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  1. K

    Fondant v sugar cakes

    I made sugar cakes for my bees several years ago using apple cider vinegar and granulated sugar. Several weeks after I'd placed it on my colonies I noticed a white line on the soil and grass going away from the front of nearly every hive it was on. On further investigation I found they had...
  2. K

    Shaking out laying workers

    Not a chance, you will wish you had never done it. It's carnage!!
  3. K

    Free-living colonies?

    There's a totally free living colony of bees eight foot up in an big old beech tree 100yds from my home. I walk past it most days. It's been there for at least seven years that I know of. No intervention from anyone or varroa treatment. It usually puts a swarm out during June every year. They...
  4. K

    Swarms not as plentiful this year

    We are way behind last years count for swarms here. I think we should see an increase towards the end of May beginning of June as the weather has been so bad this spring, we must be at least a fortnight late this season. I have been called out to four prime swarms in the same two gardens next...
  5. K

    Sore finger tips

    I use cotton gloves that are used for eczema. They do get quite wet but if you have several pairs you could change them as they get wet with sweat. If you have washing soda inside your gloves this will not be good for your skin and will cause problems.
  6. K

    Any scouts at your swarm trap?

    Think it's been too cold for them this year. My colonies are way behind last years progress by at least a month! I have even had to feed some thin syrup to get them through.
  7. K

    Slugs

    I posted about leopard slugs being a problem several years ago. I started to use grit road salt around my hive stands in autumn and slug pellets in jam jars laid down under the hives. It did cure the problem of them getting into the hives and overwintering inside.
  8. K

    Surprising dead-out

    I'm of the opinion that some colonies cannot survive over a wet, cold and windy winter due to them having an open mesh floor. I've tried numerous occasions to catch a swarm in summer with hives with closed floors and hives with OMF's. Never caught one yet in a hive with an OMF. Small picture of...
  9. K

    Strange Weather

    It's the first time I've ever seen a wasp trying to access a hive yesterday in late November and today a bumble bee queen I presume flying along the side of our house.
  10. K

    Cleaning open mesh floor

    I suggest you leave it up to the bees. They obviously do not like the open mesh floor so try to seal it up. It's us beekeepers who thing we know best. They don't have OMF's in trees.
  11. K

    Any scouts at your swarm trap?

    Scouts started to inspect my swarm traps the 3rd week in April. They were put out on top of my conifer hedge beginning of April. Three swarms so far in bait hives, two in May and one yesterday which was a massive prime swarm that arrived 1.30pm just as we returned home. I have two more traps out...
  12. K

    Swarm Season

    First swarm of the season collected today. Just off shortly to close the nuc box up and bring home once all the scouts have returned. Its a cold evening so all should be inside and warm by now.
  13. K

    Cross bees

    I was told by an old beekeeper/inspector that it takes a colony 24hours to make right what a beekeeper does on their inspections. So disturbing less does mean they can get on with the job of foraging. As for angry bees I've had colonies from hell like the ones described one day but weeks later...
  14. K

    Mouldy bee suit cleaning.

    Cooking salt. Make a paste and spread it onto the mould and leave overnight. We had a carpet with a black and green mould patch after the builders had finished our extension. We had placed a fridge on the carpet of the spare room for weeks not realising the condensation was wetting the carpet...
  15. K

    It's beginning to look a lot like .. April.

    Gorse in flower also around me in East Lancashire. It's been like a spring morning several days over the past fortnight. Lots of bees flying but they are using their stores fast. Put fondant on 10 hives last Friday and boy were they angry. Even attacking me after I'd sealed up the crown board...
  16. K

    Repelling Slugs

    I lost several colonies last year because i did not carry out my slug prevention. Some nucleus hives had over twenty large leopard slugs inside that had overwintered and slimed everything up inside. This year I will be piling up rock salt ( Road Salt) around each leg of my hive stands that they...
  17. K

    Tanks fittings

    Call into you're local friendly plumbers merchant, I'm sure they should be able to find something to fit.
  18. K

    How close to a hive will scouts look?

    Seen a swarm exit one hive in my apiary and enter an empty hive 2 yards away
  19. K

    Too early for swarm traps?

    Sorry missed the reply. I use old brood comb in some and always lemongrass oil on a frame just inside the entrance. I also fill one with new frames and wax foundation and again lemongrass oil. Makes little diifference the choose both but the main thing is always close up the OMF. Never had one...
  20. K

    Too early for swarm traps?

    Every year I put three swarm traps in our back garden six foot up on the top of our conifer hedge spaced about four yards apart. Two years ago I caught four swarms in the back garden two of them arrived within a couple of hours of each other and populated two seperate boxes four yards apart. We...
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