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The Queens in my nucs went off lay last week. The bramble flow has started and laying has returned.

In the Republic of Ireland there are regulations pertaining to Ragworth. The Department of Agriculture enforces the regulations but they seem to have a light touch and/or don't get notified too often.

Yes of course.

Brambles and Clover are in flower and the temperatures are in the high teens but nothing coming into the hives. Most hives have eaten through their stores. Swapped in some leftover frames of stores I took out in early spring to some of the hives. 3 capped Queencells in one hive. All at the edge...

Brambles and white clover are flowering here. Too cold for the latter but weather is looking good enough for the former.

In Waterford for the Bank Holiday, and spotted some bees on the brambles. I was here this time last year and first brambles were just flowering, the following week they starting in my home apiary. Of course the rain came then last year. Seem a little earlier this year, hopefully the weather will...

Harvested spring honey this weekend. Two hives should have virgins only just emerged. The rest are doing well, pretty big with the brood still expanding. Just waiting for the bramble to bloom and hoping for good weather.

A large number of Queen cells is usually swarming not supersedure. Even if it seems like supersedure in a strong colony at this time of year I would treat it is as swarming. Though you mentioned there is only a couple of frames of capped brood. Uniting a strong nuc with a colony trying to swarm...

Placed clearer boards on the hives today. Windy, and no nectar coming in, so all a bit foul tempered. Spring crop is going to be small this year but at least I will get something

Eastern end of the county the White (and red) clover are starting to bloom. Brambles are bud there too. My apiary is further west, with no clover in sight yet

Been in a Dearth for about a week. Very few buds on a small amount of sheltered brambles. I suspect another week of this not quite June Gap to go in West Cork.

It doesn't look bad from the photos. As others have advised put the queen in the brood box with an excluder between her and the feeder. If you can't find her shake, smoke, or brush as much bees as you can off the comb and hope she moves down with the rest.

I agree make up a nuc with the queen cell, or the new Queen (though I would put her in the hive and use the cell for the nuc so your hive continue to expand and have a better chance of a good crop) I make up a 6 frame around this time of year with a frame of stores, a frame of brood(emerging...

I am not sure I understand your question. It seems to me you are asking if alternating foundation frames with drawn frames will get the bees to draw them faster then just putting one full box of drawn and one full box of foundation? Maybe I took you up wrong. In any case they tend not to draw...

Swarming season seems to be kicking off down here. Demareed most of my last week. My weakest one was across 6 frames of brood, had very little nectar in one super and not touched the other so I said I would leave them a while. Today they had a super full nearly capped, the second super weighed...

It only makes a negative impact if you are compacting the soil by driving on it when it is wet. No need to stay away for two weeks. If they are reasonable person, explaining you won't be driving in the field when it is wet, or saturated unless absolutely necessary should be enough. If they are...

Laying workers. Shake out the colony.

None at mine. No reports of swarms in my local vicinity and even in the county I have only heard of 3 swarms. All my hives were pleasant today, no swarm cells found Calm before the storm I think

Past the point of saving MasMassive. Shake out the bees and put the frames somewhere safe until you need them.

14-17C forecast for the week here.