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I appreciate all the replies. The boxes and frames are all inside now. I'm lucky that the office where I work is on the same farm as my apiary so they are all in here with me and wax moth shouldn't be an issue. If all goes well I'll have my new bees next month and can restart.

2 colonies were from this source last year. They were actually really nice bees to work with and became my favourite colonies. Interesting, so what would your treatment be in the first year? Treat once they are settled in the hive before putting supers on and again at the end of summer? I was...

Yes, they explained all that. At the moment they say they are still coming but will refund any deposits if they don't arrive. Ideally, I would have bought all locally supplied nucs but it would be too expensive to get up and running with all my hives.

From Bee Equipment in Canterbury, They are ready in April.

Just ordered some packages of bees. Enjoy it too much to give up . Thanks for all the replies. That is a lesson learned the hard way.

Had a good look through and nothing like that, no signs of diarrhea either.

October was still very warm down here in south Kent. I left it late as I was holding out for a summer crop which never came. Looks like I should have just cut my losses earlier and got on with treatment. If I do rebuild then at least I won't make that mistake again I suppose. Not nice to...

Coun They were thriving in the autumn. One colony in particular was packed with bees and the floor is covered with them now. It was a bad summer though, we didn't get a summer harvest and had to keep feeding syrup. It was very dry and I heard many beekeepers having similar issues. Maybe that...

I did it in October. The drop wasn't too bad before the treatment but I didn't check it after. The access is off-road and was getting too muddy by late October so once the 4 week treatment was done in early November they were closed up. I have pulled a couple of bees out of the brood and they...

I thought about that but all hives? How could bees possibly survive in the wild if they can be wiped out so easily. These were all new colonies.

Hi So I checked the apiary today which consisted of 5 hives and all of them are dead. 4 have no signs of life, the floor is covered with dead bees including queens and some dead on the frames with one queen as shown in the photo. The other has a small cluster of live bees but no sign of the...

I will be, just trying to get a heads up first. I'm going to be expanding over the next few years and will be looking at turning what, to now, has been a hobby into a small venture. I just moved into an office on the farm and looking at my options as I don't have an oven or dishwasher, just a...

OK, Is that a case of not needing it in general or not needing in terms of selling with regards to food standards though?

I'm interested to know what process is used to sterilise jars for the mid size organisations. I get that you can boil jars in a pan or put them on a shelf in the oven but what about those with hundreds of jars each harvest? I would imagine the people doing thousands of jars have expensive...

Hi I have a hive that I started last year. It's done really well gave lots of honey last year, made it through winter great and is thriving. I was going to split it into this hive + nuc but would like to expand quicker if possible. I have just got a new site which I am keen to put a few hives...

I did think about that but its full of frames and foundation and ready to go. I also have a standard nuc so might as well make use of it all and have this one standard setup.

Thanks, Its a brand new hive so all the frames in it are bare foundation. I do however already have a drawn standard in my 14X12 as I use it to cut down on Varroa so I could use that. I have a standard Nuc too so your method sounds perfect. I was told though that if I make them queenless then...

I got my first hive last year and it has not only made it through winter but is absolutely thriving. I did my first inspection and it was packed with bees. Lots of honey in the brood and the super I left on over winter almost full of honey. I want to split as I have another hive ready to go...

OK, sounds like good advice and i'll wait until next year. Thanks

Hi I am a first year beekeeper. My hive has gone well and I have just harvested 1 super. I have a queen laying well, plenty of stores in the brood and another super filing up. I would like to split my colony by keeping my hive and adding two more in nucs that can overwinter and go into hives...