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Don't even think about using tyres/ pallets for hive stands if you have a mole or ant problem. Ask me how I know this ... My ground is Grade I silt with a very high winter water table, and yet I use four-legged hive stands on this extremely soft soil. The secret is to spread the weight using...

The figure of 40L comes from a flawed experiment which people keep quoting from because there's not been another to compare it's published results with (afaik). I shouldn't worry too much about such details - just put a few boxes out in likely areas with some kind of bait inside - old comb...

If I thought for one minute you knew what you were talking about, I'd make a detailed reply. LJ

I can never figure out how to get a Chinese firm to consider making something different to those they already make. Things like yacht-sized Marine Gearboxes and Carver Clamps. I find their small items - like router bits - are excellent value. Dunno how they make 'em for the price - and don't...

pheromone (noun): 1. a chemical substance produced and released into the environment by an animal, especially a mammal or an insect, affecting the behaviour or physiology of others of its species. So - a queen-change is not only about changing the genetics of the colony - it can also be...

Why not ? All vertical hives have a horizontal component, just as all horizontal hives have a vertical component. What I find interesting is that as the horizontal hive becomes deeper - it then morphs into a large capacity (Dadant-esque) hive, having both components. But - the bees don't...

Maybe I'm just being a bit thick today ... but just what is being implied in the above ? I've noticed that there are some people who've run up post counts in the thousands, in just a year or three - but no-one ever accuses them of having verbal diarrhea. Likewise, some folk join and never post...

I don't know about 'wisdom' exactly, but - whilst appreciating that by 'Double Brood' you'll no doubt be referring to one standard brood box over another - there are other ways of achieving a similar volume. One is to make a 22-frame Long Hive - I have several in the range 19-22, and they work...

Yesterday was a mega pallet-disassembly day, and today was a mega table-routering day - the router only stopped during coffee breaks, as 40x 5-frame nuc boxes need to be made asap. Thanks extended to Honeywell for producing such efficient ear-plugs. :) LJ

My first trials (2x vertical skewers) were with my 14x14 frames - and in order to get sufficient length I had to buy skewers with a 4.5mm diameter. I'd have liked them to be thinner, but the girls coped with that diameter ok. They essentially built 3 separate combs within one frame, and then...

I've moved away from using monofilament fishing line (3 lines in a Deep and 4 in a 14x12 frame), which the bees used to 'tolerate', and I'm now using 2x vertical bamboo barbecue skewers per frame. Bees attach and incorporate comb to the skewers very readily, as wood is something they...

Sure they're interesting - but the Skep Apiary videos made in 1978 are now part of history, as that skep operation no longer exists. In contrast, the German links I posted are of a contemporary operation, with the videos being made in 2009, and the featured commercial operation is still going...

Carnies. (Carniolans) I didn't know you could run videos with translation (guess who's still running Windows 98 ?) - live and learn.:) LJ

On another forum I've just posted links to some Youtube Videos - and then I remembered this thread, and thought some of you folks might like to view them too. Although I don't expect AMM advocates to be very interested ... There's a set of three - unfortunately with a German narrator. "Video...

Is that me ? Yes. One of the things I like about Nationals (the modern 'Modified' National, that is) is that - unlike the Langstroth - when you pick up a National box, you do so with a decent handful of timber :) - none of those 'D' handholds that are only good for getting your fingernails...

I think our situation is relatively straightforward, judging by the perennial arguments on American beekeeping forums about the various merits of 8- vs 10-frame, and those of shallow, medium, deep and extra-deep boxes ... I think you'll find the reason why Langstroths have world-wide...

There was talk of a tropical weekend for some parts of the country, and the forecast for today was hot and sweaty - but instead it's mild but very overcast. Weather forecasting must be the only job in the world where your product can be rubbish, and yet you still get to keep your job. LJ

My situation this morning was that I didn't have a 14x12 frame handy - and I couldn't remember whether they were in fact 12" deep, or whether they were actually 300mm deep - and we just call them 14x12 ... Like most people, I guess - 150 and 225 are hot-wired into my brain ... but not the depth...

If you checkout the Dave Cushman site for BS frame dimensions, the 14x12 frame drawing gives the 14x12 frame height as being 304mm - which sounds right to me. (even though, strictly speaking, 12" = 304.8 ~ 305mm) However, in http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/nat1412.html the height of the 14x12...

More likely "to let them use up their own supplies and to have less chance of ... absconding" ! At least that was my thinking when I used to play at swarm collector. Also, after losing one by leaving the entrance open, on trust, I took to locking 'em up for 3 days after housing each swarm...