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Hello all, I'm back with my never ending beginners questions. Last couple of years I have ended up in Spring with too many frames with stores left from Autumn feeding. I have removed a couple of solid frames, bruised the nearest the nest and replaced with foundation or drawn comb. This year...

One can clearly see (when scrolling through the site) that the peak of weight for each day is around 1400 and evaporated down to the lowest around 0000-0200. The big drops are extractions. Taken from a Broodminder scale.

Trying to work out if my bees are on OSR for the first time? Does this look like the right colour pollen please? I have a super of frames not capped but they don't shake out, and apparently there is OSR in my locality for the first time. Blurry pic I know! Thanks Sent from my SM-G965F using...

Anyone got one they could sell me? I've lost the one I had! Paypal? Cheers, Brigsy.

Hello, Mine are into their third season and the poly runners are looking a little tired. Has anyone trimmed them off and replaced with metal?

Hello, As per the swarm control instructions I split early in the year, raised a new queen. Selected the one I prefer and united both colonies back together minus one queen on the 12 August. I kept the brood in place above a queen excluder until all had hatched and then removed. So now I have a...

I am now in a position where I now have four good colonies as a result of swarm prevention splits from my two original colonies at the beginning of the year. I only want 2! All have supers of varying degrees as I have been removing when full during the season. So I want to unite back to 2 to...

I suspect this question maybe something only keepers of a few hives may ask but.... I have two supers ready. One on two separate colonies. Do people try and extract separately and not mix the honey? Or mix the two and bottle regardless? Thanks.

Hello good people, One of my colonies, (which I wish to and was about to reunite with a different less swarmy gene pool) has a new mated queen from this years swarm control. Clipped and marked. I had noted two weeks ago that they were becoming congested again, with mainly pollen and making a...

Hello, I am close to reuniting my colonies after artificial swarm methods. New queens now mated and laying. I understand the bumping off a queen and how to set up the unite. I get that you can then rearrange brood to make a nice brood nest etc. I have one colony that is already wall to wall...

Hello, One of my artificial swarm colonies now with a new laying queen is starting to feed royal jelly in a couple of queen cups today. I had a feeling they were feeling congested last week and moved some emptier frames inside the pollen 'wall' and made sure they had plenty of space in the...

Me again, I am getting to grips with most basics (tempting fate ha) but one thing I am struggling with is a brood box post artificial swarm. When one splits the hive the brood is normally strong and mostly filling the box. Afterwards, especially one side, has been queenless for a few weeks...

Hi, My googling skills are letting me down. Is there a link or a document that anyone has bookmarked that shows the timeline of worker caste and queen once emerged. Ie days 1-4 before mating is possible for the queen and days of each activity for worker. Many thanks

Hello, I have received some helpful specific advice re my current situation but I was wondering if there was some generic advice re supering when in the middle of artificial swarm. (IE normally when on 8 frames of brood) E.G. depending on your method, you may have a greatly reduced brood nest...

Hello, Just wondering if people have had trouble selling on nucs on commercial frames . Obviously more people use National to start, but would I be lumbering myself unable to sell one or two in the next few years. I have my frame preference. Thanks

Found in the garden. Any ideas please?

I have noticed some streaking outside one of my colonies so decided to use my new found Nosema testing skills (sort of). By the time I got out to take a sample, the bees have retired for the day. I took a couple of bees and did individual assessments and have found a heavy infestation in one...

I moved my temperature gauge to my busiest colony recently. I think we can agree it's easy to see when they started brooding in earnest.

As above, I was wondering if anyone had a cheapish second hand stereo microscope suitable for basic Nosema testing etc 400x required obviously! Cheers, Brigsy.

Hello all, I'm back to start asking questions again going (hopefully) into year two. I'm thinking of making a nuc up to supply to beginners starting this year. Would an easy way to do it be to wait until my bees start drawing QC's and steal a frame with cells on, reduce to two cells, and add...