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Hi, I get loosetrife honey in July regularly. It's very dark and has a liquorice aftertaste. Hope this helps

Yes if the spacing is too great this is very common. Cut it off when you extract and each time it will become less likely to happen again. On another note it is wild comb and fantastic for cutting and adding to jars of honey.

Slide your hive tool between the Bee and glove. This works most of the time.

Aggression can develop through over manipulation in my experience. I find that although bees only have a very short memory they have a much longer muscle memory. Try not inspecting thoroughly for a month or so. Failing that overpopulation in the area could set off aggression or even difficult...

I don't disagree! wouldn't be my choice but I have more than 2 hives so a bit easier to stomach the loss. Was just another idea to ponder

Hi no ones mentioned transferring brood from the good colony. It will at least buy you time until you can re-queen. One frame of brood on a warm day (t-shirt weather) and make sure your quick. Just another option to save looking for queens disease etc. Until it warms up.

Sorry if you thought I was questioning your credentials. Sorry if my post gave you that impression. I was merely pointing out my observations based on experience. I am very thankfull you are engaging me in my interpretation of these facts. Hope no offence is taken.

Continued lol:would tell you if people in the area are treating you treat too.

I have knowledge I'm just not a specialist in the field of evolution. My point is we can agree that there is an advantage gained by varroa resistant bees. The problem seems to be that when you give weak genetics a competitive advantage you nullify the benefit held by the genetically strong...

I treat my bees so just playing devils advocate. Treatment must therefore hinder the process of natural selection. Especially heavy treatment routines. If an area stopped treating surely the process of natural selection would tackle the problem. Again I know very little about this just seems...

A queen that produces varroa resistant bees or bees who can cope better with varroa must have a massive advantage when mating as varroa prefers drones. less affected drones, more genes passed to the next generation. Am I wrong?

Lol well said. gotta have bees to swarm tho and as long as you get through early spring ok your in with as good a chance as anyone. My experience is you never stop learning or making mistakes beginner or not. When you can do the simple stuff well your not a beginner anymore in my book. Although...

I hope to build and trial 8 frame national deeps and see if they are practical for me. Other than that I intend to downsize in the spring as last year was far too mental.

When you successfully bring hives through the winter nice and strong your doing as well as anyone else.

I place sheets of newspaper between the supers to absorb any damp. Other than that previous advice is spot on.

Definitely heather! Cannock chase has yielded well this year. �� and I had 9 on the balsam and found it yielded nothing or near nothing. Enjoy your chase heather honey

My bees turned onto the balsam today too. Very early though usually my bees don't start until August. Bizarre seasons this year lol

I give any split swarm or nuc a dose of hive clean. It doesn't clear the varoa but knocks it enough to last until autumn. I do this in case the treatment hinders the mating process. P's there is no right answer and all the advise given is good advise.

Could be a supercede. I've seen fantastic queens replaced after swarming with no apparent reason. I have always assumed queen must have had superficial damage from the swarming process. Personally I'd let them figure it out themselves however if you want to be safe transfer the Queen and a few...

I agree caught a swarm in a bait hive with can't be more than 500 bees. So few I thought the activity was a colony preparing to move in. Never seen it before and took me by surprise a bit. Bad years prove interesting sometimes.