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The new ones are Hoffman frames, the older ones Manley. They are both self-spacing. Bees will draw the Manley frames very thick but havign sidebars in contact with adjacent frames along their entire length means they get stuck together. The Hoffman frames avoid this but bees may not draw them...

Having a barbecue to make the most of the warm weather. Bait box which has not had any interest for 3 years attracts a swarm. Timing.

Keep it as a bait hive in the season and feeder eke in the autumn :)

It's rubbish in my opinion. I eat a fair old bit of local honey and have severe hayfever with prescribed steroids. If anyone asks just smile and nod.

I just stick a few foundationless frames (ones which have blown out in the extractor) in a super of drawn comb. The comb will be drawn straight if its between two drawn frames and you increase your chances of actually getting full frames quickly. Repeat over several colonies as necessary. I...

You want the queen to move to where the food is.

I'd leave them to it without feed if they're foraging. Feeding a TBH is a bit more fraught as there's a chance any stored syrup comes back in your honey. Overfeeding will also mean they backfill the brood area which can lead to swarming.

I think that's a hoverfly - Batesian mimicry in action!

Sciurus vulgaris and S. carolinensis are different species. They are very different and the law is clear. All honeybees are the same species, Apis mellifera. There are some subspecies (carnica, lingustica, caucasica, mellifera etc.) but these refer to wild bees in their home ranges...

Excluder off now. You could have a quick peek inside to see if you can see any eggs. I'd leave at least a week to do a proper inspection. Feed if pouring with rain otherwise don't.

I bought a frame holder when I was new and impressionable. I have never used it. I lean frames against the hive or hive stand or place them (carefully) flat on top of removed super or roof.

Just a bad idea, every way you think about it. Such a waste of brood, wax, pollen and honey, not to mention time.

I've increasingly come to believe that the BBKA approach seeks only to maximise the amount of times you open the hive and the number of different manipulations you do. I did my first shook swarm last week to get rid of the tbh and get the bees on proper frames. It's a brutal thing to do and...

Remember the boxes themselves are shallow or deeps, brood box or super refer to their current usage. This isn't (just) pendantry - you can have brood in 2 shallow brood boxes with a deep on top as a super if you want. You are searching for a solution to a problem which doesn't exist: nothing bad...

If they've more or less filled brood box with brood will be relying on supers for supplies, make sure they have enough to cope with weather forecast. Make sure there's enough boxes so they don't get too congested. If flow comes to an end then in addition to thinking about stores, they might get...

Thanks!

Even on 2-3 frames of bees? Not winding you up, trying to learn what you would do?

I can't believe it is still repeated, anyone with a few years of beek experience knows it's nonsense so why do teachers teach it (surely they have seen enough bees)? Bee-havers' association advice?

Sounds like they swarmed. Those queen cells were probably swarm cells and you should have done some kind of artificial swarm. No real harm done since you caught the swarm but watch that it doesn't throw cast swarms. The position of a queen cell on a frame tells you nothing. Welcome to...

Whilst creamed honey is delicious, OSR honey jarred 48 hours after extraction sells fine for me, about the same rate as runny summer honey. Very hard set, very easy.