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Hello and welcome. Definitely a good idea to get some hands-on experience before getting your own bees, personally I would suggest a bit more than 2 sessions: but you've definitely gone down the right route joining your association. Enjoy! .

One of the annoying things about bees is that they don't read the books. The dscription sounds like a supercedure cell, but they obviously considered it a swarm cell. Not sure if it was one cell or more, and at what stage? If hive 1 has no eggs she could have taken a break for the weather-...

Nice to see you're keeping busy. .

I've not clipped queens before as it seemed rather unkind, but having lost swarms I have started to clip this year. It seems a great benefit that even if I should miss a swarm, I will get them back minus the queen. .

Hi juanito I couldn't believe what you were saying until I saw your location! Play flights are very much a middle of the day thing here. Always a joy to watch. The 2 main things that affect swarming are the strength/age of the queen, and crowding. Creating some laying space for the queen may...

My son went over there last year. He added Burma to his trip as the borders have just opened, and reckoned that was the best bit- not as touristy as the others, due to its recent history.

I took a few supers off a couple of weeks ago as I was pretty sure it was OSR and didn't want it setting in the combs again, thankyou very much. Very little was capped- I tested some at home with the refractometer and some of the uncapped was down to about 16% moisture. I think there had been...

Currently, in Jenkins' direction.

Thanks guys. A really helpful response- and a surprising amount of concensus! I think I might try 'wiring' with fishing line then using unwired super foundation, cut diagonally in half. I'm thinking of doing it around Sepember, which I know is ITLD's favourite time for replacing brood frames. .

Having got further with my researches into wax exchange, I'm not that impressed with the exchange rates, and I'm getting fed up with spending lots on foundation. I'm therefore thinking of trying either starter strips or super foundation in my 14 x 12 brood frames. Has anyone tried this, and if...

Thanks guys, I'll try looking again while I'm still awake, instead of at bedtime. And sorry JBM I'm not falling for that one, you're not my type. :)

Hi folks I was hoping to trade in some wax for foundation this year, but I've just had a look on thorns and KBS websites and can see no mention of an exchange. Has this been stopped, or is it just my unique observational skills coming to the fore? .

Not an expert- the only thing I can think of is that there was something wrong with them. Do they look normal- right size, proper shaped wings etc? .

I have gone to all 10-slot castellations as I was advised that this was the maximum spacing that you could place foundation at, and it works fine for me. However I always alternate the direction of my supers. If the frames are in line above each other they can regard them as one sheet of...

Could be. As with everything else in beekeeping there's no simple solution, but I've had jars that would bend the knife. I now make soft-set(or try to).

I've always thought that taranov seemed an odd method. Pagden and most others at least try to reproduce something like a swarm, whereas Taranov, where the queen ends up with the non-flying bees, seems to do the opposite. .

Not done double brood or brood and a half myself, but there seems to be a lot in favour of double, in that you can interchange frames if required, and much simpler when you do come to split, demaree or AS. .

:iagree:

Tomo didn't ask 'how do I control varroa?' he asked what works best. With a 41-page DEFRA leaflet that gives a full review of the science but very little advice (because they are trying to be neutral), and lots of conflicting advice/information out there, it seems entirely reasonable to ask...

Not a lot of experience with bears, but a little with solar, and I would suggest not relying too heavily on it. Possibly worth getting a spare set of batteries and taking them charged every time you visit so that if the weather has been unfavourable and the charge has dropped, you can swap them...