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The first post in this thread: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=10494 would suggest 4-6 weeks. I've been prodding the side of a plastic bucket every morning for a week, wondering how long it would take!

and we don't use... Entrance feeders - because we once read that they encourage robbing, but having not used them I can't tell you if that's true or not. Contact feeders - because the first bees we had were a cast that needed feeding. We didn't have a feeder that would fit the nuc box they...

Now that is clever.

I am guessing that 14x12 vs BS Brood would only be relevant for a frame feeder? We use home-made frame feeders for nucs, which are a pain to check and fill up as you have to open up the hive (rather than just take the roof off). As regards our top feeders - which would fit on 14x12 or BS...

It's probably worth saying that I take a more careful approach with the jars that the honey is going into (and the bottles for the cider too for that matter). There are some thoughts on cleaning jars here: http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3647

We used our new Giordan in anger for the first time last weekend. It is an 8 frame manual (I have free 11-year old boy power on tap), and it seems to work perfectly. Like you, we also got good service from Clive.

A job for Time Team... let's hope it's Time Team rather than the Met Police Evidence Recovery Unit! :leaving:

Thanks - I have some 6mm left over from some other long since forgotten project, so maybe I can avoid some of the unpleasantness next weekend (assuming I pull my finger out and get something made up before then).

That looks great. I wish I'd had something similar last weekend - they really don't like being brushed off... What thickness of plywood did you use for the main part of the board?

Cold water jetwash for me. It works a treat and you can have fun making a water turbine too. As regards sterilisation, I have ended up taking the same approach as I do with the cider press and associated kit. I used to meticulously sterilise the whole lot and then pour apple juice into the...

Thanks all - it looks like there might be (several!) cheaper options to be had.

I could have really done with something to put a super on today to catch the drips. My dogs would prefer that I left them to drip all over the kitchen floor, but hey, it's a dog's life. Does anyone use anything like this...

Thankyou everyone for your replies - I really appreciate your thoughts. It's a lesson in patience again - I wish I was a quicker learner of that one :)

Sorry, long post ahead… The queen was 2010, marked but not clipped. The colony is on 14x12 in a WBC. There were a nuc acquired late last year, and never really got going very well (even at their best, they had only really drawn about 6 or 7 14x12 frames last year). We fed them and they had 5...

That's exactly right - thanks Hombre (and thanks Graham White!).

These plans were drawn from the SBA plans, so should give you a standard national (albeit on 14x12). However, you should definitely get a tape measure and measure your existing kit against the sketchup model, to check it before buying (and cutting!) plywood. If you don't have sketchup - it is...

Sounds like you've been looking over my shoulder! :)

The Scottish Beekeepers website has plans for a national, which I have attached to this post. Several people have translated those plans into Google SketchUp models. My versions are attached in the zip file (note they are for a 14x12 BB, and you only need one of the two floor options). I have...

I too use 5ft panels, placed about 3ft away from the front of the hives. They work well, but they do keep the sun off the hives in the winter and early spring / late autumn. Replacing them with mesh sounds like a really good idea to me. I seem to remember that others on the forum have...

We did exactly this last night. We have been running a mixture of 14x12 and BS brood (from the original nucs). All the BS frames get brace comb on the bottom, but we've never had any great problems with it, and as others have said it makes drone culling very easy. I had been planning to do a...