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Looks ingenious - well done! However, can it prevent hornets grabbing incoming foragers on the wing, which is the Asian hornet's usual MO?

. . . And less than three days later, they'd moved the lot downstairs, so I gave them another, similar amount. Lots of orienting and pollen at the entrance, so looks like they've accepted their new location.

Took a newly bought colony (BB+super) from another beek in the Division back to the apiary. Nadired the super and whacked a load of 2:1 syrup in a full-frame feeder on top - they had precious little stores in the BB. Looking forward to seeing how they do in a few days's time - it was nearly...

Or buy some 99% acetic acid. Pour it onto a wad of kitchen towels, lay it out over the top, let the fumes deal with them. It's nasty stuff though: wear gloves at least.

Cleared the bees out of the two remainiing supers, removed capped frmaes for extraction. Put remaining frames into one super, nadired it. Did final inspection of the year (unless something goes horribly wrong), hive chocka-block full of docile bees, eight frames of brood, mostly capped but BIAS...

Pulled four supers off yesterday, stuck them on my home-made warming cabinet, extracted this morning/afternoon.

They're a bit sticky - but how often do you need to remove them? Not nearly as much as brood frames (I'm on Hoffmans there). And Manleys allow a straight uncapping cut with a bread knife across the frame. Worth the hassle from my pov - but I get that not everyone likes them.

Ah yes, thanks, been a while since I had to buy any, they get re-used over and over again. Anyway, they're nice and wide, give ten frames per super, and plenty of honey!

Manley frames are what you want (can't remember the type number: SN1??).

My concern was that disturbing a virgin queen, possibly before she's mated, might cause either her to be rejected or absconding. So waiting until she's mated might be best.

I captured a medium-sized cast (definitely a cast before you ask, as I know what happened) a week ago into a nuc with a combination of drawn comb and foundation. Left it a few days then added a full rapid feeder (about a litre or so), which has almost all gone after just three days. As it's a...

Happy with my Sentinel II from Old Castle Farm.

Checked the split colony - Q + 2 frames of bees/brood - for food. Plenty still in the feeder. Fresh eggs in the comb, all looks OK. Source colony obviously still queenless but loads of bees and honey - had to add a second super afterwards too - so I shook a couple of cups of bees into a mini...

I use Marigolds (sweaty!) with nitriles over the top. Chuck the nitriles after each inspection and I don't have to wash the Marigolds. Also a small increase in sting protection: the barb usually doesn't stick.

Yes, I do this, have done this and last winter, no problems.

I had a similar experience: one queenless colony, two queen-right. So yesterday I united the queenless colony with a queen-right colony. No drones around so the alternative was to watch them die.

Same here. Beetight is fine for a handful of hives - the max is I think six - but $15 a year is a bit steep for the Pro upgrade. All I lose by not upgrading is the ability to enter records using the app but I can do that when I get home on the computer. And yes, it's still asking for money...

Where does one get lemongrass? Seems you can only buy ridiculously tiny vials for ridiculously high prices and that's it. Or do you not need much?

Quick check on Saturday: all hives upright, no sign of toppling, thankfully they're by a hedge which breaks the wind. Fondant levels good, bees still buzzing inside (ear against the box - though I've just acquired a stethoscope for this purpose).

I bought a heated knife. Waste of money: I can uncap just as well with a serrated bread knife.