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Don't know about Thornes buckets but I've struggled many times with the lid of my plastic settling tank. It's gradually getting easier with use but I still can't get the lid off without a selection of tools to use in the attempt. It doesn't have one of those cut away bits that allows you to get...

I've been really surprised over the last few weeks by how many keepers are still inspecting their hives. I haven't inspected any of my hives since the very end of August. I haven't even opened any of the hives since then, except for very very briefly taking out the Apivar strips last week. I...

Oh dear, I've been doing it all wrong then!! 😄 Must have just been lucky to never have a newspaper unite fail 😉

I have a couple of these, although both have digital temperature controls, starting at 30°C. I have a 'dirty' one I use to boil up old frames, and a clean one that I use to warm buckets of honey, or jarred honey. My honey one is one of these...

I print my own. Means that I can have a style I actually like (unlike many of the template ones I've seen on Th*rnes etc.), and print however many I need with a particular date/lot no. I print on 'one label per page' A4 polyester labels using a laser printer, and then kiss cut the labels with...

It really stresses how different the conditions are across the UK when so many people are talking about still waiting for the ivy. It's been flowering down South here for over 3 weeks, and being well used by my bees.

To be honest I wouldn't know if it puts my Queens off lay. I'm not inspecting any more from the point I put the apivar in. I know the colonies are strong and have laying Queens before I put the apivar in but I don't go in the brood boxes again until I have to take the strips out - and even...

I had repeated problems with the little blow torches. They either weren't refilling properly, or they were leaking gas between uses. Instead I bought a blow torch that goes directly on the gas can, but is the right size to fit the GasVap: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B09YRH23MW/?th=1...

My clearer boards don't have a rim at all. I have separate ekes that I use with them. Storage is an issue for me, so flat clearer boards take up less space than those with a rim.

No bees were clustered under the clearer boards, nor piles of wet, cold bees in the grass underneath them. Most of the stacks had an empty super below the clearer board just to make sure that there was space between the clearer boards and the stands so this would have been a dry spot for bees to...

I have tried to use only OA vaping in the past, but wasn't entirely convinced that it always got the job done. You need to be very consistent in vaping at regular intervals throughout a brood period (I used to do 3 vapes, at 5 day intervals), but also aware that if you're still getting high...

This is what I initially thought, but my bees seem to have proved me wrong. I cleared my last lot of supers in this way, 2-3 supers per hive, across 4 hives. I didn't combine the supers, but had a separate stack for each hive. It started raining on me as I was working, and I was pretty soaked...

Haven't found it necessary to feed my hives at all end of summer/autumn, for the last three years. I keep double broods so they've packed plenty of stores in the top box by the time i take the supers off and there's plenty of ivy here for them to top up with. Only time I might feed is in the...

Not just your bees!! Had more than a few bees in the supers in the kitchen with me yesterday while I extracted, and this morning I've been discovering poop all around the house!

Just weighed the honey buckets from my final extraction of the year yesterday. Got 70kg yesterday, which added to the 100kg a couple of weeks ago is a real relief considering I had absolutely nothing at the start of the summer. Like others seem to have said, they consumed everything that they...

Early on in my beekeeping adventure I got a belter of a sting on the side of my ankle (not whilst beekeeping, but sitting on the grass, not realising there was a bee in the clover), which really swelled up for a few days. Next couple of stings seemed to cause a sympathetic reaction in my ankle...

I use 'smash-proof' mug boxes. They're double walled, so they're really well padded already, and then I just use shredded recycled card to fill the gaps. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373620443828?var=642629934280 They're great for one jar, and I usually just tape a couple of boxes together if I...

Pretty sure mine just came from STBK and it's never moulted. I know many don't like brushes, but I find it useful for just sweeping the last few bees from frames when I'm extracting.

I had repeated problems with the little blow torches, both the one originally supplied with my GasVap, and a replacement I bought. They either weren't refilling properly, or they were leaking gas between uses. Instead I bought a blow torch that goes directly on the gas can, but is the right...

You'll get a lot of advice to do a course before you start (although I never did one), and getting the chance to actually be elbow deep in a hive with a face full of bees will really show whether this hobby is actually for you or not, but I would definitely suggest reading a few books over the...