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Me too :)

I'd hazard a guess at isolation starvation. Heads in cells being one clue. Bees clustered to keep the brood warm and wouldn't move that couple of inches to access the stores. Sorry you lost them - personally, I wouldn't have done anything different from what you describe but will be interested...

Took the rest of mine off today too. I looked at the outer frames of just one hive to get an idea of how the hefted weight corresponds to actual stores and realised that apart from 3, they probably don't actually need any fondant!

A bit of a blurry picture but I caught this Red Admiral (?) on one of my Daphne's this afternoon. It took off before my phone camera could refocus. Very springy!

And throw good honey away? I suppose it keeps the TAXMAN off your back if nothing else :D I guess it depends on what the 'good honey' is ;) Mine was crystallised Ivy stores. Stank the bathroom out!

Well that's what I've done. I wouldn't say the honey 'runs out' though! More like 'dissolves slowly' in the warm water. Make sure you let the frames dry out thoroughly afterwards.

Lovely sunny spring day here today. Bees everywhere. More like May than March judging by the activity outside some of the hives. Took the opportunity to remove a couple of nadired shallows from under 2 of the less busy brood boxes, clean as a whistle. Got another 6-7 to remove but will wait...

I've just done this with a few of my supers after advice posted by Finman last year. It works a treat. I uncapped the frames, lined them up in a large plastic storage box, carried them upstairs to the bathroom, used the shower attachment to gently wash them over with warm water, filled the...

I think that this is one of the more underrated of the beekeeping skills - to contain desired numbers by uniting. I am proving to be particularly rubbish at it ;)

I had have had Pagden fail and not curb the swarming impulse in a couple of my hives before, so am interested in trying the modified Snelgrove II approach described. The rationale makes perfect sense and is very well explained in this excellent little booklet. Thank you for taking the time to...

A chilly 4 degrees here brrrr.... Hives are storming through the fondant and are hefting quite light now despite being 14x12s packed with ivy and h.balsam stores a few months back. Nice big clusters seen through Perspex in most and warm to touch crown boards. Continued the job of scraping and...

As soon as the sun hit it, mine were on the daphne......

:iagree: Although for less disturbance, could you just remove some outer frames and dummy down their existing brood box with some insulation panels. That's what I've done with one of ours. Hopefully being in a drier, sunny spot will help them turn around!

Is it safe to deviate away from poo and wee posts :spy: ??? Still blimmin cold here in Berkshire. Took advantage of the cold snap to clean up some supers and drawn frames. The propolis chips off beautifully. No sticky fingers today, just a touch of frostbite perhaps! I do like manleys...

Despicable. Thieving b******ds. Really sorry to hear that. Hope you manage to get them back.

Lovely Sunny morning here :nature-smiley-016: so thought I'd check on the garden hives. All still alive and have nice big clusters seen throught the Perspex. So far so good! Applied fondant under insulation to another 2 colonies which were hefting a bit light. Made up a few more insulation...

Thanks from me too HM, I will give that a try this spring.

Ah, you beat me to it Kitta! I was going to ask for more detail about that too. Sounds like a win win answer.

I did this on one colony last season (ran out of kit so limited options). The hive seemed to lose its momentum and never really got going again afterwards. There may well have been other factors involved (unknown to me) but it went into winter as my weakest hive. I'd only do it again if I had no...

Stunning - I'll put in my order now shall I Pargyle! ;) Jarred up another 80 jars of soft set honey. So much easier to do in the winter. Not much honey left in my storage buckets now. I can't believe how fast it's all disappeared. Made up another 6 ekes for feeding fondant over the crown...