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21 June I took a Q- zero-brood 3-frame nuc and on 26 June put in a QC due to emerge on 30 June. 3 July and she had emerged. WISH I HAD LOOKED AT MORE THAN THE QC. 10 July and LOTS of brood, some just being sealed, in a decent brood pattern on 2 of the 3 frames. Almost all quite large larvae...

Team: a couple of questions - I have stumped myself. Background: Strongest colony, call it 1, is "Demareed" (in quotes because there are no supers, just fresh brood lifted above a QE - asking for trouble I suppose). Second strongest colony, 2, was a Q- (EQC/VQ) split where the VQ seemed to...

Sorry if in wrong forum but I couldn't see a better. Thorne has "eaten" one of our Association extractor* motors sent in for assessment / repair and I have taken on the challenge of sorting it out. The Thorne replacement is expensive and when I called Parvalux I was shocked. Any ideas? Ideally...

Long story short a very strong requeening hive threw a good-sized cast swarm. After a bit of trimming I popped it under a cardboard box: all good, fanning at the entrance. I was subsequently - ahem - alerted to a little patch of bees over the garden fence and down a drop, so probably 15' below...

...OK, cups technically. Because I have always been sceptical but am beginning to think they might. Latest evidence is I sold a Q+ nuc from a colony yesterday. A bit of seller's regret led me to graft from the remaining brood and they were busy working on queen cups. Fair enough, but they were...

You know, two handles, 5ft-ish bent ash handle etc of the sort that left the land in about 1870. Metal if necessary. Just anything to give my "meadow" (200 sq m) a summer cut without using some ghastly strimmer. Any ideas? Fleabay a bust.

Can anyone tell me what to do, please? I am at my wits' end and running out of time as I am taking my post-season break at the end of next week. I have introduced grafted queens that are doing BRILLIANTLY in my opinion. I expect a few supersedure cells as the unrelated bees object but in two...

I'll find out next weekend (and will try to remember to post) but in the meantime, all speculation welcome as to what happens in this situation. I have a theory. Strong colony with Q in 3rd season was vertically A/Sed late April. I was not fully comfortable with new Q and reunited mid-June as...

So the solstice is gone and we are days away from letting July swarms fly. It is time to shrink brood nests and start the process of settling down. Demareeing is getting increasingly pointless as it conflicts with the bees' plans in this regard, so finding clean frames to switch about is harder...

Floor, super, Demaree box with 12 grafts, super (to try and minimise backfilling), roof. This is a very strong colony headed by my best Q; the grafts are her offspring. I have broken up my Q- hive and am having to go back to Demaree-raising the next round. I find the takeup is often lower. But...

So I tried this for the first time with a vertical split. (The method is basically an AS but the Q stays in the parent as it moves, with all the cells.) Checked back a week later and all good in the AS: tore down 9 EQCs. But on the way down through the stack, could not find the Q but there were...

I have grafted for several years with partial success. To be honest, most of my Qs are a hodge-podge of swarm cells, EQCs off test frames etc, with only occasional "managed" introductions. But I am gradually ironing out the kinks. eg I now get as many Apideas as I can (3) into my "incubator" to...

One of my spare nucs that has built up well and is on 3 6-frame boxes. Very active indeed and has every right to swarm. But they only put up one cell. So I nicked some brood, gave some space, tore down the QC and await developments. If I'm making a mistake, better here than on one of my...

I have a Demareed hive with a top entrance for drones. I often hear a noise that is much deeper than a Q piping, but otherwise sort of like it. Do trapped drones buzz? I can't find any similar noise on Youtube. I have tried recording but to no avail. Working theory is that it is drones that...

...of two winters and a season following a particularly bruising exchange. Probably my fault and I've learnt to be careful how far I put my neck out. I've been back a week and I've already seen a few posts (including one closed thread) to make me think of taking another break. Please let's play...

The Beebase survey just hit my inbox and includes a question as to whether I use "Thymolated syrup" for nosema control. How do I answer, given that "you may choose to believe that but I couldn't possibly comment" is not an option?

I am working through a stack of Maisemore brood boxes, the ones where there are chamfered wood edges instead of metal rails. When I made the first one up a few years ago it got propped to death so on subsequent ones I have flattened the chamfers and used metal rails. That seems wrong, and it's a...

As discussed in this thread http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=38290, around post 83 I understand that it is possible to prevent swarming by not extracting honey. Can people shed any light? Thanks

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/honey-offers-a-sweeter-way-to-stop-infections-spreading-sf73qjr8p?shareToken=26e0bbf9293eabd899d63591e3beb643

What's wrong with people? https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/09/01/like-its-been-nuked-millions-of-bees-dead-after-south-carolina-sprays-for-zika-mosquitoes/