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I have a virgin queen emerged on Sunday and put straight into a mini mating nuc in my back yard. It's now Saturday and at 15.30 I noticed a gathering of bees standing outside the nuc entrance. I went for a closer look and actually saw the queen (she's marked) flying round the yard. It's 22C and...

I have a big colony in the garden who are squished into a 14 x 12 plus a standard BB. After I removed their 3 supers 2 weeks ago they were all bearding and clearly short of space so I put a poly super on top of the QE with drawn frames. Looked in yesterday and the super is two thirds full of...

I have two small colonies in dummied down 6 frame poly nucs. The colonies are made from my newly mated queens and their mating nuc contents. Previously I have added a frame of about to emerge bees without the covering nurse bees. With winter fast approaching I decided to speed up the build up...

Back at the beginning of July I bought myself three buckfast queens and introduced them via travelling cages to their respective colonies. Each colony was in a nat bb and was hopelessly q- as evidenced by test frames. I checked on 1 July that they were released from cages and I went on holiday...

On Saturday I went for yet another hunt for my mean queen that was possibly swarmed away (sealed QC were found along with eggs). After waiting 3 days I was able to confirm no eggs in bb below QE. Had a look in bb above QE and it had lots of eggs! The hunt went on. Colony is large queen unmarked...

I have a colony that keeps making swarm cells - and I keep doing a wally Shaw part one. It is now in 4 separate stands but swarmed anyway. So what could I have done differently? On 5 May, early for swarming I thought, it had several swarm cells. The queen is of unknown heritage as she was given...

Found this critter flying at the window trying to get out. But how did it get in. I put her under a glass and next to a 5 pence piece for size comparison.

So I did a wally aka snelgrove 2 on two hives on Friday. Queens couldn't be found so just moved the colony and put a frame of brood on the original site. Returned today a week later to find one hive has torn down their QC and is thriving. Eggs in parent hive and eQC in A/S. Tore them down as...

I demaree'd my HM buckfast hive 19 days ago. Queenie in bottom with one frame brood. QE three supers - QE (as part of a snelgrove board) and all the brood in the top box. (I also pinched a frame of brood and food to make a nuc) I went back after 4 days to check for the top box making queen...

Reading up on Wally Shaw - he says that with both emergency and supercedure cells the bees have no intention of swarming and should be left alone to choose the queen they want. So why do so many on here advocate thinning cells to one?

So I made up a little nuc last Thursday - one and a bit brood frames one food two drawn combs. Left for a day then put a new queen under a home made push in cage (about the size of quarter of a frame). 5 days later bees are ignoring queen under the cage - some bees have emerged in there and she...

So I bit the bullet and demaree'd. My first time. The queen is 2014 Bucky. There were 14 frames with varying amounts of brood through the two boxes and they had filled a super completely with nectar in a week but not yet capped it. I condensed the two Bb into one at the top. So the set up is...

I've just moved 5 of my hives to a farmers field 7 miles from home and am wondering how much equipment to carry with me on visits. Should I discover swarm cells I was planning on doing a demaree - but how many spare brood boxes of comb/ foundation to carry round? Just noticed on a similar thread...

I have a smallish colony - national poly bees on about 2-3 seams. I had a good look through yesterday and cannot find any eggs or brood - or a queen. There are lots of stores, pollen and room to lay This was a swarm I found last year and was doing well going into winter. Their temperament was...

I have found some dark brown droppings in one corner of the inspection board. The colony is double brood with an insulation cozy over it. Looking through clear crown board the bees fill every seam. I'm reluctant to open the hive as they have been a tad feisty in the past - however if action is...

So who is going to the honey show? I just booked 2 nights in lovely riverside log cabin about 5 miles from the show. Leaving our 16 year old daughter home alone for first time Eeek! Well her 24 year old brother will be around - sporadically - but somehow that's not much comfort! So a long...

On Saturday I went to inspect my 3 hives on caerphilly mountain. These used to be the meangreenqueen colony that went mental and was cut down in its prime. The mean colony was made into 1 full size and two Nuc colonies which were so generously populated they soon got moved to full hives. It is...

Forever hearing peeps ask how much to feed their bees ready for winter. Was told by an old school beek of many years experience that it is not possible to overfeed at this time of year. When the bees have enough stores they will stop taking the feed. So... As sugar is relatively cheap compared...

So I peeked into my tower hive today. 2 brood boxes and 4 supers. Just about all the frames are high viz yellow. The drawn cells, the cappings, even the top bars of the frames are tinged yellowish. Tasted the honey. Not quite as nice as previous honey but not bitter. Any ideas what the girls...

So I'm back from my 2week campervan trip and donned the old beek suit as soon as I could to see what the bees have been up to. When I left hive 1 it appeared to be queenless. No eggs in a month and only a small amount of drone brood. I put in 2 test frames 5 days apart. No qc raised. I thought...