Search results

Thanks Eyeman, that's very useful. I don't have a warming cabinet but do have an Aga, so I could probably get the temperature correct if I experimented a bit with the warming oven and door slightly ajar. The honey actually smells and tastes fine, which surprised me.

Thanks for the replies: 1 Half and half just means I made half of my honey (about 50 jars) clear and the other half set, all from the same basic harvest. It seemed to me that if it was all the same crop the clear jars ought to also be fermenting but they're not. However: 2 Obviously I left the...

Hi - I made some set honey about a year ago that has been fine until recently when it started going patchy (photos attached) hopefully. The only thing I can think of is that it's started fermenting, although it was below (although close to) 20% moisture content. Is that what it looks like to...

Hi all - I'm sorry to have posted this then not responded. As mentioned above I had a close personal bereavement and I've not been attending to things as I should have, but I should have let you know that someone bought all my stuff from me a couple of days after I posted. Apologies again -...

Hi - For personal reasons I need to give up beekeeping. I currently have five colonies, all in National hives. I'm in East Sussex (Lewes) so if anyone in the area would like to buy the equipment and bees I'd really like to move them as quickly as possible. I can sell separately but would prefer...

Thanks for that masterBK - didn't know that.

Thanks both. I made set honey last year for the first time (not from OSR) and seeded it and it was really lovely honey, so I was wondering how OSR should be treated, given that it wants to set anyway.

When you extract honey you believe to be OSR (and allow it to set like concrete as you say) would you be intending to warm it later for bottling and seed it to provide set honey?

Thanks for the tips both. I've always been a bit worried about leaving just one QC, in case anything goes wrong with it, but with the capped QC in an apidea that should reduce that risk.

Great stuff, thanks for the suggestion. I did buy an apidea last year but haven't yet used it and had completely forgotten about it in the panic!

Hi - For personal reasons I haven't been able to open my two hives up this year until today. One was fine - the other not so much. I found many Queen cells, three capped, many uncapped. However, I also found the Queen, somewhat to my surprise. I've not encountered this situation before, so...

Also, I didn't realise there was a chalkbrood remedy, so I'll give that a go as well, thanks!

Thanks for the replies. Finman, I bought, for various reasons, three laying queens last year. Two of them disappeared without trace, one of them turned into this chalk brood queen, so I'm a bit loathe to spend money on more (it cost £120 for the three). I'll certainly think about it though...

I have two colonies this year, one that has built up very fast and seems very dynamic, and one that started well but only just seems to be holding its own at the moment. The comb isn't that old (couple of years) but is very dark, there is a LOT of chalk brood and the laying doesn't seem very...

Sting reactions over time Hi - How do sting reactions go over time (seasonally)? In my fourth year I got stung three times last weekend - the first time since last summer. On my wrist I found a slow swelling that took three days to subside during which time I couldn't put on my watch due to...

You get through an awful lot of Soda Crystals by using it 1:5 don't you? Are there any suppliers who sell it in larger quantities than 1kG?

Thanks Finman - yes it's only one year old so very new. Concure = consume? I don't have much in the way of comb stores but thanks for the warning. So what would you do with these (newish but wax comb infected) frames? Destroy them, treat them (Certan or what?) or remove the comb and replace...

Hi - I'm never quite sure when old comb is re-useable, and I've also had problems taking a frame apart to put new comb in. Consequently I frequently end up throwing frames away when I could probably do something with them. I'd appreciate some views on this. I've got two photos of frames...

Thanks very much for both those links, Mel and Finman - I had terrible trouble with swarming last year so I'm steeling myself to be on top of it this year!

Thanks iombeeman. Helped by some very crisp late afternoon sunshine!