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In what way does a mating flight differ from a swarm please ? I was just cleaning out the chicken house at 2.30pm when I heard buzzing overhead and lots of bees flew south - they seemed to know where they were going, and weren't heading upwards. So I assume this was a small swarm. They were...

sorry, I meant Drstitson ! -

I agree Drstiltson, and good idea, rockdoc. Did you just put your full super under the BB at the end of last season ? Daft question, but I presume they took the stores up when needed ok ?

Thanks all, last season I had the colonies on double brood boxes but found them rather heavy to handle on my own, so I might see how I get on with brood and a half this year. In 10 years time I might have decided what to do !

At the end of last season I left each of my 3 hives with a super to keep them going. They also had a block of fondant each later on. There are no Queen excluders on obviously. I did my first inspection recently, and all 3 colonies have laying queens which is great. However in the brood box...

Thanks all, I'll carry on as planned, if it ever stops raining and we get some frost. I might use the super for brood and a half next season anyway, so it won't matter (now .... I bet 5 of you don't agree about that !)

I would like to pick your collective brains ! I was intending to apply oxalic acid (bought trickle 2) after the next cold snap. I was just reading the instructions on the bottle (don't look so surprised !) and note that it says never to apply if there is a super on the hive. I have from the...

I have united Q- colony with queen right - but have confused myself ! I was not sure what to do with the supers which were full of bees as we actually had a nice day today ! also I will need to get the supers off soon to do my apiguard. So, I had a queenright colony on 1 brood box plus QX plus...

might be worth sending to the website wildaboutbritain - there are plenty of clever people there who may be able to help !

I have a similar situation. In the next few weeks I want to apply apiguard on the colonies that need it. Is it too late to start treatment in September ? They have 1 super on each at the moment and it is not ripe and sealed. I intend to keep this for the bees to have for the winter (no...

I shall try a test frame, thanks (O90O I "caught" the cast as it conveniently clustered 4' up in a hedge on 1 branch, which I cut off and simply put the whole cluster plus branch into the nuc. Then I shook the bees off the branch. The Q must have been there as they were quite happy to stay put.)

Thanks all, very interesting, I have never seen 2 eggs in a cell before and am quite pleased when I spot any without my glasses on !

I caught 2 casts on 17th June, and put each into separate nuc boxes. My poly nuc shows no sign of a queen, but my second wooden nuc now has a laying queen. The wood nuc has a solid floor If "poly" continues queenless I intend to unite it with the second nuc, and put them into a hive (my last...

I did an AS on 30th May. I made colony #3, with a sealed QC in it, stores etc. On 20th June I checked this new colony #3, and there was no sign of any Q, eggs or larvae or any QC On 27th June I checked it again and found lots of eggs and some big and small larvae....hurrah I thought ! On 5th...

thank for sharing those astounding photos... I've never seen anything like it ! well done

Well, I left hives 2 and 3 queenless with the 1x sealed QC each on 30th May. The weather has been awful since and the forecast is grim too. Today, 12 days later, the weather has been calm enough for me to have a quick peek to check there are no other Q cells. In hive 2 the 1 x QC I left was...

Double Brood ... good call , thanks all ! I double brooded both hives. 8 days later, inspection time, hive 1 doing fine, hive 2, no queen or eggs only 3 day old + larvae and lots of lovely sealed Queen cells. Looks like I lost a swarm So I separated the 2 brood boxes, left only 1 sealed QC...

thanks, both...please can you shed any light on why you would double brood rather than brood and a half ? I don't know how I'll lift 2 BB !

I have 2 colonies in WBC hives, both doing very nicely in the new summer that has happened ! Each colony has 1x BB and 1 x super. They have brood on all of the frames, and I saw eggs on the outside face of the outside frame too, so I know they are getting low on space for the queen to lay...

I always thought lemon grass oil was used in insect repellents (like citronella based ones ?) anyone told the bees ?.....