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Update The hived prime swarm has stayed put and at its first inspection today had drawn 8 top bars of comb, queen present, most bars have eggs, larvae and sealed brood. The hive the swarm came from, I left with 1 sealed queen cell, this has emerged, but didn't see her as i went through the hive...

Thanks It's the first honey I've had - 1st year last year - left both original hives honey alone last year and they had munched the lot plus a couple of kilos of fondant by the end of the snow. Keeping this for family and as presents for a few special neighbours who have been amazing friends...

No OSR for miles here - nearest is probably 5 or 6 miles to the nearest field with a fairly chunky mountain in the way....

Yep Probably being a bit rushed on my part 12 days from hatching So guess I'll leave it another couple of weeks before disturbing again. The hived swarm is still there today with lots on traffic and orientation flights going on. Some good news though - in that another of my top bar hives has...

Didn't go to plan! Got to hives, big swarm in neighbouring damson tree. Open first hive - no queen cells 7 days ago, 12 or so now, plenty sealed. No queen present - knocked down all but one queen cell. On to nuc - no queen, no eggs, no sealed brood - no hope..... Finally Caught the swarm which I...

Been away working for a week and went down to take a glance at the hives. Pollen piling into my new nuc this evening. I'm hoping all this pollen means the queen that I hope has emerged from the queen cell has mated and is laying. Opening up tomorrow to find out.

Thanks for the heads up. Looking to take a TBH nuc off the bees you sold me last year, so will need a queen. Just waiting for slightly less rubbish weather...... Paul

No malice taken at all. All just sensible advice as I see it. Just lucky I have very calm bees! Thanks Paul

Thanks the willow frame idea is one I might try with the bars going into hybrid nuc in the spring. The biggest challenge is stopping the bees from trying to come up through the gaps between the bars when replacing them together, Hoffman frames look much less hassle.

Thanks Haven't really had a problem managing the top bar hives...until now! That said my friend's framed hives are much quicker to inspect.....so have made an insulated hybrid nuc which will allow me to transfer 3 top bars of brood next year and hopefully they will move across onto 5 national...

I suppose the other lesson learnt is that having seen the hive the was heaving with very few bees out flying I should have just popped the feeders in an left it at that to come back another day.

Yes they are very placid, and I got off very lightly........first time I've been stung in 18 months, get more injuries sheep shearing than from the bees. Had thought it through, but had measured incorrectly having forgotten to subtract the end wall thickness, hence the insulation obscured both...

Bit of a nightmare afternoon After a 2 1/2 gap since last inspection went into my top bar hive to check on stores, start the feeding with 2:1 mix and to put in an insulated dummy/divider board at the entrance end. Good news, they were lowish on stores a couple of weeks ago,but now have started...

Thanks for the advice Put a couple of 700ml jar feeders of 1:1 in this morning. Will check the feeders again on Monday - may need filling again and worried about the syrup going off in this weather. Sent from my X10 using Tapatalk

Not much Bits scattered through the brood combs - but not much But very little on the other combs Less than 7 days ago Thanks moel

Beginner would appreciate advice Started in late April with a 6 frame nuc Trimmed to fit in top bar hive Fed with 1:1syrup till start of June Now have drawn out 16 full top bars of comb Queen laying well But have 14 top bars of brood and virtually no capped honey on the top bars with the stores...