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Hello all - just planning ahead for splitting a double brood for increase. My initial plan is to use a QE between BBs, leave for a week then split them. I was intending to leave the queen in the original location but have read that it doesn’t really matter? What do you think?

Checked 3 colonies this evening. Weather for the weekend and next week looks very bad....possible snow so thought I better get into them. 2 colonies I made double brood 10 days ago. Both queens laying well. Managed to Mark one that had eluded me for a while. Quite a few drones. One colony very...

Hello all, I am going to try two of my colonies on double brood this season (first time I have tried it) so I can split them for increase. I am intending to use a QE between the two BB when ready as I have read it is best to keep the Q in the bottom box. Once the top box is removed and moved...

Thanks. There were two small patches of brood mostly sealed so thought it should be ok.

I had a similarish experience today. Went to check on a hive which was brood and a half. I was keen to remove the super as I have found brood and a half a bit troublesome. Super and brood box absolutely full of bees. I pulled out one frame in the super and spotted some brood and the queen. Caged...

Hoping a flow has now started with the warm spell! A lot more activity from all the colonies!

Not much in the way of stores here (Lothians) I chose to feed two colonies that were struggling and had next to nothing.

Lots here in the Lothians - found a nest in a wall this afternoon.

It certainly has been an odd season. Lots of swarming! Out of 6 colonies only one didn’t try and swarm. I have had 2 colonies which produced new queens which were mated and started lying then disappeared. I have had to buy in new queens to replace them. Another colony hatched a new queen about 3...

Update - Purchased Buckfast queen introduced a week ago has now settled in and is happily laying. Will not be marking queens in the future until I know they have successfully mated. Lots of new lessons learnt this season!

Update. The queen I marked has now vanished. No eggs brood or anything in the BB or in the supers I put a clearer board on the supers and the bees are not leaving so I am now sure that this was a swarm and I have an unmated queen in the supers. I have purchased a new mated queen as I am...

Some interest this afternoon

Will do! been a challenging bee year so far!

Perfect cheers

I was wanting to see how they behaved and was keeping an eye out for a queen...figured it would be easier to see her on the crown board rather than on top of frames.

Yes the feed holes are open

Apologies. I scooped all the bees from the front of the hive onto the crown board which is on top of 2 supers and a QE. So if this was a swarm with another queen I may have put the swarm queen into the supers.

i am starting to have second thoughts about whether this was a swarm and I have gone and dumped it into another colony! When I took the roof off and scooped that bees onto the crown board they went back in but were doing a lot of fanning. I peeked under the roof again recently and the crown...

Yes def larvae and I think I can see eggs