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I’ve four colonies. Two are doing great and were given an extra brood box about 10 days ago. The other two are struggling and each only working about 7 frames. They’ve both got a few old black frames which probably should have been replaced. They both have a lot of chalk brood which I feel like...

I was fairly convinced there was no OSR near my hives. I was wrong. Today I spotted this field in flower about a mile or so away. I’m guessing the bees will definitely find it? Should it affect the management of my colonies? No supers on as yet. The bees were very busy today despite the cool...

I’m always curious when I see local honey for sale in the village shops etc. around here. There’s always, without fail, a runny honey which never seems to crystallise…even at this time of year when it is clearly last season’s. My honey from last year has all crystallised. As an experiment, I...

I’ve spent most of the morning searching without success for info to help me build a dovecote. Simple things like how much ‘head room’ should there be in a nesting compartment… I want to make one suitable for three pairs of doves. I like the look of the hexaganol double tiered designs that...

Presume it’s mouldy pollen?

How/when do people replace their brood frames? Assuming you start a new hive with all foundation, so all frames are the same age. What should be the protocol for preventing frames from getting too old over the coming years?

I’m planning to move my stronger colonies from single to double brood this year. I’ve seen mention of rotating the boxes. Is this something I should anticipate doing during the season or is it only to be considered at specific times?

If you had a really big colony in a single national brood box at this time of year, would you double brood them or do a demaree? Or something else? I suppose I could just super them and hope for the best. I’m not wanting to increase my hive numbers…although would consider splitting and...

As mentioned in another thread, I’m away travelling so haven’t been into my four colonies at all yet. My dad has hefted/weighed them for me and they all seem about right, each having 6-8kg of stores. So I’m very happy. I’ll be back on 10th April to do my first inspections. However…I have one...

How many KGs of stores should be left on a national hive at this time of year, in an ideal world? I’m sure ‘it depends’, as with pretty much everything beekeeping. But I suppose what I’m asking is, if you go and heft your hives today, what are you hoping for and what would cause you to feed...

I extracted some honey in August and it’s now fully crystallised in the jars (it was runny for the first few weeks). It’s now solid but soft…not runny at all. I just checked the jar I kept from the previous year and it’s still as runny as the day I extracted it. Is this kind of variation...

Having got my hives up to a decent weight by the end of September, I’m wondering how the weight should alter as the winter progresses… Should they still be ‘nailed down’ now and into the new year or should they be beginning to lighten a little? Presumably they should be getting pretty light by...

Bit of a strange one but I was at my out apiary today and found the hives covered in ticks. Never seen this before. Don’t know if they’re attracted to the warmth or what but it was a bit disconcerting…the insulated hive cosies were crawling with them on top. I was planning to check fondant...

How long does it take for all the mites impacted by an OA vape to drop?

I vaped four times in September and intend to do one more vape nowish as they should hopefully be broodless. It’s been very cold here in Cumbria and I can see the bees clustered right under the clear crown board. Should I wait until it warms up a bit and the cluster isn’t so tight or just go...

Seems the bees know to frequent the open air cake stalls in Morocco… At first glance I thought they were flies and was a bit put off…but I guess it’s ok if they’re bees 🤷‍♂️

I extracted and jarred my honey in August and it was a mid golden colour and pretty runny. It was completely clear. It stayed this way for a while but I’ve just got back from 3 weeks away and noticed that it’s beginning to ‘set’…it’s less runny, cloudy and becoming grainy. Is this normal?

When do you USUALLY like your bees to be up to weight by? I’m sure it varies year to year and depending where in the country you are…

Inspired by some posts I read on this forum last year, I decided to make some insulated hive ‘cosies’ out of builders insulation board. I was a bit unsure exactly how to go about this and it took a bit of trial and error. I made a a video showing how I did it…hopefully it will be useful for...

I did a quick walk around of my four hives this morning and had a think about how they’re each doing and how I can best prepare them for winter. Is there anything else I should be aware of/thinking about? Also, how do they look strength wise?…I’m very conscious that one of them is far stronger...