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Good answers thanks, I understand what you are saying about the potential problems with a new queen and I'll think about what to do until the time is right. Looking today I can see drone brood in the hive, but none matured yet. Just to clarify matters I'd rather keep the queen if possible as I...

Last year my bees swarmed, so I collected them and increased the number of hives I have. One of them got brood in the super which I thought was my fault. But after inspecting the hive hardware and moving her back down a number of times I came to the conclusion that she can get through the gap...

Thanks, I will add one frame to each and put dummy boards on. I was a bit worried about the colonies not being large enough to support itself over the winter.

I have two national 14 x 12 hives which are half full with frames. I was going to combine them but then thought I could keep both hives separate and add some frames and foundation for them to draw and fill with feed if it isn't too late. Can anybody please give me their opinion? Thanks, Tony

Not sure if this is the right place but hopefully somebody can move it if not! I didn't put it in the for sale section as I don't want any money for them. I have 5 hives at the moment and I only want 4. I want to get rid of one but keep the hive. I'm more than happy to lend the whole hive until...

Thanks for the picture. I'll look out for multiple eggs and the position in the cell the next time I do an inspection.

Thanks both, the brood is a bit sporadic and isn't what I'm used to but I don't have any experience of laying workers to compare. I didn't take any pictures, but if I open it again I'll try and remember. First time round I left two sealed cells and didn't realise I should have gone back in and...

I split my hive about three weeks ago and left a couple queen cells to succeed the queen I removed. When I looked today I could still find no queen but there were new queen cells in various states of build (and some queen cups) There is also brood at various stages of development. The questions...

I'm no expert, I've only been keeping bee for a couple of years but from my limited experience I'd say 14 x 12's suit me best. I think my bees would outgrow the standard frames very early in the season. I bought a standard brood box recently to try and now I regret it. They do sell conversion...

Thanks for the advice, I'll have a rummage through the supers next weekend and see what I can take off.

Hi all, I have collected two swarms this year and they are both doing okay. One has built up to almost normal size and one is still quite young and drawing comb with no brood yet (been there about a week and a half and only 4 off 14x12 frames). Reading the books it says that the best time to...

I have some supers that have been almost full for some time now. When is the best time to take them off? Can I take the full frames and just replace them with foundation? What happens to the honey if I leave them until the end of August in the hope that the last 5% of the cells get filled, does...

I Forgot to mention that I had already split the hive as they had started to create queen cells, I left two (or so I thought) queen cells as per other forums and guides. Just had a look inside the hive and this is what I found. One of the queen cells is unhatched (is that the right term?) one...

Thanks. The bees are still there this morning and there seems to be more of them now. It is relatively quiet around the hives at the moment so I'm not sure what I should do. Would it do any harm to collect them and put them in a new hive? I assume if there is a queen there they will stay and...

I use 14 x 12 National hives, just because it seemed easier when I was looking to start beekeeping. I currently have one of my hives with a single super and a queen excluder on it. Do the bees ever out grow the 14 x 12 and need extra brood space (like I imagine they might in a standard National)...

Thanks for your answers. I used the nuc about a month ago and they did indeed build comb in the feeder as it was empty, which I then spent some time cleaning out. At the moment the current artificial swarm has a frame of food to use up and I'm hoping that they will start to fill new ones on...

A couple of years ago I got my bees in the poly nucleus shown in the picture attached (but a 14 x 12 variety). I am now using it as a temporary hive as I have just forked out on two more National hives and can't afford another one. Can somebody tell me what goes in the small slot on the side...

Just an update to say that I left it for a couple of weeks, and sure enough, when I moved them from the Nucleus hive to a shiny new National I found a queen, brood and eggs. Thanks for your help.

Hi Anduril, I'm about 90% sure I didn't do that as I did check very very very carefully.

Whoops! I think I've just realised what might have happened! When I did the frame donation i actually did a frame 'swap' and didn't remove all the bees from each of the frames. This means there were bees from the queenless colony in both hives. I'm guessing that they got busy creating a queen in...