fairly small but just big enough to winter in a hive . Queen was laying, but not a lot. They survived winter and this spring she seemed to up her game and laying pretty well, however the colony a few weeks ago was still quite small...

Buoyed up by some of the comments here I did what I should have probably done in the first place, just tried straightening out by hand - and lo and behold as several has suggested it pinged straight out making me feel a proper charlie! Thanks again to all who bothered to reply

Yes, the cold weather can't have helped

Thanks for all the replies. My feeling is that it is not that thin, but I am nervous of creating an unnecessary crack or damaging the connection with the tap. Will be doing another extract in three weeks so may wait and see how it performs then (don't think it will interfere with the spinning)

Haha! Will see if I can find a suitable implement

I managed to dent my stainless steel extractor - see pic. It is still usable, but I would like to repair it if possible. Bearing in mind my general uselessness at DIY, do you think a car body shop the best option to repair or would anyone armed with a hammer be able to knock it (roughly) back...

Just to confirm, I left mine six weeks and maybe 50% has crystallised - so I'd aim for 5 weeks or less.

Started harvest, looks quite a reasonable quantity. Would have been huge but a lot of crystallisation - I will have to review my dictum of max six weeks in the comb for OSR, presuming the cold weather didn't help.

Interesting day. Started off by chasing a swarm across a couple of fields before they settled up high in a tree trunk. Its a bolshy colony so I'm not losing any sleep over their loss. Planning to do my harvest tomorrow, so this afternoon was earmarked for laying of clearer boards. Of course...

Poll closing in a week

That is a brilliant shop

No, not looked in the fields at all. Assumption comes from the fact that we are surrounded by mono crops here, and while some nectar does come from other sources, the large volume of what I have always assumed to come from beans coincides with local fields planted with the things.

I always seem to get quite a lot off the beans (or so I've always assumed), apart from OSR its the only significant monocrop for the bees around here

That particular colony was probably out of contract with the BBC and was killed off accordingly - more money pinching ideas from the beancounters I say!

Good idea re the sweatband. I prefer the hoop style hat to keep veil away from face, find wearing a baseball cap less comfortable

BBwear for me to, but you wont go wrong with Sherriff either. A good suit is absolutely essential, especially when you need to feel confident with 100s of angry little buzzers pinging you.

Took advantage of yesterdays sun for an inspection - brood boxes pretty full with both brood and stores, and supers added to handle the incoming OSR.