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Surely a Bailey change is OK if you pay for it using syrup. Give 'em the fuel they need to make wax and it's a fair exchange. I'm going to Bailey my strongest colony next spring. It's currently on black frames and brood-and-a-half, which is a pain to inspect. It's going onto 14x12, which will...

Just a quick note on insulation materials: your local building skip is often a good source of free stuff....

To the OP: check out Eric Darrouzet's YouTube channel. There's tons of good info on there about Vespa velutina and their behaviour etc. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2Tf0seuUfK-Dm0TkmDFDQ

As a journalist, I'd say it's about judging your audience as to whether to use an acronym or abbreviation. As has been mentioned, BBC, TV, SCUBA, LASER, and RADAR are all so common and widely understood that the last three (which are acronyms: abbreviations that can be pronounced) are rarely...

It may be interesting. Like all reality TV, I'm also sensing it's likely to be infuriating...

Checked the three hives for stores. Not a single frame full of capped honey. Poor show girls!

Would they abandon a hive full of stores?

One could also argue that it's evidence of the success of the honey bee at the expense of other bees, ie, they hoover up almost everything. However, I'd grant that the short tongues of Apis mellifera make some sources of nectar inaccessible, while longer-tongued pollinators can reach them...

About every 10 days, checking they have enough space for stores, not a full inspection.

The study the article refers to is here: State of the World's Plants and Fungi | Kew. It has a good degree of credibility, it would seem. Anecdotally, I'd add that for a while I looked after five hives that a company dropped in the middle of Sussex farmland. They struggled to gather enough...

I'm clearly on a different planet. In this area, most beeks are struggling to find capped frames. I just put a second super on one (of three) colony because the first was filling with uncapped nectar, but I'd had a 20Kg harvest by end of May last year...

Another happy, Old Castle Farm suit user here. Over the last two years I've had it, it keeps the stings away, is well-ventilated, and washes well. As for gloves, nitriles over marigolds works for me and is a good combination of protection and hygiene. If they get really arsey, I'll put a pair of...

Not seen a Rauchboy before. Do you light the combustibles then drop it into the main part of the smoker?

Well, whatever it's called, I've done it now. I'll go back in a week and remove any QCs from the top BB and that will be all they can make from that batch of brood.

Yes, a Demaree is a form of vertical split, is it not?

Performed my first Demaree today. Swarm cells were evident, found the queen, pocketed her. Moved the BB to one side, swapped it for a new one with foundation and one or two drawn frames. Took a frame of half-full brood from the old BB, put it and the Q in the middle. QX on top, super on top of...

What made me think they had swarmed was the total lack of brood in the BB. Any brood was in the super, sealed and over 10 days old.

No she wasn't - but she was about 2.5 years old and my best queen - calm productive bees - but probably due for supersedure.

The cell is still uncapped but has royal jelly in it. Now they have a frame of young brood, they have options.

No, not sure but the balance of probability given the previous circumstances and the Q cell hanging off the bottom of a super frame suggests a swarm is more likely. I think!