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If you want cheap bulbs, try Gedney Bulbs (www.gedneybulb.co.uk) - Species Crocus thomassianus 'Ruby Giant' £28.00 / 1000 to large flowered varieties @ £50.00/1000. A good selection of well priced bulbs generally, so have a look if you are a gardener. I have no affiliation with this firm, but...

In a rare break in the weather, I checked my hives to see what signs that virgins had been mated. Horror of all horrors, I found one virgin running around on the front of the hive with deformed wings, unable to make her mating flight. What are my options? Is it worth catching her and putting...

Asparagus and Runner Beans. Sunflowers to sell seeds for bird feed. Blackberries, Gooseberries or raspberries. Mint, thyme, rosemary, sage for sale as fresh herbs- cut leaves early and leave to flower. What about cut flowers for florists - Lillies, Hellebores,Cornflowers,Asters..or better...

It's probably fodder rape which is grazed by sheep in the autumn / early winter. Not sure of honey potential, but should think that nectar production is temperature dependent as in many crops.

Is there a prescribed formula for chunk honey, or can I put a chunk of comb in a jar and fill it up to weight with liquid honey? Can the chunk honey comb be broken or in small bits, as you might get having cut out 8oz pieces of comb? Does the chunk comb have to be capped or can I use the...

Don't forget the snowdrops and crocus for the early spring. Try Crocus Thomassianus Ruby Giant, they will naturalise in grass if they like you. But bees love all varieties and gives them a real kick start if there are lots of them. Don't plant the snowdrops from bulbs - plant 'in the green'...

RAB, you say "Distilled water is just water, so the answer to your first question is obviously 'no'.". But if the scale only starts at 58% Brix, how can the instrument be calibrated at zero? I suspect the best way to do it is make up an accurate solution of sugar and distilled water which is...

Sorry I have been away and missed this thread, so please bear with me. I'm a bit perplexed by the instructions supplied with my Refractometer. This is a cheapo from Hong Kong (Model RHB 90ATC) and has three scales on it. At the Right Hand side there is a water percentage scale between 12 and...

I bought a very good suit from Modern Beekeeping when I bought some poly national hives. Only £56.99 and much better than one from another supplier which was over £100.00 - the veil has already parted from the frame and is now my spare, after liberal use of the stapler! The new one is much...

Interestingly, I shook out a hive of laying workers yesterday. After i had done so I moved the box another fifty yards away to avoid the mass of bees flying around, in order to remove the bees that were left on the combs. I found two workers with eggs sticking out of their bums. Needless to say...

I have a nuc made up on 21st July with a newly emerged virgin queen (see my thread 'Surplus newly hatched Queen captured...what next?') and a small cast swarm from a friend's apiary on 22nd July. Both have eggs in today.. Whoopeee, something is going right for a change. But....with reference to...

I currently have 12 colonies of all sizes, I started the season with 7 and had a high of 18. SWMBO was threatening to leave at 20 !!!! But three of the reductions so far have been because of DLQ or Laying workers, the other three just became queenless, for whatever reason ( I reckon I must have...

Kronkie - You do not have to find the queen, since you shake all the bees into the bottom box, the queen must be in there. So unless she absconds you definitely have her. There is perhaps a danger that she will go if there are sealed Q cells in the top box, before you do the Demaree, but if you...

m100 - I covered that later in my message. If you make a Demaree you destroy the queen cells anyway.

Eggs

Wow, the piccie worked !

Midland Beek - The drone brood is very small, not like normal drone brood. Also very spread out around the comb. Looks as if the laying workers lay the eggs in worker cells and thay are capped off small. Real drone brood is much more bulbous. Where there is a larva, there is no effort to extend...

Move the hive to one side. Put a new brood box with empty comb or foundation and one frame of stores, onto the old site..Shake all the bees into the new box. Put on qex and the old brood box / supers on top. The young bees will go up onto the brood , so after 24 hours or so you can move this box...

Has anyone got any tips as to how to clean out frames of drone brood and eggs from what I think was Laying Worker frames rather than a drone laying queen? I had a hive which I threw out onto the ground a hundred yards away and let the workers fly back to next door hive. The only problem is that...

That's it all done. Queen caught and caged with fondant stopper. Three frames of bees and brood from different hives plus her own bees. All in a Hive with a full frame feeder, a frame of empty comb and extra space filled with insulation. I'll keep you posted as to how it goes. Thanks all Richard