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Slightly of subject here but the best queen excluder I have discovered are the heavy duty zinc galvanised ones that Nat Bee S?????? sell. They are rigid and are without frame and brilliant when using a top space perhaps not so great for bottom space.

Yes I am aware of the proximity and the likely travel distance but I was merely instancing how near the disease was and I have known swarms travel a lot more than a mile and a half to find a new home personally following them through one village to another. Swarming bees in my experience can...

I have not collected swarms with any diseases that I know of but have had a couple of narrow squeaks collecting swarms from areas which are reasonably close to areas later declared to have EFB ie within a 10 mile radius and I personnally know of at least 1 instance where a swarm collected in one...

Technically with bottom bees space you have top bee space too, hence the rim on your crown board. Redwood this wrong I am afraid beespace equates to 7-9mm of space and with bottom space you do not have this headroom

I will start by saying I use top space both on my commercials and nationals. Besides the fact that I find it easier to do practical beekeeping with top space I find I tend to damage and crush less bees with Top space, however there are a few extra benifits to be considered especially if you make...

I have found it benificial if you are able to do so to give the swarm a frame of brood and you will find them very reluctant to leave this. Probably only acheiveable in your own or a large apairy.

non swarm collectors As swarm co-ordinator of my association I often find it impossible to locate a body that is on the swarm list to collect swarms. One Sunday I spent 45 minutes trying to locate someone before giving up and collecting it myself from a considerable distance away. I have also...

An alternative approach may have been to carefully cut out one of the QCs from the donor hive and attached it to an existing frame in the apparently Q- hive. ie not putting all your eggs in one basket. I think in your case this is the approach I would have followed. Though I would still have...

Where abouts in Buckinghamshire are you,are you a member of a local society is any one near you having the same thing happen. You could approach your regeonal or seasonal bee inspector for their opinion. I suspect you are either in North or mid Bucks areas

You have to bare in mind the characteristics of any subsequent queens are 50% governed by the drones sperm with which she ferilises an egg with and she may have mated with in excess of 17 drones. So an f1s or an f2s from the same queen can vary vastly in behaviour

move each of them closer to each other for a day, then unite. But please be sure that Q- colony is truly queenless.

A man with money to burn 5 hives and 2 extractors. probably has 2 wax melters as well:sorry:

yes I would agree with above if they need more space they can put supplies in lower box and have no access to the eke this way

Thanks for your unsolicited advice but I have been keeping bees long enough to work out when I can "tinker" with my bees and when to leave them alone. Your advice may well apply to an a more amatuere beekeeper

I was told by a bee inspector years ago that the Isle of Man was the only place in the UK that still suffered from Breulla its probably been eradicated from there by now.

They seem to accept it with no problems what so ever but I did do a floor change at the same time. This floor change was a scheduled task and not done for any reason other than spring hygene I will be doing the other 7 hives that remain with clean floors when I get another warm day, these will...

I am testing this device in 4 of my hives having seen a presentation from the designer and some anecdotal test results from other beekeepers including some bee inspectors that that this device seems to aid the bees in dislodging the mites from both their backs and there underbellies. Anybody...

Checked 6 of the 13 colonies. Swapped out all the floors on these and flamed the old ones. All colonies had numerous frames of food left from over wintering. I had treated all hives with vaporised oxalyic acid 4 weeks ago and checked them for mite drop three days after all hives had little or no...

rule of thumb but this year has not been the case, bees will usually swarm on the queen cell being sealed ie the eighth day after being laid so examining your bees every 7th or 6th day is a better bet. That being said I have had bees swarm on an egg being laid in a QC this year and one case of...

Basically what has happened is that the bees have swarmed on the old queen but have lost her on the move to a tempory clustering point and have therefore returned to the hive. If you had looked on the ground between the hive and the clustering point it is highly likely you would have found a...