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I suspect they mate in the air and fell to the ground. He is well and truly stuck!

I saw these two in the garden today. I thought you might be interested in the pics. Cliff

I was going to pinch the 2 end frames of honey stores, as Im extracting today. I have made very little honey this year so everybit helps. I will leave the frames for winter stores and clean out next week. Thanks Cliff

2 days ago I united 2 nationals, one strong but queenless colony to a weak queen right colony using the newspaper method. Is it ok to go and clean away the paper today or do I need to leave them longer? Advice appreciated on timings to clear paper please.

I was sat in my garden when one of my hives erupted and a swarm filled the air. They clustered on a branch in the garden, great I thought, an easy catch. They were boxed, and left on the ground for the fliers to find the way in. In the evening, I thought I would try the ramp method and made a...

Shmbo is always on about it! She wants me to put some of that moss and weed killer / grass fertilizer powder down to tone up the lawn. I keep saying no way as the green stuff might start growing!

Not much use to the bees, but I took these today. I was going to give the grass one final trim and use the lawn mower to pick up a mass of leaves. I noticed these just beginning to raise their heads. cliff

Mine have found a bag of john Innes too!

Outside in the shade is 20C. I put wet supers on yesterday for cleaning. Possibly something to do with this?

Not seen this before in the garden, but bees are going mad for water. Cliff

Just had an email from Clive saying he will send a replacement gear box! Also not to open the gear box as they are sealed for life. Very helpful :hurray: Cliff

Thanks, I have just emailed the dealer explaining the problem. I will keep you posted how things develop. Cliff

It is only a year old and worked well last year. It has been stored in a warm dry place. When I turn the handle, it does not spin! It sort of makes a knocking noise. If I push the frames to get it turning, the handle sometimes clicks into place and connects to what ever it is meant to. In...

Hi I have a national hive and can only see sealed brood. There are a couple of opened queen cells and one sealed queen cell. I think I caught the swarm in a bait hive but have not looked in, I dont want to disturb them too soon. I would like to reunite the bait hive back to the national...

Good question! I often wondered myself. 4 stings on my index finger left my hand in the shape of a club. I was a bit surprised how the back of my hand swelled up. Anyway, I deserved it! I poked out some sponge that blocked the entrance after transporting the hive. I didn't have gloves and...

3 days ago I caught a swarm and hived it in a national brood box. I added a frame of brood and plenty of drawn frames. Today I went to feed them a 1 to 1 syrup. What I am not sure about is there were about 20 to 30 bees fanning madly with the bottoms up at the entrance. I thought they would...

There were about a dozen bees just sat at the entrance. By the time I got the camera some had gone. Non are attempting to go inside, they are just feeling each other. Some bees come then go but do not go inside. Is this scout bees? The photo shows one bee inside but it was just inside...

Got called for a swarm. The information I received 'Please help, bees are clustering on my net curtain'. When I got to the house, there were a around 100 bees buzzing on the window trying to get out of the house. They had come out of the fireplace. So any suggestions in this situation. The...

When I made the extractor, I put a sheet of aluminium under the mesh floor. The aluminium formed a slight V shape to allow the wax to flow to the escape hole. You can just see the aluminium through the escape doors, one on each side of the 'V'. Cliff

The bees soon sniffed out the wax. I ended up wrapping an old towel around the the front where the wax flowed. This kept the bees out and seemed to help keep the wax hot as it filled the moulds.