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    Colony extraction from stable wall

    A friend has asked me to remove a colony from between the wooden walls of their stable. The colony appears to be restricted between the studs in the wall, an area of about three feet square. My initial plan is to cut away the chipboard indoors with a chainsaw (no electricity available) then put...
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    Testing for insectiy

    I am suspicious that a colony has been intentionally killed. It was one of two in a garden; she loves having bees on her flowers, he doesn’t seem to care for them. We lost one colony in the summer because ‘someone’ closed it down and didn’t open it up again for a few days. We were due to move...
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    Overwintered Q- colony

    A colony I have taken over for a friend has no queen. Is there any hope that the winter bees could raise one from a frame of brood and eggs, or should I try something else? I know she won't want to pay for a bought-in queen.
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    Bees hate my smoker

    My bees hate my smoker. It's a standard issue Thorne's one, with grey leather bellows. Trouble is, the bees hate it. They've taken to stinging the living daylights out of the bellows, which of course creates a stink of sting smell. Has anyone else seen this? Any idea why it's happened?
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    Agoraphobic?

    My two home hives have different queens. One is a local mongrel, the other a bought-in Carpathian. Bees from the local queen are out most days, except when it's raining, bringing in pollen and generally acting like it's Spring. The ones from the carpathian hive are very rarely seen, even for...
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    Happily queenless

    I have a hive that seems determined to live without a (laying) queen. Over the course of the last four weeks we have not seen eggs or queen. We've put in two frames of eggs from other hives, a week apart, with no effort on their part to generate queen cells. Then we put in a queen, who came out...
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    Moving an aggressive hive

    I have a hive at home which has turned very aggressive. I can't find the queen, not for want of trying believe me, and I want them out of the garden and away from our neighbours PDQ. I took 14 stings just on my right forearm last time I went into them. Next time I visit I'll be wearing two suits...
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    Saving what I can

    This morning I went to look at one of the colonies at home on my morning rounds, and found that there was a cluster of bees on the stand, and loads of wasps going in and out of the hive. It seems like they had lost their battle against robbing, and what a battle it must have been, as the floor...
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    How many of a swarm do you leave?

    I seem to be always leaving a few bees behind when I collect a swarm, no matter how long I wait for them to march into the skep. Is it OK to leave a few spare flying bees, with an assurance that they'll find their way home, or should I be aiming to collect each last one even if the great...
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    Getting honey out of the brood box

    Most of my colonies seem content to put honey into the brood box, which is extremely irritating for me, regardless of how happy it makes the bees. I have been told to put an undrawn frame in the middle of the brood box, which presumably splits the brood and forces the bees to move the honey to...
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    Tracks of light

    I want to take a picture of the bees coming and going from one of my hives. The site is sheltered, with a panelled fence as a dark backdrop. The idea is to do a long exposure when the sun is shining on the bees but not on the hive or backdrop, to track the bees as lines of light against the...
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    Uniting two swarms

    How soon after collection can/should we unite two swarms? I assume the best way is to let them settle a couple of days in their new home, feeding both, then do a newspaper unite, after removing a queen at random (unless one is marked as being a couple of years older than the other).
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    Keeping a nuc as a nuc

    I hope to keep a couple of nuns over the winter, as back-ups for next Spring. How do w stop a nuc from expanding too much, i.e. to the point where they need more than the 5/6 frames in the nuc? Is it just a function of setting up the nuc late in the season?
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    Aggressive bees and a reclusive queen

    My most (only) productive colony is becoming aggressive. I looked at them today and large numbers of them were sitting on the frames pointing their rears in the air, stings exposed. Last time i inspected them I ran away screaming like a little girl, so I suppose it's an improvement. HM is a...
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    When to re-instate queen excluder

    Having removed the Queen excluder to allow HM to move about the hive over winter, I am nervous, given the amount of pollen going into the hives at the moment, that she'll start laying in the honey super. When is a reasonable time to put back the Qx?
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    Lily pollen

    SWMBO likes to have lilies in the house. The ones with the large orange anthers, that release the pollen that stains the carpet. If I collect the anthers and freeze them, would they make a tasty snack for the ladies in the Spring? I can't imagine that they would be poisonous, but how knows?
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    Downside of April splits

    I am thinking of pre-ordering two queens for early spring, with the intention of splitting my two biggest colonies. The plus side is that they should be big enough to exploit early season forage, without waiting for drone production. What downsides can I expect?
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    Used decking

    I have some used decking planks available. They're treated, and grooved. I was thinking of using them to make up ekes and possibly supers. Is there any reason not to?
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    Established queen 'piping'

    My Carniolan queen is making short piping noises, audible from outside the hive. She has been in the hive for a couple of months, is laying well and there are no queen cells. I have read that queens may do this to reduce aggression from the workers. Is this a common thing for Carniolans, or os...
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    Hive killing hornets

    I have one hive that has dead hornets outside it, most days of the last week. Is there a way that bees can kill hornets here in UK? I have read about the Japanese bees doing this, but not over here.
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