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The problem was that after feeding them there was a reallly long mild spell and the Ivy kept giving and giving and the bees kept storing and storing, hence the brood frames where bogged down with the stuff. I have of course fed the nucleus's and swarms of unknown origin this after 3 days but I...

First ask yourself why they had so much excess stores after winter. These stores were good for last winter? So should be good fo next winter, but better used in the season for nucs and feeding if there is a break in the forage available. The simplest way is to give them the frames! Can't think...

I personally have steamed out about 80 lbs of the stuff and added a 1/3 by volume of water and Thymol to stop it going off and am storing it to give back to the bees this winter when I will boil it and add more water to avoid all the nasties. If your bees didnt test positive for nosema you could...

Why would anyone want to shake the bees of comb that has fully loaded open qc'S and stand the risk of dislodging the larva in the QCells these are your potential new queens if you dislodge them from their food source you have every chance of making them non viable

workers have walked across the brood cells to a far greater amount than the super frames.In fact most of the nectar transferred to the super frames is done so by worker bees that have never left the hive whereas brood frames have usually been walked by flying bees bringing n pollen and nectar...

I too have seen wasps picking off bees as they attempt to enter the hive rather than exit. I have so far despite all precautions lost 4 colonies to these menaces this year. It is extremely awkward when you want to feed the colonies yet these b*****ds are still around.

where are you based accabee I am in chorleywood if I can help

The walls of cells are worked by the bees that is to say polished which includes the addition of propolis with which they strengthen them . The walls will also have residue of previous cacoons where these have been used before. Whereas the the cappings are virgin not polished as they are laid...

my cousin keeps bees on WBC , Smiths & national. He stardises on Smith short lug frames that don't cause problem in a WBC or national brood However he also has a template that fits between a national and a smith to allow him to do a bailey comb change with different size brood box....the...

I was just pointing out that as this beekeeper appears to have no bees at the moment that perhaps the most convenient way to start was with an easier to build hive. I actually said that many consider it ill designed, I did not express my opinion about the hive, though I have seen it in use and...

Why anyone would want to make a complicated hive such as this which many feel is not a well designed hive anyway. If you want to make a hive why not go for the least complicated and probably most efficient hive a commercial hive.

Andy the cheapest and most efficient bottom bearing is a nylon block drilled out with a drill and a single large ballbearing in the bottom of this hole. The hole should be 1 mm wider than the shaft, ball bearing the same size as the shaft plus 1mm and you obviously do not drill entirely through...

I run 12 of these plus 3 of the older design ie hole at end. I can only say that they work admirably and that the feed area is more than adequate and probably corresponds to most other feeders. There advantage over the conventional ashworths and millers is that with the lids removed and the...

Yes they are doing this at rothamsted see the following link www.rothamsted.ac.uk/PersonDetails.php?Who=547 They are attempting to track where bees forage.

I should put a sealed crown board below and above the super once you have ensured that there is no wax moth lavae in there. I usually stack them and put tape round the box joins, this stops the ingress of ants and the like.

Yes but looking at your profile we have no idea where you live, make your contribution significant and put a location

I will hazard a guess here a full sister is the result of two bees laid by a queen that has fertilised both eggs from the sperm of the same donor drone. ie A queen on a maiden flight can get fertilised by mutliple drones. It follows therefore that a half sister is from the same queen but with...

Lets get down to basics, where do you want your queen to be laying in spring, in the brood box. Where will the bees be in winter answer usually in the warmest area and as hot air rises this means the upper most box. This presupposes that the there is stores in the upper box, if not and the...

In short there should be a bee space between the lower component and the upper component in all cases excepting the floor and the lowest frame usually the brood box where this maybe as much as three bee spaces or more. This space should also exist between frames excepting that it is doubled up...

In one extraction I took of I have had jars of honey that have turned cloudy immediately whilst others from the same batch are as clear as can be. Others locally are experiencing the same thing.