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The poly hives I painted with one coat of thinned masonry paint 5 years ago have no sign of peeling and the surface is well bonded. If the paint is too thick I could imagine water would get under it and the weather lift it or it would crack when knocked, but it only needs to be a thin covering...

Moved a hive half a mile to a new site last night when all the bees were in. Stuffed the entrance with a bit of greenery and placed a few branches in front. Put another box with some drawn comb on the old site but very few bees came back to it today and none inside tonight and all settled down...

14x12 National colony for sale 6 frames with brood at all stages. Productive, gentle Buckfast-cross bees. Overwintered 2023 marked clipped Queen. Treated for Varroa in winter. Collection Bosham W. Sussex. Can deliver at reasonable distance at cost. Frames transferred into your own hive or buyer...

He's not in Australia!

I use a low power terrarium heating mat (cheap from Ebay) sitting on a piece of kingspan, with the bucket placed in a cylinder of 2 layers of aluminium-faced bubble-wrap insulation with a lid of the same. Collapses into a small space afterwards. Takes a day or two to warm through.

to get anal bleeding instead?

OK for him and I guess he's aware that daily use of aspirin can have serious side effects, including gastrointestinal bleeding.

Inevitable. Who regrets the end of analogue TV? Most younger people don't even have landlines as mobile phones have proved to be reliable for most people. The cost of maintaining the analogue network for the few is not affordable when few want to pay for it

No foundation for me.

You are not encouraging new ideas, unless they happen to coincide with your own bogoted ones, as you're likely to shoot them down as above.

I lost 3 out of 5 hives last winter, so I sympathise, and I know many, even local BKA apiaries, lost as many and even more in the south and southeast generally after the cold spell we had. Still had an excellent harvest with 120kg from 2 hives! I built back up to 4 and this winter I've lost none...

It's best if the mating surfaces between boxes are perfectly flat so that they don't let rain or drafts through and don't need propylising. This is easy with poly hives, not so with wooden.

Bet your neighbours love it too!

You say "plenty of stores" but your pictures don't show that unless they're somewhere else.

Bees flying today in numbers for the first time this year, but mainly two inner hives that are last year's splits from the outer ones. All are healthy as judged from the transparent crown boards and have been fed in the last few days but the inner ones have been taking more feed than the others.

Lidl cheapest for most essential seeds. Also plenty of suppliers on ebay at 99p each and free postage which makes a big difference for a few packets.

Yes the temperature measurement means little if the sensor isn't close to the cluster and the hive isn't well insulated.

Anyone who says "believe me" is safe to ignore.

I'm on my 3rd generation of hybrid Buckfast and they're just as gentle and prolific as the 1st. I guess there's always a chance a next generation of any bees can be aggressive, but I've had several generations of different breeds which have all been gentle most of the time.

No, used the one at my local model engineering society