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Hi. Just wondering if anyone could advise on the method of making the top and bottom side bars on a national. i.e. what tools are required and in what order do you make the cuts to get the rebates, tenons and angled upper face on the bottom rail? I have been searching YouTube but I cannot find...

Did you just use honey and no wax? Was the honey taken from the same hive?

Have also just bought one of these so will be interested to hear what works out for you.

Thanks for the link. That should do nicely.

None at the moment, just looking for some book recommendations. But when I do want to rear some it will only be a few at first.

Can anyone recommend a good book on queen rearing? Please give its author, title and your reason(s) for recommending it. Thank you

See now when I transferred six full 14 x 12 frames to a brood box I added five frames of foundation. Then I realised that I should have put a dummy in so quickly made one and replaced one frame of foundation for the dummy. What are the disadvantages/drawbacks of adding four frames of foundation...

Yah see I didn't know that. That's why these forum things are good. I just left them in so any bees caught in the roof space could escape.

Assuming the 5 frame nuc becomes full and ready to transfer, how many frames of foundation would you add when transferring?

Ahh. So its a bit of a balancing act. A matter of checking if they have sufficient stores and plenty of available forage I assume. So best only to feed when stores are low or bad weather persists?

No not actually clearing. Just there to plug the hole. Just intrigued as to why it was not working as it should. I think I will just remove it and cover the hole with a bit of slate. But I will try bending the blades together first by way of experiment. Thanks.

But isn't the whole idea of feeding them to encourage them to draw out the foundation?

I will give that a go thanks. Not sure how well it will work though as the blades are the new plastic type not the spring steel ones.

I am pretty sure it is the correct way. Here is a photo of the bee escape taken looking down on the crown board.

Instructions? Surely they just get pushed into the holes in the crown board and that's it?

I seem to have bees coming up through my porter bee escape. Is this common/normal? I thought they were supposed to be one-way!

The frames are short lugged brood box frames for a smith hive so I have no real need for them afterwards.

Sound advice. Thank you. The traps are homemade plywood nucs designed to hold six 14x12 frames . The drawn comb frame in each is a standard size brood box frame which I borrowed from a friend. As the traps are some distance from me it would make sense to add some more frames as I am not able...

No just a single frame of partially drawn comb. Should I add empty frames/topbars?

I have some swarm traps set out in a couple of locations where I know there are feral bee colonies. Now the weather has improved and the sun is shining there has been some bee activity around the boxes. Although there are bees going in and out of the boxes I don't think any colonies have moved...